tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41846456948034017452024-03-18T05:47:43.086-04:00Haiti ElectionsThe Haiti Elections Blog provides the latest news, analysis and information on the 2015 elections in Haiti and promotes free access to information and accountability with the electoral process.Jakobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16881373614785013359noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-38280916058094352062017-02-06T13:07:00.001-05:002017-02-06T13:07:17.918-05:00New Report: Troubling Weaknesses in Electoral System Overshadow Return of Constitutional Rule in Haiti<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Cross-posted from the <a href="http://www.ijdh.org/2017/02/topics/politics-democracy/report-troubling-weaknesses-in-electoral-system-overshadow-return-of-constitutional-rule-in-haiti-francais-inclus/" target="_blank">Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti</a> website.</i></div>
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On the eve of President-elect Jovenel Moïse’s inauguration, a <a href="http://www.ijdh.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Haitis-Unrepresentative-Democracy.pdf" target="_blank">new report</a> by international legal observers argues that Haiti’s democratic institutions are suffering a profound crisis of confidence. Low turnout, voter disenfranchisement and lingering concerns about fraud raise troubling questions about the breadth of the incoming president’s mandate, according to the report, entitled <i>Haiti's Unrepresentative Democracy: Disenfranchisement and Disillusionment in the November 20 Elections</i>. <br /><br />The report notes that despite many improvements in security and electoral administration over the 2015 elections, the 21 percent voter turnout represents the lowest participation rate for a national election in the Western Hemisphere since 1945. “Many Haitians did not vote, not because they did not want to, but because they were unable due to difficulties in obtaining electoral cards, registering to vote and finding their names on outdated electoral lists,” said attorney Nicole Phillips, delegation leader and co-author of the report.</div>
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The report documents how many would-be voters were disenfranchised on November 20, due to pervasive errors on electoral lists, difficulties accessing identity cards, and lack of voter education. Haitian electoral authorities also failed to take adequate measures against fraudulent voting. Prior to the election, the head of the National Identification Office (ONI) <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/161135/LONI-veut-authentifier-les-Cartes-didentification-nationale#sthash.KsF3vRaT.dpuf">admitted</a> that 2.4 million activated but undistributed cards had gone missing, which opened the door to fraud via trafficked identity cards. </div>
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<br />A decade of elections marked by violence, vote-rigging, disenfranchisement, and repeated foreign interventions have dashed the high hopes of the post-Duvalier years and bred a deep disillusionment with democracy, according to the report. Paradoxically, falling participation rates have occurred alongside massive investments by the international community in Haiti’s electoral apparatus. Brian Concannon Jr., Executive Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), notes, “the millions spent by the United States and other Core Group countries on democracy promotion programs have produced an electoral system that is weaker, less trusted and more exclusionary than what came before.” </div>
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<br />The report also explains the lack of female political participation as another crisis. “Only four legislators out of 149 seats are women,” Phillips remarks. “With so few women candidates on the ballots, politics continue to reflect a man’s domain, as reflected in an even lower voter turnout for women (35.67 percent female voters, compared with 64.33 male).” The report notes that women’s and human rights organizations warn that this “catastrophic” lack of representation will have enormous consequences for Parliament; there will be no way of assuring that the needs and interests of women will be taken into account with such a small representation. <br /><br />President Moïse’s swearing-in will mark a return to constitutional rule after a several-year long hiatus, but there are concerns that he will follow in the undemocratic footsteps of his predecessor. President Michel Martelly surrounded himself with figures tied to the former Duvalier dictatorship and drew criticism from human rights defenders for intimidating journalists and illegally imprisoning opposition political activists.</div>
