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Clinton tries to break Haiti deadlock
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Clinton tries to break Haiti deadlock
AFP - Monday, January 31
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PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Haiti in a bid to smooth its course towards a final vote after disputed first-round elections plunged the country into uncertainty.
Clinton was to meet President Rene Preval and the three main candidates vying to succeed him in disputed November polls, including his protege, who has been under mounting US-led pressure to step down over fraud allegations.
The top US diplomat told reporters that Washington backed the recommendations of international monitors, who have urged the ruling party presidential candidate, Jude Celestin, to exit the race.
But she also appeared to leave the door open to other solutions, saying there have been "legitimate concerns raised by various figures in Haiti, not just President Preval, but others, about what is the best compromise."
Clinton, who traveled to Haiti days after a catastrophic quake killed more than 220,000 people in January 2010, also planned to visit a cholera clinic to highlight the outbreak that has killed 4,000 since mid-October.
At Port-au-Prince airport, Clinton said she had come with a "very simple message" of US support for the country.
"We want to see the reconstruction continued. We want to see the voices and votes of the Haitian people acknowledged," she said, before meeting with UN representative Edmond Mulet at the start of the day-long tour.
Little has been rebuilt since the January 2010 earthquake flattened large swathes of the capital, including the presidential palace, and the elections that were supposed to bring renewed hope kicked off deadly riots in December.
Haiti's election commission has said it will announce definitive results from the first round on Wednesday and has scheduled a long-delayed second round for March 20, with those results to be announced April 16.
The announcement of preliminary first round results last month set off days of unrest when Preval's protege Celestin narrowly edged a popular singer out of the second round run-off.
According to preliminary results from the November 28 poll, Celestin garnered 7,000 more votes than Michel Martelly, securing a place in the run-off against the frontrunner, former first lady Mirlande Manigat.
Within hours of the announcement, protests swept Haitian towns, leaving five dead and the country in crisis as opposition candidates accused Preval and the electoral commission of rigging the poll.
A team of international monitors from the Organization of American States (OAS) called in by Preval found widespread vote tampering and fraud in Celestin's favor and recommended that he withdraw.
The ruling party has since bowed to weeks of US-led pressure over the widespread allegations of fraud, announcing that Celestin would not advance to the next round. But Celestin himself has not yet confirmed his exit. Focus: Murky history of Haiti dictator's French exile
His lawyer, Osner Fevry, said Saturday that the OAS report has "no legal value and is not binding on the electoral institution."
Martelly's lawyer Gregory Mayard-Paul countered that the electoral commission must "fully respect" the report.
Clinton meanwhile stressed the international backing for the OAS report, saying: "It's not only those of us in the hemisphere that are concerned, but the UN, the European Union, and others.
"We would like to see those recommendations enacted."
Haitians had hoped the presidential and parliamentary elections would bring in a new leadership that could rebuild the country.
The international community has pledged almost 10 billion dollars for reconstruction, but donors have held back on delivering most of the funds because of the tenuous political situation.
Clinton's husband, former US president Bill Clinton, who has represented international donors in the recovery effort, said he was "frustrated" with the slow pace of rebuilding during a visit to Haiti earlier this month.
The tense political standoff was thrown into further confusion two weeks ago by the surprise return of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, a former strongman driven out by massive protests 25 years ago.
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