Candidate 'to quit' Haiti polls

[Derechos]

The ruling party candidate has decided to abandon Haiti's presidential election race after a dispute over who had qualified for the second round run-off had delayed the vote, party colleagues said.

The withdrawal of Jude Celestin, the candidate for the INITE coalition of outgoing Haitian President Rene Preval, would allow popular musician Michel Martelly to move into a second-round run-off vote and former first lady Mirlande Manigat.

Senators from the ruling party told news agencies that Celestin had decided to pull out of the poll in order to break the deadlock that has paralysed government since the contested preliminary results of the November 28 presidential poll.

Preval, INITE and Haiti's electoral authorities had come under intense international pressure in recent weeks to accept an Organisation of American States (OAS) report, which had given Martelly a tiny lead over Celestin.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/01/201112605619822248.html

[rabs]

1. So, the U.S./France/Canada plan

to install neo-duvalierist Martelly in the presidency advances.


K & R