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<br /> “With a majority in parliament, the temptation for President Moïse to run roughshod over any opposition will be great,” said Concannon. “But with the backing of only 9.6 percent of registered voters, the incoming president will face serious limits to his popular mandate.” President Moïse is under investigation for <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article128501399.html">money laundering</a>, and has proposed a number of controversial measures, including <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/US-not-in-favour-of-re-establishing-Haitian-army">reviving the Haitian Army</a> and launching <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/your-money/Jovenel-Moise--banana-businessman-now-Haiti-president_85733">ten agricultural free trade zones</a>. The report also notes serious doubts about democratic credentials of many senators and deputies, who owe their seats more to the violence, disruptions and fraud of the 2015 elections that put them into office than to the will of Haitian voters. <br /><br />The NLG-IADL report calls on the Haitian authorities to clean up electoral lists, eliminate electoral card trafficking, end impunity for electoral violence and fraud, and increase women’s participation in politics. </div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com121tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-74018567509843352362016-12-08T17:57:00.001-05:002017-01-20T17:42:46.164-05:00Breakdown of Preliminary Election Results in Haiti<i>The following is cross-posted from <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/breakdown-of-preliminary-election-results-in-haiti">CEPR's Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch blog</a>.</i> <br /><br />More than two weeks after Haitians went to the polls to elect a new president, 16 Senators and 25 Deputies, preliminary results from all races have finally been released. Presidential results have already been contested by the second, third and fourth place finishers while many legislative races will likely be contested as well. However, if the preliminary results are upheld, the November 20 elections will have consolidated nearly unprecedented political power in the hands of PHTK, the party of former president Michel Martelly. While PHTK and its allies appear to have scored electoral victories at both the presidential and legislative level, their political success has occurred in a context of extremely low turnout, raising questions about the significance of their mandate to govern moving forward.<br /><br /><b>Presidential Results</b><br /><br />At the presidential level, Jovenel Moïse of PHTK came in first place <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B56RZ3-JtuHxS0JqVkdvRmtmck0/view">with 55.67 percent of the vote</a>. If these results hold, Moïse will secure the presidency without having to compete in a second-round election. In second, third and fourth place were Jude Celestin of LAPEH with 19.52 percent, Jean-Charles Moïse of the Platfom Pitit Dessalines (PPD) with 11.04 percent and Maryse Narcisse of Fanmi Lavalas (FL) with 8.99 percent.<br /><br />While the top four vote getters in the 2016 election were exactly the same as in last year’s election, the results of which were thrown out due to widespread irregularities, the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B56RZ3-JtuHxV3hFZzNaM3FLSWc/view">composition of the vote</a> changed dramatically. Jovenel Moïse, who was widely believed to have benefitted from fraud in the 2015 elections, was the only one of the four to increase their vote total over last year. This appears to largely stem from the far wider geographical support that Jovenel Moïse received in 2016, coupled with the other top candidates losing substantial ground.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTOZ-WWYtWaPok1zjEjY03El89-eWJsZFB5TIu5KHuxwMIszbYD_ittS66BylaaquqDlWa1XIMJyeEsyyH0vyfpowLM0vZbcqskaym5mLfFtMkX-VUNw3eA6e38El9zE0y_IQR_er9irxW/s1600/Haiti_vote_share_department_2016.jpg"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTOZ-WWYtWaPok1zjEjY03El89-eWJsZFB5TIu5KHuxwMIszbYD_ittS66BylaaquqDlWa1XIMJyeEsyyH0vyfpowLM0vZbcqskaym5mLfFtMkX-VUNw3eA6e38El9zE0y_IQR_er9irxW/s400/Haiti_vote_share_department_2016.