Haiti presidential candidates reject vote recheck

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Two of the top three candidates in Haiti’s presidential election Saturday rejected a plan to have vote tally sheets rechecked by a new commission amid allegations of irregularities and fraud.

Violent protests broke out after the Provisional Electoral Council announced on Tuesday that former first lady Mirlande Manigat and government technocrat and Preval protege Jude Celestin had won enough votes in the Nov. 28 election to advance to a run-off election in January.

Supporters of popular musician Michel Martelly, who the council said placed narrowly third, accused outgoing President Rene Preval and his protege, Celestin, and their ruling Inite (Unity) coalition of rigging the vote.

But Manigat and Martelly said on Saturday they would not participate in the plan that had no precedent under Haitian law.

The streets of Port-au-Prince were calm on Saturday and stores were opened for business.

But since Tuesday, thousands of Martelly supporters and other protesters had taken to the streets in violent unrest that killed four people and paralyzed the capital Port-au-Prince and several other cities.

The electoral council tried to address the concerns by announcing on Thursday that it was forming a new commission that would include foreign observers, to check vote tally sheets from the election.

Manigat’s campaign released a statement saying, “The candidate regrets that she will not be able to participate in such an initiative, however concerned she is with the interest of the nation in this troubled situation.

“Mrs. Manigat remains open to all initiatives likely to favor a solution to the crisis provided that solution is transparent and legal,” the statement said.

Martelly’s spokesman, Thierry Mayard-Paul, called the electoral council’s proposal “a prank” that would allow it to promulgate the same results without investigating the problems at the polls.

It was unclear whether the electoral council would go ahead with the plan. Manigat’s campaign said no specifics had been released about how the new commission would be chosen or how it would work.

Failure to install a new government would cripple efforts to restore stability in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest state and rebuild after a devastating January earthquake.

The United States, the United Nations and the European Union have publicly expressed concern over irregularities in the voting, and have called for disputes to be resolved peacefully and through legal channels.

Haiti’s presidential and legislative elections are being funded and backed by the international community as a step toward hoped-for stability.

Earlier in the week, stone-throwing demonstrators attacked public buildings, police and U.N. peacekeepers and disrupted humanitarian operations to fight a raging cholera epidemic.

(Writing by Jane Sutton; Editing by Jackie Frank)