An independent commission has recommended canceling the results of Haiti's first-round presidential elections held in October, saying they were marred by fraud.
"It would be fair and just that, at least as far as the presidential elections are concerned, the process is relaunched from scratch," commission president Francois Benoit said yesterday.
"The number of votes that could not be traced almost exceeded the number of legitimate votes obtained by politicians."
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas and marred by chronic political instability, has been mired in a deep political crisis since the runoff election process was halted in January amid violence.
The opposition at the time claimed ex-president Michel Martelly had backed an "electoral coup."
His hand-picked candidate, Jovenel Moise, was declared the winner of the first round voting with 32.76 percent of the vote, compared to 25.29 per cent for the main opposition candidate, Jude Celestin.
The presidential runoff has been repeatedly postponed. A vote scheduled for April 24 did not take place and no new date gas been set.
Interim President Jocelerme Privert was named in February for three months to oversee the April run-off as well as partial legislative and local elections. He had been slated to hand over power on May 14.
The report released Monday said that, for instance, clerks working at polling stations sometimes put their own finger prints on ballots.
And the electoral census had not been updated since the 2010 earthquake that killed 220,000 people.
So people killed in the quake remained on the census. And voter registration cards were sold "to the highest bidder," the report said.
The report made no recommendation as to municipal and legislative elections held the same day in October.
The congressional voting had been three years overdue because of a dispute between the legislative and executive branches.
Privert took delivery of the report and now said it up to the Provisional Electoral Council to decide whether to go back and start the presidential voting from scratch.
This is likely to be hugely expensive. The 2015 elections cost USD 100 million, most of which came from international donors.
Turnout in the first round of the presidential election was less than 25 per cent.