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />As can be seen above, Jovenel Moïse received over 50 percent of the vote in each department except for the Artibonite and the Sud Est. Similar to in 2015, the strongest areas of support were in the north of the country, where he runs a banana export business. But perhaps the most surprising result this year was that he also received 50 percent of the vote in the Ouest department, home to some 40 percent of registered voters. In 2015, he received just over 20 percent of the vote in the Ouest. This accounts for nearly the entire increase in the number of total votes received by Jovenel Moïse this year.<br /><br />Still, even with Jovenel Moïse increasing his votes from 2015, the main reason why he was able to win in the first round was that all three other candidates lost significant numbers of votes. Celestin received 185,000 fewer votes, Jean-Charles 104,000 and Narcisse 14,000. If these candidates had simply received the same number of votes as last year, Jovenel Moïse would not have been able to win in the first round.<br /><br />The long campaign, and the consolidation of private sector funding behind PHTK certainly helped in this regard. With more resources, PHTK was able to more actively campaign and build support throughout the last year. It takes significant money to have party staff across the entire country, an especially important factor in getting one’s supporters to come out to vote on election day. As a result, PHTK had a wider national presence of political party representatives than other parties, according to local observer organizations. <br /><br />Another factor that contributed to the vastly different result was that many more voters were either unable or unwilling to participate in this year’s election. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), announced that participation was just 21 percent, compared to 26.6 percent last year. However the rate announced by the CEP includes many thousands of votes that were not counted due to irregularities. If one looks just at valid votes, the participation in this year’s election drops to 17.3 percent. The 26.6 percent figure from last year was based on valid votes.<br /><br />Overall, there were nearly 500,000 fewer votes counted this year than last, despite there being 300,000 more registered voters. Even if one assumes that last year’s participation was artificially high due to the number of so-called “<a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.com/2016/05/final-report-of-independent-commission.html">zombie votes</a>”, this is still a significant drop. In each of Haiti’s ten departments, fewer votes were counted this year than last.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWQiE5H7D79nCx-5U_EVCDpj8GLJhi9pZq-9Sg95DSM_DRUPLKgN4OTCyFqFUgBvbiIiu_EgB95SFETR5h4ri9vaoCHp9AMpSCe2VM2l_XTdfFdROl0dUn7_OnRtgV9BpKERIM772v9sdF/s1600/Haiti_candidate_percent_registered_voters.jpg"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWQiE5H7D79nCx-5U_EVCDpj8GLJhi9pZq-9Sg95DSM_DRUPLKgN4OTCyFqFUgBvbiIiu_EgB95SFETR5h4ri9vaoCHp9AMpSCe2VM2l_XTdfFdROl0dUn7_OnRtgV9BpKERIM772v9sdF/s400/Haiti_candidate_percent_registered_voters.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />As can be seen in the table above, if the preliminary results hold, Jovenel Moïse would become president of Haiti with the support of just 9.6 percent of registered voters, or about 600,000 votes. While this is far more than any of his closest competitors, this raises significant questions about his ability to galvanize the country once in office. <br /><br />That someone could be elected president of Haiti with the support of less than 10 percent of registered voters speaks to just how low participation has fallen in recent years. Though the length of the campaign and the impact of Hurricane Matthew has been blamed for the low turnout in this year’s election, by looking at participation from recent presidential elections one can see a clear trend of ever lower participation. The low participation is a far broader issue than anything specific to this year’s election.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkLYoFc52dbS9Cwm3Z4Z6qikdXMc-iFktApaBJFppooqE9eGSONFiNlfggICBZ-iK7fS1l3guk8cP8kDD8HH-6-6UpqsZIIdqXcEENuge6D3kiPVxSgJmg1fnpWPHiHcaIeQrX00DnX-oF/s1600/Haiti_decreasing_turnout_jpg.jpg"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkLYoFc52dbS9Cwm3Z4Z6qikdXMc-iFktApaBJFppooqE9eGSONFiNlfggICBZ-iK7fS1l3guk8cP8kDD8HH-6-6UpqsZIIdqXcEENuge6D3kiPVxSgJmg1fnpWPHiHcaIeQrX00DnX-oF/s400/Haiti_decreasing_turnout_jpg.