A “breath of hope for Haitian democracy” is how the head of the European Union (EU) electoral observer mission, Elena Valenciano, described the 25 October elections for the presidential first round, the legislative second round along with hundreds of municipal posts. Government officials and international observers all agreed that voting day was an improvement on the 9 August first round of legislative elections (for two-thirds of the 30-seat national senate and the newly expanded 118-seat lower chamber of congress), when violence left three dead and forced 26 voting centres (of 1,508 nationwide) to close. Local human rights groups and observers as well as opposition candidates have since complained of fraud, however, which is likely to prove a major test for the nine-member provisional electoral council (CEP) which is promising to announce the results by 3 November.End of preview - This article contains approximately 1408 words.
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