WASHINGTON - February 7 - The Insti­tute for Jus­tice & Democ­racy in Haiti (IJDH) notes that despite reports to the con­trary, Haiti's Pro­vi­sional Elec­toral Coun­cil (CEP) has not approved a run-off elec­tion between can­di­dates Michel Martelly and Mir­lande Mani­gat. Although CEP spokesman Richard­son Dumel announced such a runoff on Feb­ru­ary 3,CEP mem­ber Ginette Chéru­bin stated that only four of the CEP's eight mem­bers approved the first round of elec­tions in writ­ing. Haiti's largest daily news­pa­per, Le Nou­vel­liste, has con­firmed that four of the eight Coun­cil mem­bers did not approve the run-off decision.

Arti­cle 8 of the CEP's bylaws requires that the Councils deci­sions be made by an "absolute major­ity of its mem­bers." There­fore, a valid deci­sion regard­ing the run-off would require five votes.

IJDH notes that the cur­rent run-off con­tro­versy is the result of try­ing to cre­ate a "good" result from the deeply flawed Novem­ber 28 elec­tions in Haiti. IJDH sup­ports the efforts of many Hait­ian civil soci­ety groups and polit­i­cal par­ties, joined by the Con­gres­sional Black Cau­cus and sev­eral U.S. human rights groups in call­ing for new, inclu­sive elec­tions as the only prac­ti­cal solu­tion to Haiti's elec­tion crisis.