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />As can be seen in the table above, since the 2010 earthquake, participation in presidential elections has plummeted, with this year being the lowest in Haiti’s history. A lack of faith in the electoral system, voter apathy, and barriers to participation appear to all have contributed to this long-term decline. With participation so low, the political stability that elections were expected to bring will be difficult to ensure.<br /><br />The low turnout number in 2016 is partially because of the high number of “tally sheets” that were quarantined and not counted in the preliminary results due to irregularities. In 2015, just 3.6 percent of these sheets were quarantined and an additional 2.2 percent were never received. This year, 10.5 percent were quarantined and about 1 percent were never received. The higher number of quarantined votes could be the result of greater scrutiny applied after last year’s election. It could also, as some parties have alleged, be a sign that there were more problems than initially expected. Either way, as parties contest the results, a closer look at these excluded tally sheets, should be expected.<br /><br /><b>Preliminary Legislative Results</b><br />In the November 20 election, first round races for <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B56RZ3-JtuHxMzF6VnE4WkItcTA">ten Senate seats</a> were held. In addition, <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B56RZ3-JtuHxZjhPRUVLd0MtWGc">second round elections were held for six Senate seats</a> and <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B56RZ3-JtuHxT2Z0SXlMUm9WNzg">25 Deputy seats</a>, these being the completion of last year’s aborted election. In the commune of Roseaux, the election for Deputy was unable to be held due to flooding and the inability to properly distribute voting materials.<br /><br />While results from the presidential election in 2015 were thrown out, in January 2016, 92 Deputies and 14 Senators elected in the same process were sworn in to office. Haiti had been without a functioning parliament since January 2015 after no elections were held during Martelly’s first four years in office.<br /><br />Over the last year, parliament has largely been split between political factions and unable to pass much in the way of legislation. When interim president Jocelerme Privert’s 120 day mandate expired, parliament was unable to hold a vote on replacing or extending him.<br /><br />As would be expected given the performance of Jovenel Moïse at the presidential level, PHTK candidates for the Senate and Chamber of Deputies also performed well according to the preliminary results.<br /><br />In the 24 Deputy races, candidates representing 14 different political parties secured seats, bringing the total number represented in the Chamber of Deputies up to 25. PHTK led all parties by winning 5 seats, however together with close allies KID, AAA, Bouclier and Consortium, the bloc picked up 9 seats. Together, these parties now have at least 53 of the 116 members in the Chamber of Deputies. Though not an outright majority, with the rest of the political sphere split, it gives PHTK and its allies by far the largest voting bloc.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbUclOMvMSMAjwnidwNZlJgXSC7a8eaabNheimfz9W9MwtBSUNDjE-fTz9cxXBO8UJRGMNw3DaEqsszUYhM3R3f4xcbMZrlfXsN3CsLzhY18PWLYKWFi6CPPHABdPjALm5JyqlLikoZvR/s1600/Haiti_deputies_by_party_2016.jpg"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbUclOMvMSMAjwnidwNZlJgXSC7a8eaabNheimfz9W9MwtBSUNDjE-fTz9cxXBO8UJRGMNw3DaEqsszUYhM3R3f4xcbMZrlfXsN3CsLzhY18PWLYKWFi6CPPHABdPjALm5JyqlLikoZvR/s400/Haiti_deputies_by_party_2016.jpg" width="273" /></a><br /><br />Sixteen Senate seats were also up for grabs on November 20. In those races, six of which were second round elections, PHTK secured an additional four seats, while allies Bouclier and Consortium each picked up one. In the eight departments where second round Senate elections will be held in January 2017, PHTK has five candidates while Bouclier, AAA, Consortium and Kid combine for an additional five.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtEV01eCX50JBS9bSRTxJKkJVVJCAgU2DNB6WP3Dl3A1Cnq8vKJvbWu1EYpK-Wjmp91jjX4sX5CXO8S5hpCAr4JP1LHyg3HAmaJJYPhedjtmjhaQZUJ9c6t-PBrHS1VmZgLAUwOqDT7Xke/s1600/Haiti_senate_elected_2016.jpg"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtEV01eCX50JBS9bSRTxJKkJVVJCAgU2DNB6WP3Dl3A1Cnq8vKJvbWu1EYpK-Wjmp91jjX4sX5CXO8S5hpCAr4JP1LHyg3HAmaJJYPhedjtmjhaQZUJ9c6t-PBrHS1VmZgLAUwOqDT7Xke/s400/Haiti_senate_elected_2016.