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Sontag described a "long, tense day," then the 9PM electoral results announcement, followed by "rock-throwing, tire-burning and shooting in several urban neighborhoods and outside (Port-au-Prince). Toward midnight, smoke curled into the sky....protesters' chants and drums filled the air."
The US Embassy issued a boilerplate statement, saying:
"The United States, together with Haiti's international community partners, stands ready to support efforts to thoroughly review irregularities in support of electoral results that are consistent with the will of the Haitian people expressed in their votes."
In fact, Washington and its puppet Preval orchestrated the fraud, banned 15 parties, including by far the most popular - Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas that easily would have won overwhelmingly. As a result, the process was shamelessly tainted, an election in name only.
Voter disenfranchisement was widespread. Polls opened late and closed early. Ballot box stuffing was rampant. Voters faced intimidation and violence, and the electoral lineup had no legitimacy, excluding peoples' choice candidates, except for perhaps Ceant.
On December 8, Al Jazeera headlined, "Haiti set for election run-off," saying:
"According to (CEP's announced) results, Manigiat won 31 per cent of the vote and Celestin 22 per cent."
Protests and sporadic gunfire erupted. "Much of the concern centered around conflicts between the announced results and those reported (earlier) by the National Observation Council, a local election monitoring group financed by the European Union, which said that Celestin would be eliminated."
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