Guatemala will audit election returns after fraud allegations in the wake of last Sunday's presidential and legislative elections, the country's Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) announced Thursday

Guatemala City, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - APP - 21st Jun, 2019 ) :Guatemala will audit election returns after fraud allegations in the wake of last Sunday's presidential and legislative elections, the country's Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) announced Thursday.

TSE president Julio Solorzano told journalists in the Central American country that he had ordered an audit of certified returns from each ballot box to "clarify disagreements." Speaking at a news conference, Solorzano said the process would begin on Monday. The audit would include municipal and congressional elections held in tandem with the presidential vote.

Center-left former first lady Sandra Torres leads in the presidential polls with 25.7 percent of the vote, ahead of conservative Alejandro Giammattei, with 14 percent.

Both had been expected to contest the August 11 run-off round before Thursday's announcement.

The leftist Movement for the Liberation of Peoples -- whose candidate Thelma Cabrera came fifth in the presidential race -- denounced "evident electoral fraud." Solorzano said he had invited Cabrera and her party to the court to check her complaint.

The tumultuous campaign to succeed outgoing President Jimmy Morales saw two leading candidates barred from taking part in the election and the country's top electoral crimes prosecutor flee the country after threats.

Disturbances broke out Thursday in several municipalities where mayoral candidates rejected the results.

A lawmaker from Morales' FCN-Nacion party, Estuardo Galdamez, went on social media to condemn electoral fraud and said the country was on the brink of becoming a "dictatorship" under Torres' Unity of Hope party.

The Organization of American States (OAS) welcomed the TSE decision, which it said was aimed at "providing greater transparency and certainty in the electoral process, especially in relation to local and legislative elections." The TSE had on Wednesday rejected allegations of fraud in the legislative poll.

The OAS, which sent an observer mission to the polls led by former Costa Rican president Luis Guillermo Solis, had signed off on the election and in its statement Thursday rejected allegations of fraud, despite reporting errors.

"The mission received complaints of vote buying and observed possible voter transport, as well as errors in the digitalization of ballots," it said.

"However, these actions in no way change the popular will reflected in the results of the presidential contest.""The important thing now is to conclude the process, clear all doubts and begin to focus on implementing the recommendations so that the process of the second round is better than the first."One person died and nine police officers were wounded in disturbances that followed the polls last Sunday. </s> MANILA – Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos made his first installment payment required from him by Supreme Court as his poll protest fee against Vice President Leni Robredo.

The SC, seating as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) required Marcos of pay Php66 million as protest fee with half required to be paid by April 17. The balance must be paid on or before July 14. The amount will be used by the PET to transport the election paraphernalia to the electoral tribunal for their review, the www.sunstar.com.ph reported.

Marcos said that he was able to raise the amount through his supporters and friends.

“Sila and kumuha ng suporta at tulong para mabuo and Php36.02 million,” Marcos claimed.

He hopes that with the payment of the first installment, the justices will be compelled to begin the preliminary conference on his petition.

Marcos filed an electoral protest with the PET contesting the win of Robredo in last year’s polls by a mere 200,000 votes. He petitioned the PET to nullify the results of the vice presidential election and open contested election returns.

Marcos is contesting votes cast in favor of Robredo in Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Maguindanao.

The SC likewise ordered Robredo to pay PhP15,439,000 since was also contesting vote results in 8,042 clustered precincts. </s> Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 2) — The vote recount for the 2016 vice presidential election began Monday.

Vice President Leni Robredo attended Mass on Monday ahead of the ballot recount by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

"The recount starts today. Yesterday was Easter, and the biggest lesson is, 'There is always hope in the midst of darkness,'" she said, speaking at St. Scholastica's College in Manila.

She is confident despite what she calls a difficult opponent and trying times.

"Sa dulo ng lahat, parating katotohanan ang mananaig... Wala tayong dapat ikatakot dahil katotohanan ang ating ipinaglalaban. This is the time of fear, pero manalig tayo," she said.