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />Perhaps most notable among the list above is the presence of Guy Philippe, elected to the Senate from the Grand Anse department. <a href="https://t.co/SGhDIoPBrz">Philippe was</a> a paramilitary leader that helped oust Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power in a 2004 coup, has been accused of extrajudicial killings while a police commander in the 90s by Human Rights Watch, and more recently was allegedly involved in the armed raid of a police station in the southern city of Les Cayes. He is also a DEA most-wanted fugitive for his role in drug trafficking and money laundering. Philippe <a href="http://cepr.net/cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/martelly-bloc-formalizes-alliance-with-dea-fugitive-guy-philippe">campaigned with Jovenel </a><a href="http://cepr.net/cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/martelly-bloc-formalizes-alliance-with-dea-fugitive-guy-philippe">Moïse</a> over the last year. <br /><br />Also of note is former Senator Joseph Lambert, who ran and lost under the PHTK banner in last year’s election. He is now set to return to the Senate under the KONA party.<br /><br />With the election of six Senators, PHTK and its allies look poised to secure an absolute majority in the Senate. The bloc is guaranteed to pick up at least two additional seats in the second round senate election in January, as candidates from allied parties compete against each other in the Centre and Artibonite departments. Overall, in the eight departments that will have second round elections, PHTK or parties allied with it came in first in seven.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Nh_EXSWrbjappmrD_tX0TtmyRf81LfdKGjdwLMjTu8gMyHO7bZcGtAjhJm8cvOrewZmKojWyjughRbgNBop01RY18V4vTscVRNYJ-QkbM_2ZioagDxrImUQxSPXyjDd7kqaflu12Aw4f/s1600/Haiti_senate_by_party_2016_2.jpg"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Nh_EXSWrbjappmrD_tX0TtmyRf81LfdKGjdwLMjTu8gMyHO7bZcGtAjhJm8cvOrewZmKojWyjughRbgNBop01RY18V4vTscVRNYJ-QkbM_2ZioagDxrImUQxSPXyjDd7kqaflu12Aw4f/s400/Haiti_senate_by_party_2016_2.jpg" width="346" /></a><br /><br /><b>Participation of Women in Parliament</b><br /><br />The November 20 election did see the first woman elected to parliament. Of the 106 Deputies and Senators that were sworn in last year none are women, despite women making up more than 50 percent of the population. Based on preliminary results however, four women have been elected to parliament, one in the Senate and three as Deputies.<br /><br />The electoral law mandated that at least 30 percent of candidates for office be women, however the actual number who registered and campaigned was far lower. There have also been many efforts to increase the participation of women in elections. Among the data published by the CEP in the preliminary results is a tally of the number of women who voted at each voting booth, which would allow for further analysis and improvement going forward.Jakobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16881373614785013359noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-74683238067165380172016-12-04T19:04:00.000-05:002016-12-04T19:04:31.507-05:00Deconstructing Another Right-Wing Victory in Haiti<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Cross-posted from <a href="http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume10-21/Deconstructing%20Another%20Right-Wing%20Victory%20in%20Haiti.asp" target="_blank">Haïti Liberté</a>'s Nov. 30-Dec. 6 edition.</i> </div>
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The largest and most important percentage to emerge from Haiti’s Nov. 20, 2016 election is that 78.31% of the country’s 6.2 million eligible voters did not vote.* </div>
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<br />Some could not obtain their National Identification Card (CIN) or find their name on the long voter lists posted on the gates of huge voting centers. Others could not get to their assigned center because they live or work too far away, perhaps in another part of the country. In fact, the whole “voting center” system, which is different from that used in the 1990s when participation was much higher, has objectively suppressed the votes of many poor, itinerant Haitians. <br /><br />Nonetheless, it appears that the vast majority of Haitians remain disenchanted with or unmoved by the candidates offered in the last four presidential contests in 2010, 2011, 2015, and 2016, or have lost faith in elections as a means to change their miserable lot. Participation in all those contests lurked at about one quarter of the electorate. The November 2016 polling is one of the lowest turnouts for a presidential election in Haiti and the Western Hemisphere. </div>
