A supporter of the Fanmi Lavalas party presidential candidate, Marise Narcisse, protest in front of a police barricade in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Nov. 22 2016.

Haiti voted in presidential, parliamentary and local elections on Sunday that were meant to end a year of political and economic uncertainty. A previous vote in October 2015 was annulled due to allegations of widespread fraud. Official results are not expected until next week.</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 Deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, in last year November governorship election in Kogi State, Hon. James Faleke has ruled out any form of reconciliation with the beneficiary of the election, Governor Yahaya Bello.

Faleke who made this known on Tuesday in Ogbonicha, Ofu Local Government area of Kogi State during the one year remembrance programme for the late Abubakar Audu who died during the governorship battle, said the APC as a party is also on the verge of tearing up.

Faleke who revealed he had never been involved in any reconciliation process with the leadership of the state government because of the injustice perpetrated by the party, said there could not be any reconciliation without justice.

According to him, the logjam in the party in the state could not be resolved because of the way and manner the national leadership of the party handled the issues that generated after Audu’s death.

He said, “There can never be any reconciliation in a situation where somebody works from first day to the last day of the month and another person collects his salary, what can only be the basis for reconciliation is for the salary to be returned, that is the only reconciliation.

“We are prepared to go hungry for the next four years, but I can tell you that God sparing our lives, the song will change surely”.

He also noted that the development had affected the party in the state, lamenting that its fortune had nosedive, “The architects of the crisis in Kogi state started the imminent downfall of our party, APC, the way and manner the issue of Kogi was handled was least expected of a political party. I have heard that one of the cabals said that APC was just a gathering of some people, not yet a political party.

“I want to say that as far as what happened in Kogi state is concerned and how it is affecting the party, I am sure those in government in the state can confirm that all is not well within the party in the state because when you worked and some people are benefitting or reaping the fruits of your labour, they will know that all cannot be well and that is why they are not getting their feet right.

“It is one year after Audu and nothing seems to be moving, it has taken the state more than seven to eight months to do screening and pay salary, people have died through queueing or waiting for their names to be screened and those that had been screened have not collected salary since January this year, you can imagine that certainly things are very bad, we know how much we spend to maintain our people in the state to keep live moving.

“When people work and at the end of the month they are not paid, you can be sure that nothing can go well, so whatever that goes on in the civil service in the state is also affecting the party

“What happened to us during the case and when we lost our leader one year ago and all the battles we went through in the legal process, the way and manner the court judgments came, the issues that were determined have shown that we are not in a party yet, as far as am concerned, until the party at the national level wakes up.

“You know that this party was formed by all of us, we contributed to it, it is not an animal farm, it belongs to everybody, until they realised that, that is only time that this party can have a foot and can move forward. If our people get paid, if our people are empowered and entrenched, i am sure the songs will change, but as it is now, it is bad bad song”.

…MY FATHER’S SHOE TOO BIG FOR ME – MOHAMMED

First son of the late governor, Mohammed Audu on his own said, the political shoe left by his father were too big for him to step into.

He however dispelled the rumour making rounds that there was a crack in the political family left behind by Audu, said those that believed in the former governor were still intact.

Mohammed though agreed that it had been difficult managing his father political family, however said he was learning the robe faster, and he will continue to sustain the values and ideals for which his father was known for.

“I don’t necessarily think so because I believe that a crack can come from people who do not believe in him, but if you believe in him there won’t be any crack and I have not seen any crack”.

He said the only important thing for him was to ensure that his late father’s structure remains intact.
Tensions spread in Haiti after both Maryse Narcisse of the Fanmi Lavalas party and Jovenel Moise of the Haitian Tèt Kale Party declare themselves winners.