Haiti gripped in post-election gridlock
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The uncertainty started on Election Day itself – and has continued.
On Sunday, while Haitians voted, Edmond Mulet, the Guatemalan diplomat who heads the UN Mission in Haiti, said the election was "going well". By Monday, after protests began, Mulet was expressing "serious concern."
But Mulet again changed his mind two days later on Wednesday, saying it was "fairly good".
Mulet revealed he had earlier spoken to both Manigat and Martelly after they protested and convinced them that they were spoiling their own chances of winning by jeopardizing the results.
The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), which oversees elections in Haiti, also said Monday the ballot was relatively okay, with CEP head Gaillot Dorsainvil describing the vote as "successful". Of 1,500 polling stations, Dorsainvil said, irregularities were reported in only 56.
But Haitian poll watchers insist it's too early to tell, as the final result may not be ready until next year.
First official results are not expected before December 5 and a final result will be announced on December 20 – if any candidate wins the first round outright. But if no candidate gets over 50 percent, the two front-runners will compete in another national run-off poll on January 16, 2011.
However, in the context of the growing post-election tensions in the national political camps in Haiti today, six weeks of uncertainty can be very long, stressful and painful.
According to Haiti's political culture, whatever the result, there will be those who will not approve and will protest. But if the expected protests turn violent, it could affect both aid distribution to the 1.5 million homeless and health delivery to tens of thousands of cholera victims.
The UN Secretary General, the UN's new High Commissioner for Refugee Valerie Amos, UN Special Envoy in Haiti (and former US President) Bill Clinton and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have all called on the world in recent weeks to both speed up and increase aid and assistance to Haiti.
But the donors have demanded an elected government before starting to deliver the billions pledged since the January earthquake.
Local and foreign construction firms that undertook works across Haiti after the earthquake with no legal contracts or other guarantees of payment were also pressing for a new government, hoping it will eventually pay them from aid money.
Much political and civil patience will be required, but that's never been high in stock in Haiti.
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