The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) in Haiti says the campaign period for the second round of the presidential elections has started and will end five days before the run-off poll on December 27.
In a statement, the CEP, which has come under increasing pressure over the results of the October 25 poll, said that the campaign, which began on Thursday, will end at midnight on December 22.
It said it was inviting the two presidential candidates, Jovenel Moïse and Jude Célestin, as well as the cartels of local authorities,” to scrupulously comply with the prescribed of Article 115.1 of the Electoral Decree of March 2, 2015 in the course of their respective campaign”.
The CEP said it was also relying “on the commitment and willingness of all actors, particularly those involved in the second round of presidential elections, to create the climate of security essential to the proper continuation of the process”.
Earlier this week, the CEP said that Moise, who has never held political office and was picked by outgoing President Muchel Martelly as a successor, had received 508, 761 votes or 32.7 per cent, while Celestin of the LAPEH party, who is backed by the opposition, had polled 392, 782 or 25.29 per cent of the votes case.
But the announcement by the nine-member CEP set off a new wave of protests in Cabaret, where supporters of Moise Jean-Charles, one of the leading candidates from a field of 54, denounced the results.
Media reports said at least one police officer was shot and injured and another was shot with rocks.
Last week, thousands of Haitians demanded that the first-round presidential election be annulled during a violent protest that left at last one person dead.