[Translation: In the end, truth will prevail. We shall not fear because we are fighting for the truth. This is the time of fear, but we shall keep our faith.]

The Marcos camp said they are also ready for the recount.

"We are very optimistic because we have waited for two years," Marcos' legal counsel Vic Rodriguez said.

Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te on Monday said the manual poll recount will "ascertain the number of votes received by both parties."

The recount begins two years after Marcos brought his electoral protest to the Supreme Court, sitting as the PET. He lost to Robredo by 263,473 votes.

The recount will happen at a gymnasium in the Supreme Court compound in Manila. This is the first time the PET will be doing a recount. The process is off-limits to media.

Rodriguez said Monday morning, the physical condition of ballot boxes and its locks will be checked. The manual recount will begin in the afternoon.

Te said the poll recount will be held Monday to Friday. The morning session will be from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m, the afternoon session from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Te said the recount will follow a "strict time limit."

Since the implementation of the automated elections in 2010, Robredo's legal counsel Romulo Macalintal said electoral protests had been dismissed because the results of the manual ballot count tallied exactly with that of the vote-counting machines (VCMs) and the consolidated canvassing system.

"Sa kasaysayan ng ating automated election system, wala pang nananalong protesta sa halalan mula pa noong 2010," Macalintal said.

[Translation: In the history of the automated election system since 2010, there has not been a successful election protest.]

Marcos' camp, meanwhile, took a swipe at Robredo for her alleged moves to delay the poll count.

"We have endured two years of waiting due to Robredo's habitual and intentional moves to delay the election protest and deliberate attempts to bury the truth," Marcos' spokesperson Vic Rodriguez said in a statement Sunday.

He also said the recount will once and for all dispel "all the uncertainty that beclouds the true choice of the electorate and prove that Mrs. Robredo cheated her way to the Vice Presidency."

In its grant of Marcos' plea, the PET decided upon Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental as the pilot provinces for the ballot recount.

Marcos identified the three provinces as "best exemplifying fraud or irregularities" in his protest brief.

Robredo also listed three provinces in her own counter-protest brief: Capiz, Sulu, and North Cotabato.

The recount in the three pilot provinces identified by Marcos will take up to six months.

Robredo said the protest of Marcos is based on general allegations and manufactured evidence designed to sway results in his favor.

Marcos had also questioned the appearance of "mysterious squares" on ballot images beside Robredo's name, saying it was a proof of fraud.

However, Robredo's camp had explained the squares are the vote-counting machines' way of recognizing a shade on the circle next to the candidate.

The PET has earlier required Marcos to pay P66 million and Robredo P15 million in two tranches to fund their protests and counter-protests. A petitioner needs to pay P500 per contested precinct.

Tedious process

The PET adhoc committee said it can set up only 40 committees on Monday. But they are hoping to open 10 more.

Each committee is composed of a head revisor — a PET employee — and one representative for each of the two candidates.

Head revisors are carefully picked as the revision committees face a huge task which would be performed within a given time frame.

They must process the results of over 5,000 clustered precincts from three pilot provinces chosen by Marcos.

In places where there are less than 300 ballots, they must finish the recount in five and a half hours. For 300 to 699 ballots, they only have a little more than eight hours. And for more than 700 ballots, they are given 11 hours.

Should there be objections or claims by either of the parties, the PET would have the last say.

The tribunal would only issue announcements should the need arise.

CNN Philippines digital producer Ver Marcelo contributed to this report. </s> THE electoral protest filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo has started to roll with the former paying on Monday P36 million, his first installment for the P66 million protest fee required by the Supreme Court (SC).

The High Court, sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal, gave Marcos until April 17, 2017, to deposit the money with the tribunal.

The P30 million balance should be paid on or before July 14.

The court also ordered Robredo to pay P15.7 million.

Marcos personally went to the court to pay P36,023,000. The check was received by Jeffrey Raymond Atienza, Assistant Officer in Charge of the Cash Collection and Distribution Division of the Fiscal Management and Budget Office.

