The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) of Haiti continues to work early on Thursday in the deliberations prior to the announcement of final results of the first round of elections on November 28.
Although the results have been promised for Wednesday, the chief communications officer of the electoral body, Pierre Thibault Jr., announced to the press that directors and technicians of the institution will extend its work by finalizing them.
Senator West's office, elected in the first round, Steven Benoit, made an appeal for the population to remain calm.
When results are released, "wait with a cool head leaders to speak out," he said in a radio special.
The CER will determine the order of candidates for president of Haiti, and therefore who gets to play the second round of elections scheduled for March 20.
The agency also will announce the candidates who pass the second round of legislative elections, in which shall be elected 11 of the 30 senators and 99 deputies country.
Provisional results of presidential elections, announced on December 7 amid allegations of fraud, gave victory to the former first lady Mirlande Manigat, with 31.37% of the vote, and secondly the ruling Jude Celestin, 22, 48%. The two were to compete in the second round at the expense of popular singer Michel Martelly, who got 21.84%.
The announcement led to several days of protests that led the country's president, René Préval, to request that the Organization of American States (OAS) verify the process.
The inter-American agency, after investigating the cause, subtracted votes from three candidates for the deficiencies and gave Manigat 31.6% of the votes, the Martelly, 22.2%, and Celestin, 21.9%.
Thus, the OAS issued a report recommending Celestin leave out the second round in favor of Martelly. The document was handed to the Government and the IRB, who stepped up security measures at its headquarters after the announcement of results.
EU, UN, U.S. and other countries spoke out for weeks in favor of the recommendations of the OAS and of an electoral process based on respect for the will expressed by the people at the polls.
The U.S. on Wednesday reiterated his "strong desire" that the results reflect the will of the Haitians and allowing the country to advance in the last phase of the electoral process, as expressed on Sunday the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, during a visit to Port Prince.
The award of the EPC is awaited with some concern in Haiti, and particularly in Port-au-Prince, where he also was tightened security since Wednesday by raising the quota of the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH) and Police.
A quiet night takes place in the Haitian capital, although some isolated incidents recorded at points like Bel Air, near the city center, where a civilian employee of the Police and a friend who accompanied him were killed by gunfire when they were attacked by bandits.
The security forces are "actively mobilized," said on Tuesday the Secretary of State for Public Security, Aramick Louis, who urged Haitians to remain calm.
Much of the population chose to stay awake at night awaiting the official publication of the final results, while the media, particularly radio and television, is prepared to live stream the long-awaited announcement.
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