Following the decision by the Office of National Electoral Litigation (BCEN) to authorize the verification of 1,560 (12%) Minutes (PV) of the presidential election of 20 November https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19563-haiti-flash-bcen-orders-the-verification-of-12-of-minutes.html the verification began on Tuesday, with many tensions, difficulties and delays...

In addition, the electoral court decided, after consultation with the parties, to include the 27 PVs of Jean-Charles Moïse and the 364 of Jude Célestin submitted to the court for verification. This number of PVs is included in the total of 1,560 PV to be verified.

The beginning of verifications scheduled for midday did not begin until 7.00 pm due to difficulties between the parties, to agree among other things on the method to be applied to constitute the sampling of 12% of the PV.

According to the methodology finally adopted, it was agreed that the PV numbers chosen randomly and taking into account the size of each department, be read aloud, as well as the number of votes obtained for each candidate and the reason for the PV. Then, each protesting party is allowed a few minutes to examine with their eyes, without touching, the PV protected under plastic and then to give their comments.

The 27 PVs filed by Jean-Charles Moïse were the first to be checked not without difficulties, the plaintiffs who had a common front, wanted that to be verified in addition to the authenticity of the CIN numbers in relation to the database, the signatures, fingerprints etc.... Some protest lawyers question a fingerprint, others on the number of the CIN and the fingerprint that according to them would not correspond [...] or an absence of signature... They proposed to bring the DCPJ in order to evaluate the fingerprints, an request which was dismissed by the Tribunal.

The complainants felt that the Tribunal did not give them enough time to verify the lists of "émargements", and each PV, while yon the side of the PHTK, Rudy Hériveaux believes that it was mainly for the plaintiffs to save time, convinced that they do not seek to verify, but to block as in 2015, the electoral process while it remain only 9 days before the deadline date for publication of the final results of the presidential election.

As midnight approached, the verification of Moïse Jean-Charle's 27 minutes was still unfinished and the electoral judge Jean Simon St-Hubert, exasperated by the behavior of lawyers, threatened to leave the premises to force them to respect what had been decided and stop making systematic obstruction..

TB/ iciHaiti