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<br />Of the 21.69% of voters who did turn out, preliminary results of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) gave: 55.67% to Jovenel Moïse of former president Michel Martelly’s Haitian Bald Headed Party (PHTK); 19.52% to Jude Célestin of the Alternative League for Progress and Haitian Emancipation (LAPEH), an affiliate of former president René Préval; 11.04% to Moïse Jean-Charles of the Dessalines Children (Pitit Desalin) party, a Lavalas break-away; and 8.99% to Maryse Narcisse of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Lavalas Family Political Organization (FL). Final results are scheduled to be announced on Dec. 29, 2016. <br /><br />The FL has charged that the preliminary results reflect an “electoral coup d’état,” and LAPEH and seven senators claim that many ballots lacked the necessary voter signatures or fingerprints to make them valid. <br /><br />Indeed, the results’ announcement, originally scheduled for Sun., Nov. 27, was postponed until the next day at 1:00 p.m., and then for another nine hours after that. Radio stations excitedly buzzed with accounts of fraud and struggle within the CEP. In one Radio Kiskeya interview greatly debated on social media, Harold Désinor, a supposed specialist is cyber-crime, claimed that over 60% of the voter tallies (procés verbal) were fraudulent or irregular, that the results were being changed from 46% for Jovenel and 26% for Jude to 58% and 18% respectively, and that four of the nine CEP members were refusing to sign off on the preliminary results. Indeed, three CEP members did not sign the paper listing the results, which were released after 10 p.m. on Nov. 28, but, at press time, they had not publicly given their reasons why.</div>
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<br />The FL, for one, has vowed to take their objections to the National Electoral Complaints and Challenges Bureau (BCEN). Since the days right after the Nov. 20 election, the party has been holding spirited street demonstrations in Port-au-Prince denouncing the contest as fraudulent. While some cases of fraud are likely to be discovered, they probably will not change the final outcome enough to stop a PHTK first-round victory, which comes with a 50% plus one vote result or a 25% spread between first and second place. Already, of 11,870 tally sheets, 1,252 have been set aside by the CEP, and 118 have not yet been received. <br /><br />Jovenel Moïse’s likely win seems to fit a pattern of electoral victories by right-wing businessmen across the hemisphere: Juan Orlando Hernández in Honduras (2013), Mauricio Macri in Argentina (2015), and Donald Trump in the U.S. (2016). Jovenel, 48, crisscrossed Haiti promising jobs, holding up his successful business of exporting bananas to Europe. <br /><br />Clearly, the PHTK candidate, known as “Nèg Bannann” also outspent all his rivals. While the source of his campaign’s extensive funding remains unclear, it is certain that he benefited from the millions of dollars which the Martelly clique skimmed from the PetroCaribe fund, a multibillion dollar pot of petroleum sales receipts made possible by Venezuela for public welfare projects. Without hiding its brazen political patronage, the Martelly regime used these projects – like <i>Ede Pèp</i> (Help the People), <i>Aba Grangou</i> (Down with Hunger), and <i>Ti Manman Cheri</i> (Dear Little Mother) – to give away free meals, vehicles, and houses to win over Haiti’s poor, the traditional Lavalas base. </div>
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<br />The PetroCaribe fund also allowed the PHTK machine to have the most posters, the largest billboards, the best produced radio spots, ads on Digicel 50 gourdes cellphone recharge cards, and sound-boats blasting the coast with their propaganda. Their candidate had the money to distribute the most “aid” after Hurricane Matthew ravaged the south in October and to campaign more widely and impressively deep in the countryside, not just the cities. <br /><br />Jovenel also hired the only professional election consulting firm, the Madrid-based Ostos & Sola, which had ensured Martelly’s 2011 victory, with a little help from then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The same firm, linked to Republican Senator John McCain and the National Endowment for Democracy’s International Republican Institute (IRI), also helped elect other right-wing presidents