The results of Haiti's chaotic general elections won't be known for at least a week, but a group of leading presidential candidates backed down from claims that the vote was rigged.
Sunday's vote drew criticism from protesters on the streets and at least a dozen presidential candidates who announced their belief that outgoing Haitian President Rene Preval had worked to fix the outcome.
"It is clear that the government of Rene Preval, in agreement with the (electoral council), is putting into execution the plan hatched to tamper with the elections ... with the help of the official political party and its candidate, Jude Celestin," independent candidate Anne Marie Josette Bijou told a crowd Sunday, while standing hand-in-hand with 11 other presidential candidates.
The Haitian government did not respond to the claims of the candidates, though the country's electoral council said their public protest held no legal weight.
However, two leading members of the opposition collation, backed away from their call that the election be voided, as they sensed a potential victory.
Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, a popular singer, and Mirlande Manigat, stayed away from a second-day news conference held by some of their presidential opponents.
Influential Haitian-American artist Wyclef Jean, who wanted to run for president but was ruled ineligible, fanned the flames, saying violence was a possibility once the results were known.
"In 24 hours, if a decision is not made and we procrastinate, the country will rise to a level of violence that we have never seen before," he said.
Speaking with reporters on Sunday evening, electoral council official Pierre Louis Opont had wondered aloud about what would happen if one of the opposing candidates ended up winning.
"Are they going to say they don't want to be elected?" Opont said.
Claude Laverdure, a former Canadian ambassador to Haiti, said the same question applies to any candidates who could be asked to participate in a runoff in the presidential vote.
"The question I have this morning is if the electoral council decides that one or two of these 12 should run for a second round, will they?" Laverdure told CTV's Canada AM from Ottawa on Monday morning.
"And it remains to be seen what kind of attitude these people will have."
Laverdure said he feels "frustration and very major disappointment both for the Haitian people and the international community because we need definitely a strong government in order to really start working on the reconstruction."
Voting concerns
The electoral council said it had determined that it had found voting irregularities at 56 of nearly 1,500 voting centres. It did not provide details on how it tabulated that figure.
Final election results are not expected until Dec. 7, and runoffs are considered likely in many senatorial and parliamentary races as well as the presidential race.
While reports suggested that there was sporadic violence at polling stations throughout Haiti, National Public Radio correspondent Jason Beaubien said those incidents appeared to be few and far between.
"In terms of what I saw on the ground, in terms of polling places, there wasn't that much violence," Beaubien told CTV's Canada AM in a telephone interview from Port-au-Prince on Monday morning.
While Beaubien said some polling stations were ransacked he also said to "give the government their credit, they say that only happened in a few places, it was very limited. And I have to say that's what I saw."
Many Western countries who have donated money to Haiti are keeping a close eye on the elections and their aftermath.
Albert Ramdin, the assistant secretary-general of the Organization of American States, said one of the major concerns was about any potential violence stemming from the vote.
"We are all concerned about the possibility of violence because we don't want to see people lose lives in a process that should be democratic," Ramdin said.
Whomever is elected as the next Haitian president will have a great influence on how the country moves forward in its reconstruction. Foreign countries have pledged billions of dollars for Haiti to use in its recovery from the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake and the new president will be the key guiding hand in that process.
With files from The Associated Press
