OAS
Electoral Mission in Haiti
OAS
Electoral Mission in Haiti
Mission d'observation électorale de l'OEA en Haïti
Port-au-Prince, le 31 mai 2000
Mr. Léon Manus
Président
Conseil Electoral Provisoire
Monsieur le Président,
I have the honor to communicate to you the observations of the Electoral Observation
Mission of the OAS concerning the calculation of the vote in the legislative
elections.
A review of the results announced by the CEP and in particular the percentages stated for the
leading senate candidates shows a serious error affecting the number of parliamentary races won
in the first round. This error came to light in the course of our mission's verification of the
percentage calculations.
The electoral law clearly establishes in Articles 53 and
64 that to be elected to parliament in the first round you have to get an
absolute majority of the total valid votes. Following the procedures contained
in these articles we have analyzed the data of the CEP and arrived at the following
conclusion.
The numbers distributed by the electoral-operations office indicate that it did not follow the
procedures established in these articles but that it decided to add up only the votes of a small
number of candidates who obtained the most votes. As a result, the operations office got the
wrong percentages. Our own analysis indicates that the political party Fanmi Lavalas is leading
in all departments but that in many of them there will have to be a runoff election.
As you will understand, Mr. President, this is a serious error which if not corrected can place in
doubt the validity of the whole electoral process. We are simultaneously communicating this
information to the president of the republic.
Confident that the CEP will quickly correct this situation in strict conformity with the provisions
of the electoral law I present my compliments.
R. Orlando Marville
Ambassador, chief of mission