LOS ANGELES, Calif.—In recognition of to the one-year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, Congresswoman Maxine Waters says the controversial elections have hindered the progress of recovery in Haiti.

“Recovery efforts have also been hampered by a weak Haitian government. Ideally, the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for November 28th would have resulted in a strong, credible government that would oversee recovery and reconstruction efforts. But these elections, as many of us feared, turned out to be deeply flawed,” she stated.

Researchers in Washington probed the elections conducted in Haiti last year. The Organization of American States, (OAS) discovered significant discrepancies with the ballot counts and fraud. Waters also shared her sentiments and outrage about the trouble-ridden election, which sparked massive protests and violence.

“First of all, they have a lot of political parties in Haiti, and they arbitrarily kept certain political parties off the ballot,” she explained. “(Famni) Lavalas is the biggest party in Haiti, and (the Haitian government) would not let them on the ballot because they knew the Lavalas would win. The second thing is because of the earthquake, a lot of those people had their ID cards destroyed, so they couldn’t vote.”

She further commented that many of those who did have their ID could not be found on the list to cast a vote.

Overall, Waters is pressing the Haitian government to overturn the last election and is supporting American involvement in order to conduct a fair election. She believes that the confusion within the government is beginning to affect those who have sent over resources, including money, to assist in the relief effort, because the officials have not been “transparent” with the funds. The congresswoman said the American people are beginning to question the Haitian government.

“Americans responded very generously to Haiti,” she said. “We had churches and non-profits, and organizations that dumped money, food and clothing into Haiti. I think the American response was very credible, but people are questioning where their money went and what did it do.”

Her other primary concern is the health and safety of Haitians in the midst of the cholera outbreak, which has resulted in thousands of deaths and hundred more suffering without care.

Waters is pressing the U.S. government to become more hands-on regarding the election to help the people recover more quickly and effectively. Her charge to America and other governments is to “keep their promises to the Haitian people.”