“My close friends contributed to raise the P36 million, even supporters who accompanied me here have chipped in because the time given to raise the P66.2-million was not enough,” Marcos said.

Hundreds of Marcos loyalists waited for the former lawmaker outside the Supreme Court building on Padre Faura St. in Manila.

“Hanggang ngayon hindi pa alam ng taumbayan kung sino ba talaga ang nanalong bise presidente noong nakaraang halalan. Sa palagay ko ang isang taon ay masyado nang mahaba (Up to this day, the people do not know who really won in the vice presidential election. I think one year of waiting is enough),” Marcos told reporters.

“Kaya sana ang ating mga magigiting na justice ay simulan na ang proseso ng paghuhusga kung sino ba talaga ang nanalo sa nakaraang halalan. Ipagpapatuloy natin ang protesta (I hope that the justices will now start the process of resolving this case. We will continue with the protest). I hope this compliance we have done to the Supreme Court’s order will go a long way to getting the process right,” he added.

Forty friends and supporters of Marcos said they pooled their resources to help the former senator raise the needed amount on time.

Marcos, through his lawyer George Erwin Garcia, received the SC’s order dated March 21, 2017 on April 10, 2017 requiring him to pay P66 million.

The P200,000 filing fee paid by Marcos when he filed the protest had been deducted from the cost requirement.

 “Since President-Mayor Joseph Estrada declared Wednesday (April 12) as a non-working holiday for all government employees in Manila, the offices of the Supreme Court were closed on Wednesday (April 12), Holy

 Thursday (April 13) & Good Friday (April 14). Thus, if Bongbong were to comply with the April 14 deadline that would give him less than 48 hours to come up with P36 million. In order not to delay the proceedings any further, we decided to pool our resources so that the cash deposit of P36 million would be paid,” friends of Marcos said in a letter submitted to the SC.

“We have done this because it is our heartfelt wish that the election protest be resolved with dispatch,” the added.

 “Ten months is too long for this open wound to fester. This insecurity and instability is not good for the country.”

 Marcos was required to pay P500 for each of the 132,446 precincts where a recount will be held.

In his complaint, the former senator assailed the election results in 39,221 clustered precincts. Based on the Commission on Elections data, the 39,221 clustered precincts are composed of 132,446 precincts.

Robredo had sought the dismissal of the poll protest but the high tribunal dismissed her petition. The PET junked Robredo’s claim that the grounds cited by Marcos in his complaint are just a “series of wild accusations, guesses, and surmises.”

Recently, the PET ordered the preservation of the “automated election equipment and records such as Vote Counting Machines (VCM), Consolidation and Canvass System ()CCs) units, Secure Digital (SD) cards (main and back up), and the other data storage devices in all of the 92,509 clustered precincts used in the May 2016 elections.”

Marcos lost to Robredo by only 263,473 votes. He claimed that he was a victim of “massive electoral fraud, anomalies and irregularities” such as preshading of ballots, pre-loaded Secure Digital cards, misreading of ballots, malfunctioning VCMs, and an “abnormally high” unaccounted votes/undervotes for the position of VP.

Robredo’s camp on Monday said Marcos should pay P185 million for his election protest.

Romulo Macalintal, the lead counsel of Robredo, noted that Marcos’ dues should be P185 million because Marcos is protesting the results of all 369,138 established precincts.

“Mr. Marcos should pay P185 million because it is worth P500 per established precinct not a clustered precinct, a decision already made by the PET. In fact, the technology provider Smartmatic is already billing the Comelec to the tune of P2.9 billion because the Comelec failed to return the leased VCMs on time due to the pending Marcos case,” Macalintal said.

He added that while Marcos is questioning the election results in 662 municipalities, he was only able to provide detailed specification of his poll fraud allegation in 57 municipalities.

Macalintal said Robredo will not pay the fee required by the tribunal just yet.

