PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti _ Haiti elections officials were still reviewing the preliminary results of the country's long-delayed presidential vote Monday as a tense nation waited.
The Provisional Electoral Council, or CEP, had promised to announce preliminary results eight days after the Nov. 20 vote. But by 9 p.m., officials from the nine-member council still had not emerged from behind closed doors at an undisclosed Port-au-Prince hotel.
Results of the previous election, held Oct. 25, 2015, were tossed out after opposition candidates, human rights and religious groups claimed widespread fraud. The allegations triggered violent protests, calls for a recount and eventually led to a provisional government.
In a call for calm earlier in the day, interim Haitian President Jocelerme Privert noted that his administration had pulled off the election against the odds. This included a "disastrous" financial situation and the refusal by the United States and other donors to help Haiti underwrite the election's $55 million price tag after the U.S. publicly opposed the recommendations of a verification commission to redo the vote.
Privert was elected by the parliament on Feb. 14 after former President Michel Martelly ended his five-year term without an elected successor. Privert's 120-day term expired on June 14, leaving his powers in question and Haiti's fate uncertain.
The redo was finally held on Nov. 20 _ six weeks after a deadly Hurricane Matthew made landfall on the country's southern peninsula as a Category 4 storm. The country suffered $2 billion in damages including washed-out crops and roads, and a humanitarian crisis affecting 1.4 million Haitians.
"Arriving at the Nov. 20 election wasn't easy," Privert said. "Despite the distressful situation we were confronted with, we made the right choice when we took the decision to organize the elections ... Everyone recognized that it was a success for the country."
Still the elections had one of the lowest turnouts for a Haitian presidential vote, with many voters fatigued by a process that had officially begun in March 2015. There were several postponements and only a handful of serious campaign launches with half of the initial 54 candidates eventually deciding not to run.
Of the six candidates who had the best chance of winning, the vote came down to two primary contenders: Jovenel Moise, a banana plantation owner handpicked by Martelly; and Jude Celestin, former head of the state construction agency.
With mounting tensions and reports of gunshots and tires burning overnight around the capital, Privert reminded the population and candidates that they have a right to contest the results through the courts _ not on the streets.
While the vote, this time around, was better organized, better run and free from violence, it hasn't been free from accusations of vote-buying and fraud.
Members of the CEP themselves seemed split over the results, spending hours sequestered in a Port-au-Prince hotel while journalists and members of the Organization of American States elections observation mission waited at their headquarters.
During the weeklong tallying of votes, at least 10 percent were disregarded _ higher than either the amount in last year's ballot-stuffing Aug. 9 legislative election or the contested presidential vote. Still, political parties demanded more be cast aside as tempers flared inside the Vote Tabulation Center.
In the days since the polls closed, supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas political party took to the streets, threatening to burn the capital if their candidate, Maryse Narcisse, isn't declared the winner.
On Friday, seven senators issued a letter to the CEP calling on it to apply the electoral law and refuse ballots where voter lists _ proof that someone had voted _ were not properly documented with either a signature or fingerprint. Demanding that the results be postponed until those steps can be taken, the senators denounced what they called "a set of irregularities and fraud" during the balloting. Among their additional complaints: the last-minute relocation of several voting centers and voters.
The senators' criticism was similar to that of opposition candidate Celestin, who issued his own letter last week as votes were being tallied. Celestin reminded officials that "only signatures or digital prints" could guarantee the authenticity of the votes and any tally sheets lacking either should not be considered in the results.
