CEP President says Commission of Inquiry won't verify Haiti election results

President of the Provisional Electoral Council has once again dismissed a call for Commission of Inquiry to verify the results of the October 25 election runoff.

According to Pierre Louis Opont, despite the call of the group of opposition presidential candidates and others who have stated that he “qualifies as a bad loser” and their call for the Inquiry - their demand will not be met.

According to Opont, there is no legal provision in the Electoral Decree to establish such a Commission.

He stated that the verification work had already been done at the Tabulation Center Votes (CTV) by decision of the Office of the National Litigation (BCEN) which is last and final legal recourse available to challengers.

Regarding street protests and repeated protests in the media, including the opposition - group known as the G8 led by presidential candidate Jude Célestin – the CEP President described the stance taken by the group as a “poisoning campaign aimed to serve the political interests of the parties concerned”.

He said he was determined to set a course for the second round, despite the criticism and challenges.
He also revealed that several advisers of the CEP, due to threats against them, no longer slept at home, fearing for their lives.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops of the Church of Haiti of the Episcopal Commission released a report on the October 25 election in which they glaring irregularities and fraud from various sources marred the elections in several places.
The Bishops stressed that it is "a recurrent deviance which has become almost concomitantly to the elections in the country, affecting both the voters, staff of voting centers and polling stations, observers, representatives electoral judges or foreign executives. It is unacceptable whenever it surfaced. Today more than ever we condemn it with the utmost rigor."

The church leaders said that in order to save the electoral process they have made certain recommendations.

They have called on the CEP to make known the truth about what really happened and who discredit the results.