“He is the one filing a protest, so he should make the first cash deposit. We have to see first if the votes recovered from the recount due to Marcos’ protest will be enough to overcome the Vice President’s winning margin,” the lawyer said.

“While payment of the cash deposit would have to be complied with, the Robredo camp asked the PET to allow her to comply with the order of payment at a later time because we can’t pay the cash deposit unless the merits of Mr. Marcos’s election protest has been determined,” Macalintal explained. “We believe that we should not pay the cash deposit at this point, in accordance to the PET rules.” </s> HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe's election took an uneasy turn Tuesday when the opposition alleged results were not posted outside one-fifth of polling stations as required by law, and the electoral commission said the impatient nation would have to wait longer to learn who will be its next president.

The government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, meanwhile, suggested the main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, and his supporters were inciting "violence" by declaring he had won Monday's election even though only parliamentary returns have been announced.

"Let me also warn such individuals and groups that no one is above the law," Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu said. Security forces "will remain on high alert and continue to monitor the security situation in the country."

Zimbabweans desperately hope Monday's peaceful vote will lift them out of economic and political stagnation after decades of Robert Mugabe's rule, but the country is haunted by a history of electoral violence and manipulation that means trust is scarce, despite today's freer environment.

While the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has five days from the end of voting to release the final tally, the national mood is growing anxious partly because unofficial results are already swirling on social media.

Dozens of opposition supporters even gathered at their headquarters in the capital, Harare, celebrating in the belief that they had won the presidential election based on results they said they collected from agents in the field. As they danced to music blasting from speakers set up on a truck, police with water cannon circulated in the area.

There was no confrontation, but even the possibility of it was an unnerving reminder of the tensions that pervade the southern African nation, debilitated by Mugabe's long rule. The 94-year-old former leader had been in power since independence from white minority rule in 1980 until he was forced to resign in November after the military and ruling ZANU-PF party turned on him.

Mnangagwa, a former deputy president who fell out with Mugabe and then took over from him, has said his showing in the presidential polls was "extremely positive" while urging people to wait for official results.

Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, has gone further, saying his own count shows that he won the election and that he's ready to form the next government.

Chamisa's party also said results have not been posted outside 21 percent of the country's nearly 11,000 polling stations, raising concerns about possible vote-rigging. It suggested there was a deliberate effort to delay announcing the results, reflecting deep suspicion about the panel presiding over the election.

Priscilla Chigumba, a judge who heads the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, said she was confident there had been no "cheating" in the first election without Mugabe on the ballot. Each polling station must post its results outside after vote-counting, she said.

"We will not steal their choice of leaders, we will not subvert their will," Chigumba said.

"The atmosphere has remained peaceful" and the commission has not received any major complaints about the election, she said.

The commission said it would delay releasing any results of the presidential race until all the votes are collated. If no presidential candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held Sept. 8.

More than 5.5 million people were registered to vote in an election featuring a record number of more than 20 presidential candidates and nearly 130 political parties.

Western election observers were in Zimbabwe, a sign of a freer political environment since the resignation of Mugabe, who declared he would not vote for the ruling party he long controlled and called Chamisa the only viable candidate.

Meanwhile, a monitoring group, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, issued preliminary findings on the vote, noting improvements such as a biometric registration system that reduced the chances of fraud.

However, it noted problems with implementation, saying the election commission at one point allotted more registration kits to rural areas and fewer to urban areas. The ruling party has strong rural support, while the opposition is popular in the cities.

Elmar Brok, head of the European Union monitoring mission, said Tuesday that his team noted some "inconsistencies" but that overall there was "progress" compared to past elections.

"In African elections, often stakes are very high and nobody has a backup plan for losing," said John Dramani Mahama, former president of Ghana and head of the observer mission from the Commonwealth nations, mostly former British colonies.

The contenders in Zimbabwe's vote must accept the results and "should look at the larger picture of success, a successful election for Zimbabwe," he said.

