Now just six weeks away from scheduled legislative
elections, materials such as ballot boxes, tabulation papers and indelible ink
are beginning to arrive in country. But questions have arisen about the process
of purchasing electoral materials, as electoral advisers have expressed concern about the sourcing
from foreign countries such as South Africa and the United Arab Emirates and
the sidelining of the CEP.
Although the Haitian government has been the largest
single contributor to the financing of scheduled elections, those funds are
largely channeled through the United Nations Development Program, which is administering
the electoral fund. According to the UNDP, the Haitian government has put
over $13 million into the fund. In addition to Haiti other countries
contributing resources to the fund are Brazil, Canada, the United States, Japan
and the European Union. It was the UNDP that contracted for electoral materials
and not the Haitian electoral authority.
On Tuesday, over 4,000 electoral kits (booths, ballot boxes
and indelible ink) and 1,800 observation kits arrived in Haiti aboard a
Lufthansa cargo plane. Two more deliveries are expected in the comings days. The
contract to produce and deliver the kits was awarded to Lithotec Exports, a
South Africa-based company at a cost of $4,468,902,
or about 12 percent of the total UNDP electoral fund. The fund currently has
$38 million at its disposal, but electoral authorities believe the total cost
of the elections will be over $60 million.
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| Source: UNDP |
On Sunday, the president of the CEP, Pierre Louis Opont led
a delegation to the United Arab Emirates to visit the company which was
awarded the contract to print the ballots for the legislative election in
August. Though it is clear a Dubai-based company was awarded the contract, no
confirmation on the name of the company has yet to be released. Nonetheless, it
is likely that the firm is Al Ghurair Printing & Publishing, a company the
UNDP used
for printing materials for elections in Afghanistan, Burundi, Mali and Libya and
Madagascar in 2014.
Electoral adviser Jaccéus Joseph told
Le Nouvelliste that the CEP was
unaware that the UNDP has awarded these contracts. Members of the CEP were
unable to answer specifics about the contracts because the Haitian state had
entrusted the UNDP to manage the elections, another member of the CEP, Pierre Manigat Junior explained. Both
representatives however were concerned with the sidelining of Haitian companies
in the bidding process.
“I personally raised the issue with the UNDP,” said
Joseph. “You cannot submit an underdeveloped country to international competitors
for the manufacture of products that local firms can do,” he added. The
electoral advisers stated that they have asked the UNDP for assurances that local
firms will be used for the printing of materials for presidential and local
elections scheduled for later this year.
It’s not just ballots that the UNDP is purchasing,
however. It is currently soliciting offers for the production and dissemination
of messages
to voters as well as for the distribution and display of voter
awareness posters.
The post-quake reconstruction effort was largely
out-sourced, bypassing local companies in favor of companies
from donor countries. With elections being funded in large part by the
international community, the funds being administered by the U.N., security
provided by U.N. troops and now even the printing of electoral materials by
foreign companies; it appears as though Haiti’s elections have been out-sourced
as well.
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