Haiti's presidential election appears to be decided by a large margin in favor of 'Sweet Micky', reports The Miami Herald and Reuters. Citing sources familiar with results to be released later this Monday, the news outlets confirm that musician Michel Martelly has defeated former first lady Mirlande Manigat in Haiti's presidential runoff. The former singer is said to have defeated Manigat by a margin of 3-1.

Last November, in a first round of voting marred by "irregular" and "fraudulent" ballots being cast, Manigat appeared to be leading, with Martelly later arriving in second place. The Herald reports that this second round of election voting (held March 20th) was also subject to the same sorts of inconsistencies seen last fall: "some 1,718 presidential tally sheets out of more than 25,000 had been tossed out of the final vote count. The number accounted for between 15 and 18 percent of the tallies." Officials said that the results of the legislative elections are still "a mess" and to be determined.


 

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Erik Hayden