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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan 24 2016 – The international community has appealed for dialogue and calm in Haiti after a presidential and legislative runoff was put on hold indefinitely.
The United Nations, international election observers and foreign governments urged the volatile Caribbean country’s feuding political actors to negotiate a solution to an electoral impasse that threatens to soon become a constitutional crisis.
Haiti’s charter requires a new government to take power Feb. 7, but election authorities say there is now no chance the country will meet that deadline to pick the next president. It is unclear whether an interim government will be set up, or another solution may be reached.
In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged Haitians to work toward “peaceful completion of the electoral process without delay.”
Government officials have not addressed the impasse publicly since Friday afternoon, when the Provisional Electoral Council postponed the runoff a second time without naming a new date for the vote.
The splintering council cited what it called a “deteriorating security environment” to explain its decision, but there has also been widespread opposition to the vote on the part of civil society. The opposition presidential candidate had promised to boycott the runoff.
A day after protesters set fires and smashed windows, a few thousand anti-government demonstrators again took to the streets of the capital on Saturday. Young men threw rocks and lit tire barricades on fire downtown, sending black smoke billowing into the air. Many called for new elections and the immediate removal of President Michel Martelly.
Ruling party candidate Jovenel Moise said he was mystified that electoral authorities would again postpone the runoff without immediately providing a new date. The vote was originally supposed to be held Dec. 27.
