Haiti's election body to decide if vote deadline is viable

Haiti’s new Election Council is set to determine when the country will hold its delayed runoff.

Initially, a new round of elections was scheduled for April 24 and the elected president to be sworn in May 14.

However, the country’s interim president Jocelerme Privert said that growing concerns of political upheaval could damper the elections.

He said that so far only five bodies have confirmed the names of their representatives to the electoral council.

“There are four other sectors that still have not named their representatives because of some internal problems. I will call on them today to accelerate the process so that at the end of this week we will have the names of the representatives of the nine members who will make up the provisional Electoral Council,” Privert told Reuters News Agency.

Furthermore, Privert has assured the public that once the government and the Electoral Council are formed, the electoral process will be relaunched.

The country’s Election Commission has postponed run-off elections thrice amid violence and allegations of fraud.

Haiti is experiencing its worst political crisis in decades.

Privert was chosen last month to steer the nation to elections for a term of 120 days after Michel Martelly stepped down, leaving the country without a head of state.