A voter in Harare said Zimbabwe is eager to hear the election results as soon as possible.

"Because people are not yet settled, they're thinking of too many things," said 65-year-old Chaka Nyuka. "They need a good change. People are looking for that." </s> Guatemala City - Guatemala's elections are just two and a half months away, but whether the leading presidential contenders will end up on the ballot, disqualified, or even behind bars is still up in the air.

"There is so much uncertainty," Iduvina Hernandez Batres, the director of the Association for the Study and Promotion of Security in Democracy, told Al Jazeera.

"Two weeks after the campaign began, at this stage there is no clarity as to who overall will be candidates for the presidency," she said.

The official campaign period for the June 16 general elections kicked off on March 18. Of the 27 political parties in the Central American nation, 24 declared presidential candidates. An August 11 presidential runoff is expected.

The three individuals expected to lead the presidential race are the runner-up from the previous election, a former attorney general, and the daughter of an ex-dictator who stood trial for genocide. But all three are mired in controversy and legal battles that could exclude them from the ballot.

On Monday, the electoral tribunal ruled to annul the registration of former Attorney General and Semilla party presidential hopeful Thelma Aldana as a candidate, upholding challenges by political rivals. The major setback comes on the heels of a warrant for Aldana's arrest.

"We now understand how powerful the weight of a whole system can be when it colludes to block someone's participation," Semilla party deputy secretary Ligia Hernandez Gomez told Al Jazeera.

"There is a clear intent by political parties to prevent participation," she said.

'Nearly everyone is trying to stop Aldana from running'

During her 2014-2018 tenure as attorney general, Aldana played a pivotal role in the prosecution of high-level government officials for corruption. In 2015, then-President Otto Perez Molina was forced to resign and was arrested, as were the vice president and the heads of several government ministries.

Working closely with the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), Aldana's office began investigating current President Jimmy Morales, his relatives and the ruling party. They deny all wrongdoings.

Semilla has its roots in mass protests against political corruption that precipitated the fall of the Perez Molina administration. Focused on building more participatory and inclusive democracy, the Semilla party is generally centre-left, but its clear position against corruption draws a broader spectrum of supporters. Aldana identifies herself as right-wing.

On March 17, the electoral tribunal registered Aldana as Semilla's presidential candidate. A judge had issued a warrant for her arrest the day before.

Aldana was in El Salvador at the time and has not yet returned. She is accused of embezzlement and falsification of information on public documents in connection with a contract for training services that were allegedly never rendered.

By law, from the moment candidates are registered they have immunity from prosecution and arrest that can only be stripped through special proceedings. But despite Aldana's initial registration, officials stated that immunity would only come after legal challenges were resolved and that the warrant remained in effect.

The electoral tribunal annulled Aldana's candidacy on Monday, determining that a required document from the comptroller's office was no longer valid. The Semilla party's plan to appeal the ruling is well under way.

"We had foreseen that this could happen," said Hernandez Gomez. "We have all faced so much pressure, both the institutions in charge of resolving the issue and us as party members."

Leopoldo Garcia, an electoral tribunal official, came forward publicly on March 20 and told reporters he had been under intense pressure to not register Semilla as a party or Aldana as a candidate. Last week, he held a press conference to denounce subsequent threats to himself and his family from far-right groups and said he would request precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

"We have nearly everyone trying to stop the participation of Thelma Aldana," said Hernandez Batres.

Semilla now has five days to file a motion with the Supreme Court for a review and reversal of the electoral tribunal's decision. Should that fail, the only remaining option will be an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

Other candidates facing eligibility challenges

Aldana's is not the only candidacy embroiled in court proceedings. The eligibility of Zury Rios, the right-wing Valor party's presidential candidate, will soon be the subject of a final Constitutional Court ruling.

Rios is the daughter of Efrain Rios Montt, a former military ruler who was convicted of genocide in 2013 but then died last year before his partial retrial concluded. More than 80 percent of the estimated 200,000 people killed during a 36-year civil war between the army and leftists rebels were indigenous Maya.

