José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), said yesterday Monday during a joint press conference with the head of the observer mission of the OAS/CARICOM, Colin Granderson, after a meeting between delegates of the body and the head of state of Haiti René Préval, that it the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) that will determine the outcome of the first round of the November elections "of course we make recommendations with the hope that these recommendations will be taken into account. But this is not the responsibility of the OAS"

The version of the report that was released in the press was "not accurate" [full]. It was a "advanced draft", "nothing of official" said Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the OAS in order to calm tensions with the Haitian Government.

Note, however, that during the press conference, no official of the OAS has called into question the figures published, resultats of the verifications findings to the Tabulation Center, they placed them into their context and highlight the importance of the litigation stage on the publication of final results. "Only after the dispute period, during which the complaints of the candidates will be studied, that the final results of the November 28 elections will be published" clarified Jose Miguel Insulza.

Continuing into the same direction, Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive said that "the final outcome, which will help to determine who will be first, second, third, fourth or fifth can be determined only at the end of the litigation process, so that's what it is today, there is a report that has made an evaluation on a tabulation center with recommendations on this tabulation that will be handed to the CEP, which will examine these recommendations and at the same time there is a contentious phase, saw the small gap between different candidates, which can effectively create, as suggested by the report, changes in the classification".

The Chief Electoral Observation Mission of the OAS-CARICOM, Colin Granderson has stressed "We used criteria that are into the electoral law [...] and "it is necessary" that candidates are using precisely these legal remedies when there are irregularities and when there are frauds, because the electoral law contains several articles, which indicates the way forward to complain and to be able to rectify things. Therefore I repeat, that the contentious phase has been highlighted as very important in order to achieve the final results, results which of course will express the will of the voters".

The Secretary-General has promised that legal experts from the OAS, should arrive soon in Haiti to support the CEP into this important phase, recalling that it was important that this be done quickly.

In conclusion, the press conference was intended to reminder to those who had believed (wrongly) that the preliminary report was final, that the process of the first round was not completed, but above all, to defuse potential social unrest [unless the interpretation of these statements might be interpreted differently from their senses and produce the opposite effect ...] In all cases, the only thing we know for sure is that we have to have patience before to see the publication of the first round results.

See also:

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2138-haiti-elections-meeting-of-the-oas-with-the-haitian-authorities.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2131-haiti-elections-the-united-states-supports-the-report-by-the-oas-experts.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2104-haiti-elections-report-from-oas-today-a-new-ranking-of-candidates.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2101-haiti-elections-key-pages-from-the-draft-report-of-the-oas.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2111-haiti-elections-rene-preval-very-annoyed-by-the-report-of-the-oas.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2118-haiti-social-demonstrations-inite-and-the-oas-report-in-cause.html

S/ HaitiLibre