Jude Celestine (Unity candidate) fails to get enough votes according to OAS

[bcholmes]

The Organisation of American States is set to recommend that the governing party candidate in Haiti's presidential election should be dropped from the run-off vote, reports say.

Provisional results said Jude Celestin came second in the first round to the former First Lady, Mirlande Manigat.

But OAS monitors found that the opposition candidate Michel Martelly won more votes.

The OAS was asked to review the result after violent protests.

Mr Martelly's supporters rioted in several cities and clashed with UN peacekeepers after he said he had been wrongly denied victory. At least five people were killed.

The 28 November vote was widely denounced, with reports of ballot box stuffing and violence and intimidation at polling stations.

— "OAS to give Haiti presidential election verdict", BBC News

Unity (Inite) is the party that Préval recently create in place of his former Hope (Lespwa) party. Jude Celestin is, essentially, Préval's hand-picked successor. Haiti uses a run-off election system, but only two candidates advance to the second round of elections. Mirlande Manigat is currently the front-runner, and there's been a big debate about the official declaration that Jude Celestine is the second candidate since informal polling suggests that Martelly is really in second-place. If the OAS's recommendation carries any weight, Inite may be out. And, frankly, I think that's a good thing. Préval has lost the confidence of the Haitian people and done a bunch of icky stuff.

I do not know anything about the political positions of either Manigat or Martelly.