Rios Montt took office in 1982 in a military coup. The Guatemalan constitution prohibits anyone who took power by force from running for president, but the constitutional ban also extends to relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity.

Despite the ban, Rios was registered as a candidate and her eligibility has been in dispute, with the Supreme Court ruling she can run and the Constitutional Court ruling she cannot. There is only one ruling left and the Constitutional Court has the final say, but there is no guarantee Rios will respect it.

"What we will probably see is the Constitutional Court rule definitively in favour of the motion of the election tribunal to prohibit her from participating, and she will probably end up defying the resolution of the Constitutional Court, engendering an element of chaos," said Hernandez Batres.

The candidacy of Sandra Torres, the candidate of National Unity of Hope (UNE) party expected to lead the race for president, is currently not the subject of a legal battle but she may end up in court anyway.

Torres first attempted to run for president in 2011 at the end of her husband Alvaro Colom's term in office. Despite their divorce to circumvent a constitutional ban on a sitting president's relatives from running for office, the Constitutional Court nixed her candidacy. In 2015, she ran but lost to Morales in the second-round runoff vote.

The UNE was founded as a social-democratic party, but as investigations into government corruption broadened, it has recently occasionally aligned itself with the ruling party and others in Congress. The alliance has been popularly dubbed the "Pact of the Corrupt", accused of conspiring to mutually safeguard immunity from prosecution.

Torres and the UNE now face the same scandal Morales and the ruling FCN party have - alleged illegal campaign financing in 2015. Charges were filed shortly after Torres was registered as a candidate, which granted her immunity from prosecution, and the Supreme Court upheld that immunity.

Last week, however, Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre leaked an audio recording in which Torres appears to be discussing several million dollars in unreported campaign financing. Prosecutors have since filed a motion with the Constitutional Court in another attempt to strip Torres of her immunity from prosecution. The UNE responded by accusing prosecutors of leaking the audio.

Atypical process

In the end, the fates of all three top presidential contenders could be determined by the country's highest court. But two weeks into the campaign, uncertainty persists.

Many aspects of the current election process are atypical, said Hernandez Batres. The campaign period is extra short. The top presidential contenders are women. They all face court proceedings that could take them out of the running. There is a new election law with more restrictions on campaign financing.

Even the very first act was unusual, Hernandez Batres added. Ever since the transition from military rule to elections in 1985, the official call for elections is a solemn act, with the heads of all three branches of government in attendance in a show of support for the electoral tribunal and process, she told Al Jazeera.

"This year, for the first time, the electoral tribunal was alone. The executive branch president did not show up, nor did the president of the legislative branch or that of the judicial branch. The Constitutional Court was not there. The heads of the main political parties were not there," she said.

"It is as though they are preparing to claim fraud if the results are not in their favour," said Hernandez Batres.

Jorge Santos, the director of UDEFEGUA, a national human rights organisation, is also concerned that a stage is being set to control the process and results. Santos views the massive uncertainty as to who will be able to participate as candidates this late in the game as telling.

"It calls into question the legitimacy of a process that from the beginning has been plagued by vicissitudes," he said.

President Morales and some candidates have made public remarks questioning the role, capacity and legitimacy of the electoral tribunal and the courts that play key roles in determining election candidates and results, Santos noted.

"It would appear that there is an explicit intention by the Pact of the Corrupt not to permit an election scenario in which they will not win," he said.

Attention remains largely focused on the presidential race and the legal battles of the frontrunners, but at the local level, municipal race candidates are being killed. Political violence has marked past election periods and online hate speech, attacks and other incidents all indicate this year will be no different, said Santos.

Two mayoral candidates from the Fuerza party were murdered in February, and a local candidate from the People's Liberation Movement party was murdered last month. </s> Members of the General Security Unit of the National Palace (USGPN) try to disperse supporters of Fanmi Lavalas political party as they march next to the National Palace of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, November 21, 2016. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Election tensions spilled onto Haiti's streets on Monday with shots fired outside the presidential palace as various candidates claimed victory in a re-run vote in the impoverished Caribbean country.

