Recount and Review of Haiti's Election Tally Shows 
Massive Irregularities
Election Outcome In Doubt
CEPR
December 30, 2010
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/press-releases/press-releases/recount-and-review-of-haitis-election-tally-shows-massive-irregularities

For Immediate Release: December 30, 2010
Contact: Dan Beeton

Washington, D.C.- An independent recount and review of
11,171 tally sheets from Haiti's November 28 election
shows that the outcome of the election is indeterminate.
The review, conducted by the Center for Economic and
Policy Research (CEPR), found massive irregularities and
errors in the tally. A report detailing the recount's
findings, and methodology, will be made available next
week.

"With so many irregularities, errors, and fraudulent
vote totals, it is impossible to say what the results of
this election really are," said Mark Weisbrot, economist
and CEPR Co-Director.

"If the Organization of American States certifies this
election, this would be a political decision, having
nothing to do with election monitoring," said Weisbrot.
"They would lose all credibility as a neutral election-
monitoring organization."

Among the preliminary findings:

    * While OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert
    Ramdin was quoted by the Associated Press as saying
    that "Nearly 4 percent of polling place tally sheets
    used to calculate the results were thrown out for
    alleged fraud at the tabulation center," the actual
    number is closer to 12 percent. CEPR found that 11.9
    percent (1,324) of the tally sheets were either
    never received by the CEP (Haiti's Provisional
    Electoral Council) or were quarantined by the CEP
    due to irregularities.  These tally sheets added up
    to more than 15 percent of the total votes counted.

    * In addition to the 11.9 percent of tally sheets
    not counted by the CEP, CEPR found that 6.4 percent
    of the tally sheets were irregular. These tally
    sheets contained vote counts that were so far
    outside the distribution of votes that they would
    not be considered valid. If we add these to the
    tally sheets not counted by the CEP, there are more
    than 18 percent of tally sheets - representing more
    than 22 percent of votes counted -- that are
    invalid.

    * In addition, there were widespread clerical errors
    - mis-recorded numbers - on the tally sheets: 5.4
    percent of tally sheets had numbers that were
    obvious clerical errors. Although these errors did
    not necessarily affect the distribution of votes
    among the candidates, they add another element of
    uncertainty to the vote count. It is clear that with
    so many mistakes in recorded totals in the tally
    sheets, there would have to be errors in the
    candidate vote counts in addition to those that CEPR
    detected.

    * Turnout was extremely low: an estimated 22.3
    percent of the electorate participated, as compared
    with 59.3 percent in the last (2006) presidential
    election. This was partly due to the fact that more
    than 12 political parties were arbitrarily excluded
    from participating in the election, including the
    country's most popular political party.

    * Internally displaced people (IDP's), who have been
    made homeless by the earthquake, were especially
    disenfranchised. In the cities of Port-au-Prince,
    Carrefour, Delmas and Petionville - which contain 20
    percent of Haiti's registered voters - the average
    participation rate was just 12.4 percent (11.25
    percent if we remove additional irregular tally
    sheets).

"This election was of questionable legitimacy to begin
with because the electoral authorities banned over a
dozen political parties, including the country's most
popular political party," said Weisbrot. "But with this
massive level of irregularity, fraud, and
disenfranchisement, it can hardly be considered a
legitimate election."

###

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate