With legislative elections set to take place two weeks from
Sunday, Haiti’s electoral campaign has barely gotten off the ground as most parties
lack funds. The Haitian government, which committed over $10 million in funding
for political parties and candidates, only Wednesday published the formula for
the money’s disbursement, though as of yet there is no timeline for the
distribution of funds. Meanwhile, the ruling party, PHTK, is already in full
campaign mode, with President Martelly travelling the country to appear at
political rallies.
“For two weeks after the launch of the electoral campaign
some parties keep a low profile, very low. No ad in the media. No pictures of
candidates or banners displayed in the streets,” Jean Jerome Perez wrote
in Haiti’s leading newspaper, Le Nouvelliste last week. Political parties have largely stayed
on the sidelines, waiting for funding coming from the Haitian government.
Yesterday, after many delays, the government announced the formula for
distributing the funds to political parties.
30 percent of the funds will go to political parties; 20
percent to presidential candidates; 10 percent to candidates for both the
Senate and Chamber of Deputies; 20 percent to candidates in local elections and
10 percent will be distributed to parties with higher percentages of candidates
who are women, highly educated or disabled, according
to the Haitian government. Even political parties that are not fielding
candidates will receive funding.
"This method tends to favor even more the parties
close to power," Pierre Etienne, presidential candidate for OPL, told Le
National. Etienne added that there are about fifty political parties
created by the President and his allies. "It's a huge undertaking of
fraud,” he added. There are also over 30 parties which registered with the
electoral council but are not fielding legislative candidates.
On the other hand, the ruling party PHTK’s campaign is in
full swing. President Martelly has been travelling across the country,
appearing at campaign rallies with PHTK candidates despite criticism that he is
abusing state resources. In an interview with Radio Kiskeya,
Newton Saint-Juste, presidential candidates under the FREM banner, accused
Martelly of already spending millions of dollars of state resources on the PHTK
campaign.
Martelly has pushed back on this criticism, saying that he
intends to travel the country and that “no one can stop him from campaigning
for candidates of ‘Tet Kale,’” according
to Le Nouvelliste. Martelly
pointed out that the president must travel with his security and that involves
state resources, but, pointing to the example of the United States, he added “[w]e
do it in all countries.” Jean Fritz Jean-Louis, the Minister Delegate to the
Prime Minister for electoral matters defended
Martelly earlier this week, telling the press that the President is
entitled to use the logistical resources of his office and was free to support
the candidates of his choosing.
An editorial in today’s Le
Nouvelliste by Lemoine Bonneau
points out that neither former president Aristide nor Préval actively
campaigned for legislative candidates in previous elections and called on
Martelly “not to be the cause of clashes between supporters and opponents of
candidates.” “This is not a wise choice for the President to take part in
election rallies everywhere across the country,” the piece added.
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