PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's provisional electoral council has set a new date for a second-round vote: March 20.
Perhaps more importantly, it is promising to have final results of the disputed first round completed next week, on Feb. 2. The new schedule, which follows weeks of delays and rescheduling, was published Friday and copies were distributed to media.
Runoffs for president and parliament, supposed to be held earlier this month, were postponed by internal fights and public rioting over preliminary results from first-round presidential vote in November.
Those results showed ruling-party candidate Jude Celestin set to take on former first lady Mirlande Manigat. But the Organization of American States says a re-evaluation based on fraud estimates shows Celestin should be out and populist singer Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly in.
The United States is pressuring the Haitian government and outgoing President Rene Preval, whose party backed Celestin, to accept the OAS recommendation -- saying that continued support is contingent on doing so.
Nearly $1 billion in promised reconstruction aid are in Washington waiting to be disbursed and more than a dozen Haitian officials, reportedly with close ties to Preval, have had their U.S. visas revoked in recent days.
Leaders of Preval and Celestin's Unity party said this week that they agree the candidate should drop out of the race, though they believe he won the election. But Celestin has not commented on whether he will do so.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to visit Haiti on Sunday and meet with Preval to discuss the election and reconstruction. Under the new schedule, final results of the first round will be ready three days later.
Campaigning will resume from Feb. 17 until March 18 and the vote held two days later. Results are promised on March 31, followed by an appeals process.
If all that goes as planned, Haiti will have its new president named on April 16.
Preval's term ends Feb. 7 under the constitution, but an expiring parliament passed an emergency law last year allowing him to remain in office until mid-May on the basis that his 2006 inauguration was held several months late.
That law was greeted with violent protests in the capital and he pledged to step down as planned. But more recently he has said he will not leave office until an elected successor is chosen.
