Martelly vows elections will be held despite street protests

President Michel Martelly has dismissed opposition demands that he postpone tomorrow’s second round of presidential elections and vowed that polling will take place “amid order and discipline”, even as Opposition supporters staged street protests here yesterday.

In a nationwide radio and television broadcast on Thursday night, Martelly, who is barred by the constitution from seeking a third consecutive term in office, said “the election must be held” and reminded citizens that when he took up office in 2011, he had vowed to leave on schedule in February 2016.

Martelly denounced what he termed a “vast plot to try to destabilise us” and accused the Opposition of engaging in a strategy to prevent the legitimate handover of power to a new head of state on February 7.