Port-Au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Protests erupted around the Haitian capital Tuesday night after an election council announced a runoff between a former first lady and a candidate allied with an increasingly unpopular government.
Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady of Haiti, won the presidential election held over a week ago with 31.37 of the vote, the Provisional Electoral Council announced late Tuesday.
Jude Celestin, the candidate backed by President Rene Preval, came in second with 22.48 percent while popular musician Michel Martelly was just behind Celestin with 21.84 percent.
Fires erupted throughout the city late into the night, and protesters promised more violence.
"Preval is a thief. We don't need Jude Celestin. We need Michel Martelly," people chanted in the streets early Wednesday morning. "Tomorrow we will set the country on fire".
Since no candidate obtained the 50 percent of the votes needed to win outright, Haitians will return to the polls in January, four days after the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake, to vote in a runoff election.
But the vote was fraught with allegations of fraud, with many believing that Preval would go to any lengths to ensure a win for his protege, Celestin.
The U.S. Embassy in Haiti issued a statement Tuesday saying that the United States stands ready to support efforts to review irregularities in the vote so that results are "consistent with the will of the Haitian people expressed in their votes". CNN
