Haiti postpones election amid boycott, protests

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti was once again plunged into political limbo Friday after plans to hold an imminent presidential run-off were abandoned in the face of an opposition boycott and fierce street protests.

As angry crowds flooded into the streets of the capital, the chairman of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), Pierre-Louis Opont, said today’s planned vote had been pushed back because of “obvious security concerns.” No new date has been set. Opont complained that CEP personnel had been attacked and that several polling stations had been burned overnight.

After his announcement, there were scenes of panic outside CEP headquarters as police violently dispersed a crowd. An AFP reporter heard gunfire within a hundred yards (meters) of the presidential palace in downtown Port-au-Prince.

At least one protester was shot and wounded and shop windows were smashed in the busy Petionville commercial district near the electoral agency headquarters.

The poorest country in the Americas had been due to go to the polls to elect a successor to President Michel Martelly and seek a way out of a deep crisis that now threatens to leave a political vacuum.

Opposition activists feared the vote would be rigged in favor of Martelly’s handpicked successor, Jovenel Moise, and their champion Jude Celestin is boycotting the poll.

Martelly was initially scheduled to broadcast a national address on the crisis but later canceled it, leaving the government’s position on the CEP’s decision unclear.

Opont said that, having concluded it was impossible to hold an election today, he was waiting for “the response of the executive” before deciding how to proceed.