After the Office of the Departmental Electoral Litigation (BCED) declared itself incompetent https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19475-haiti-news-zapping-politics.html to order a verification of the Minutes at the Vote Tabulation Center (CTV) requested by the 3 complainants, the three protesting parties "Fanmi lavalas" LAPEH and "Pitit Desalin" lodged their cases before the National Electoral Litigation Office (BCEN), the last resort and promise once again to provide tangible evidence and not speculation and other convoluted allegations or reasoning on alleged massive frauds, what they have never done before.

For Me André Michel, one of Jude Célestin's lawyers "there was no quality control on more than 78% of the minutes" a sufficient element according to him so that the BCEN grnat this verification to the CTV.

Moïse Jean-Charles who is not afraid of the paradoxes, while contesting the victory of Jovenel Moïse, says he has documents proving that he came 2nd behind Jovenel Moïse, (who would be first). Its arguments are based on the PV published on the website of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP).

Lawyers of the Fanmi Lavalas Party, like the others, say they have all the evidence of fraud, to convince the BCEN to order an audit at CTV

It seems that the 3 protesters will rely heavily on the PV published on the site of the CEP, to justify their accusations and to try to convince the BCEN to accede to their demands. Nevertheless, it is worth to remind that Berlanger had warned about the interpretation of PV published on the CEP website in an attempt to deduce a result and recalled "[...] we know that the data that allow to build the results are available to all, they will be on the CEP website, in the polling stations [...] but these data are not the results. The results are a combination of data, data analysis, data evaluation and a compilation of the data and finally a decision that the CEP will publish, it's only that which is the result." https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19292-haiti-elections-berlanger-satisfied-preliminary-results-in-8-days.html

For its part, the PHTK in appearance, does not seem worried. According to Rénald Lubérice, the political adviser of Jovenel Moïse, all these accusations are "fanciful". He asked the CEP to enforce the Electoral Decree by requiring that the plaintiffs submit concrete evidence and not reasoning, speculation or hearsay on possible fraud.

For the 3 protesting parties, no one has any interest in opposing the verification they are asking, an argument which is reminiscent of what led to the establishment of the two previous Audit Committees, the last of which resulted in the cancellation and resumption of elections... The protesters, if they did not win the case before the BCEN, will they repeat the same scenario and require another Audit Commission ?

The BCEN hearings will begin tomorrow Wednesday, December 14, 2016 after the office is formed by public draw.

To be continued...

HL/ HaitiLibre