Jovenel Moise Confirmed As Haiti's New President: Official

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 3, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 04th Jan, 2017 ) - Jovenel Moise won Haiti's presidential elections with 55.6 percent of the first round vote held on November 20, according to official results released Tuesday.

The announcement by Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council puts an end to a protracted electoral process that began in October 2015 and paralyzed the Caribbean country's politics for more than a year.

Moise, a 48-year-old political neophyte, is due to take power February 7 to succeed Jocelerme Privert, who will by then have served for nearly a year as interim president after Michel Martelly ended his term without an elected successor.

The October 2015 vote, which had also seen Moise win, was scrapped after an independent commission found massive fraud.

There were no major incidents reported in the November ballots. But Moise's major challengers -- Jude Celestin, Jean-Charles Moise and Maryse Narcisse -- also contested the preliminary results of the latest elections.

After weeklong verification of electoral materials, the electoral tribunal backed Jovenel Moise. "There was no massive fraud. However, some 12 percent of official accounts pointed to irregularities that would not affect the process." The final official results gave runner-up Celestin 19.57 percent, Jean-Charles Moise 11.04 percent and Narcisse 9.01 percent.