Haitians are counting on their next president to lift the country out of political limbo and repair damage from Hurricane Matthew, which devastated the country last month, killing up to 1,000 people and leaving 1.4 million needing aid.

With paper ballots counted laboriously by hand, election results typically take a week to be announced in Haiti. But less than 24 hours after polling centers had closed, some candidates and their supporters claimed they had won, leading to chaotic scenes in the capital where guards were forced to shoot into the air to clear a celebrating crowd.

The provisional electoral council (CEP) released a statement urging the public to disregard any premature victory announcements.

"We call on the population not to believe or transmit any pseudo-result, even partial, that has reached them," it said. "Any result circulating on the internet or social media is not attributable to the CEP."

Electoral officials said they did not expect to have preliminary results until later on Monday, but it could well be longer as tally sheets arrived later than planned and a vote website faced problems. The head of Haiti's electoral council, Leopold Berlanger, said he expected to publish final results within a maximum of eight days.

Voter turnout in the election was less than 22 percent, an electoral observation coalition said on Monday.

The vote was first held in October 2015, but then annulled over complaints of fraud in the first round after Jovenel Moise, the candidate of former President Michel Martelly's Bald Heads Party, finished ahead of Jude Celestin, previously boss of a state construction company.

Further disputes ensued and a fresh vote due last month was postponed when Hurricane Matthew struck.

All told, more than two dozen candidates competed in Sunday's vote, including Moise, Celestin and Maryse Narcisse, who is running for the Fanmi Lavalas party and is backed by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Former Senator Moise Jean-Charles is also in the running.

On Monday, a spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Haitians to come together to fill the current political vacuum, reject violence and intimidation and use legal means for any possible challenges.

Narcisse's campaign and that of Moise, an entrepreneur who was tipped to prevail by one recent opinion poll, both claimed they had won.

"According to the report of our tally sheets, we are saying that Jovenel Moise is the elected president of the country," said Calvin Cadet, a spokesman for Moise. "Given that we respect the institutions of our country, we wait for the provisional electoral council to announce the results."

Narcisse's supporters marched to the presidential palace on Monday, where they were met by security officials who shot warning shots into the air. A contingent of national police officers then dispersed the supporters.

Martelly left office in February, and since then Haiti has been in the hands of a caretaker government. To win outright in the first round, the top candidate must secure more than 50 percent of the vote or a lead of at least 25 percentage points.

Failing that, a Jan. 29 second round run-off is likely for the top two finishers. The victor is due to take office in February, and faces a formidable task rebuilding the country after Matthew.

The deadly storm battered homes, farms and schools across southern Haiti, piling fresh misery onto the nation of more than 10 million people on the western half of the island of Hispaniola that is still recovering from a major earthquake in 2010.

There were a number of reports of voting fraud on Sunday, although election observers made a broadly positive assessment, suggesting it had gone more smoothly than last year. </s> The Green Party says it will ask a Pennsylvania court to order a statewide recount of the state's Nov. 8 presidential election result.

But it's unclear if the courts would have authority to do so.

A lawyer for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein wouldn't discuss what would be alleged in the expected lawsuit Monday.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump edged Democrat Hillary Clinton by about 71,000 votes, or about 1 , in Pennsylvania.

Democratic Secretary of State Pedro Cortes says there's no evidence of voting irregularities or cyberattacks on Pennsylvania's voting machines, 96 of which record votes electronically and leave no paper trail.

A GOP lawyer says the courts lack authority to order a statewide recount. Cortes says he's also unaware of the courts having authority to do so

A Republican member of the Electoral College from Texas says he's resigning so he won't cast one of the state's 38 electoral votes for Donald Trump.

Art Sisneros previously told The Associated Press that he was wavering on supporting Trump because the Republican "is not biblically qualified for office."

