Haiti postpones scheduled presidential runoff

AP 6:49 p.m. EST December 21, 2015 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Haitian electoral authorities have postponed presidential and legislative runoffs set for this weekend. In a brief statement issued Monday evening, Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council said the vote scheduled for Dec. 27 has been postponed until a special commission can make its recommendations. In recent days, President Michel Martelly announced that a five-member commission would assess Haiti's electoral process ahead of the runoffs that opposition factions have threatened to derail because of suspicions of widespread fraud. Council spokesman Roudy Stanley Penn says a new election date should be announced soon. For weeks, an opposition alliance has demanded an independent review of late October elections that it insists were rigged in favor of the government-backed presidential candidate. The commission has been rejected by the opposition. Its members have not yet met.