The U.S. government on Thursday urged the Haitian authorities to continue the electoral process through the organization of the second round, a position expressed in the wake of the announcement by the Platform INITE of the withdrawal of the government candidate, Jude Célestin of the the presidential race. An announcement welcomed by Albert Ramdin, Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) who sees in this announcement a "positive signal" that can clarify the election process in view of the second round.

However, Thursday night, the first concerned, Jude Célestin had still not confirmed his position concerning the announcement of the Board of INITE and and the candidate's spokesman, was not able to confirm whether Jude Célestin had taken a decision.

Philip Crowley, spokesman for the State Department, without directly commenting on the announcement of the withdrawal of the candidate Célestin, said that Washington believes that "the government should accept the conclusions of the report of the OAS and continue the electoral process with the second round". He recalled that the U.S. administration did not support any candidate, but took into account the results of verifications of the preliminary results of the first round of the presidential elections conducted by experts (OAS) "The first results did not reflect the vote of the people of Haiti" he added. "We're not trying to choose one candidate over others. There were strong indications that significant electoral fraud had been recorded and preliminary results disclosed do not reflect the actual vote of the Haitian people," insisted the spokesman.

For its part, France has called yesterday, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to announce soon the names of candidates for the second round of the presidential elections. "We welcomed the work done by the OAS verification mission, which must draw all the consequences" said Bernard Valero, spokesman of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs during a news briefing. "It is to the CEP to announce soon the names of candidates for the second round and set the electoral calendar so that it can be organized under the best conditions," he stressed.

The eve, the Haitian Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive had stated to the press that he waited impatiently that the CEP publish very quickly the final results of the November 28, 2010 elections.

Article By HL/ HaitiLibre