In a lengthy weekend blog post, Sisneros updated that, saying "the best option I see at this time is to resign my position as an elector."

Texas doesn't require its presidential electors to vote in accordance with the state's presidential election results. Trump won Texas by around 9 percentage points and captured 290 overall electoral votes to Hillary Clinton's 232.

Texas electors meet in Austin next month to vote for president. By state law, they can vote then on a replacement for Sisneros.

President-elect Donald Trump is claiming, without evidence, that millions of people voted illegally in the election he won, issuing the baseless claim as part of his angry response to a recount effort led by the Green Party and joined by Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Trump tweeted on Sunday that he won the popular vote "if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." He later alleged "serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California."

Trump's transition team did not provide any evidence to back up the president-elect's assertions of fraud in the November election. They pointed only to past charges of irregularities in voter registration. </s> GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala’s presidential election was headed for a runoff as results on Monday gave center-left candidate Sandra Torres a clear lead but far short of the outright majority needed to avoid a second round against a conservative rival.

With votes tallied from 94% of polling stations, preliminary results from Sunday’s election gave former first lady Torres 25.27% of the vote, followed by conservative Alejandro Giammattei with 14.08%, the electoral tribunal’s website said.

Early on Monday, Torres said she would work to forge alliances to win the second round runoff, which is due to be held on Aug. 11.

“The country needs unity: To unite the countryside with the city, to unite the workers with the business community, and also in civil society, in all sectors,” she told reporters.

The head of the electoral tribunal said late on Sunday it could take approximately two weeks to have definitive results from across the Central American country.

Guatemala’s next president faces the difficult task of curbing drug gang violence that has ravaged the country and helped spur illegal immigration to the United States, souring relations with President Donald Trump.

Torres, of the center-left UNE party, has for weeks led the race to succeed President Jimmy Morales, a conservative former television host whose term has been blighted by accusations of corruption made by U.N.-backed investigators.

Nevertheless, Torres also has high negative ratings and may struggle to win a direct runoff if supporters of the many right-of-center candidates unite against her.

Nineteen candidates took part in the vote. In third place with 11.32% was Edmond Mulet, a former U.N. official whose conservative candidacy gained traction in recent weeks.

Torres, who wants to send troops into the streets to fight drug gangs, and use welfare programs to tackle poverty, extended a hand to Guatemala’s business elite when voting on Sunday.

Rampant violence and widespread discontent over corruption and impunity in the country of 17 million have prompted more and more Guatemalans to flee for the United States.

The surge of departures has undermined Trump’s pledge to curb illegal immigration, and the U.S. president has responded by threatening to cut U.S. aid to Central America.

That prospect has caused alarm in Guatemala, where the legacy of the bloody 1960-1996 civil war still casts a long shadow over the country’s development.

Rain fell on Guatemala City during Sunday’s vote and results suggested there was considerable discontent among the electorate about the choice of candidates on offer. More than 13% of votes cast were blank or spoiled ballots, the count showed.

President Morales, who is barred by law from seeking re-election, took office in 2016 vowing to end corruption after his predecessor was brought down by a probe led by the U.N.-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).

Instead, Morales himself became a target of a CICIG probe into allegations of campaign finance wrongdoing and was subject to impeachment proceedings in 2017.

He survived the attempt to oust him, and then engaged in a bitter dispute with the CICIG before finally terminating its mandate, effective from September.

None of the top contenders has unequivocally backed the CICIG, with Torres saying she would consider holding a referendum on whether it should remain in Guatemala.

Questions of legitimacy have dogged the 2019 contest since two of the front-runners were forced out, including Thelma Aldana, a former attorney general who tried to impeach Morales with the CICIG. The government accused Aldana of corruption, leading to her exclusion last month.
After days of disagreements, allegations of electoral fraud and several inconsistencies with the preliminary results of the general election held last Sunday, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal orders a new review of the electoral records and restarts the count.