like Mexico's Felipe Calderón (2006) and Guatemala’s Otto Perez Molina (2011). <br /><br />Finally, one has to look at what has weakened Haiti’s progressive parties. In 1990 and 2000, Jean-Bertrand Aristide won the presidency with 1.6 and 2.2 million votes, versus the 595,000 who apparently voted for Jovenel this year. Immediately after both of Aristide’s elections, the U.S. government immediately began to sabotage his government, resulting in the coups d’état of 1991 and 2004. In the words of lawyer Brian Concannon Jr., his governments were never allowed the opportunity of “demonstrating how democracy can work.” Therefore, many young Haitians, who don’t remember the brutal Duvalier dictatorship which ended in 1986, associate the Lavalas reigns under which they grew up with instability, deprivation, and crisis.</div>
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While Aristide’s reputation can still turn out a large crowd, as the 2016 campaign showed, the FL candidate he stumped for, Dr. Maryse Narcisse, was not a public speaker and did not generate great passion in the Lavalas base. The FL had been excluded from elections since the 2004 coup. </div>
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<br />Meanwhile, the charismatic former Sen. Moïse Jean-Charles, who had been in the forefront of denouncing the Martelly regime’s corruption and repression, gained national recognition for his courage and leadership but was expelled from the FL for various ideological and tactical differences. He proposed a more Dessalinien (i.e. anti-imperialist) path to Aristide’s reliance on the bluff-based political triangulation tactics (<i>mawonaj</i>) of Toussaint Louverture. <br /><br />After launching the Pitit Desalin split-off in 2015, Moïse Jean-Charles was unable to build it into an effective, disciplined party based on principles and a program, relying heavily on dubious alliances with political opportunists and even enemies. As a result, Moïse’s party suffered almost regular defections and betrayals. His partisans also began to clash with those of the FL, confrontations which helped neither campaign. </div>
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<br />In short, divisions in the progressive camp helped Jovenel Moïse, around whom Haiti’s right wing and neo-Duvalierists rallied. </div>
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<br />Despite his likely (but compromised) victory with only 12% of the electorate, Jovenel is sure to face a difficult five year term. Venezuela, to which the Haitian government still owes over nine months of back gas payments, is now in dire economic straits. A PHTK government will no longer have the deep PetroCaribe pot to dip into, if indeed the PetroCaribe program even continues. <br /><br />Furthermore, the Haitian government’s anti-corruption unit UCREF put out a scathing report on the malfeasance of Jovenel’s company Agritrans under the Martelly regime. Although the report’s revelations were not enough to sink his campaign, they will certainly return with a vengeance if the jobs and prosperity Jovenel promised fail to materialize. <br /><br />It is inevitable too, if the apparent losers don’t coalesce into a single coalition to fight and scuttle these election results like those of Oct. 25, 2015, that the progressive currents, including the FL and Pitit Desalin, will reflect on their defeat, and this may also lead to some future unity. <br /><br />Again, the figure to remember is the 5.2 million disenfranchised and discouraged Haitians who did not vote, not the one million who did. They will be the tinder in a box which is already surrounded by many burning matches. <br /><br />_______________ <br /><br />* If we accept the CEP’s figure of 6,189,253 eligible voters participating at 21.69% (according to the Haitian Coalition of Electoral Observation), then 1,342,449 voted. However the CEP’s preliminary figures only cite 1,069,646 valid votes (along with 58,120 voided votes or votes nuls). That leaves a discripancy of 214,683 votes unaccounted for. Are these votes contained in the 1,252 voter tallies quarantined and the 118 not yet received (as of Nov. 28)? Furthermore, authorities have said that, after Hurricane Matthew, some 600,000 people applied for new voter cards (Carte d’identification nationale or CIN) but were unable to get them. This makes over 800,000 eligible voters whose votes have not been counted. The legal challenges of fraud may further increase this figure. Since Jovenel Moïse’s lead over Jude Célestin is only 386,593, the final results, to be announced Dec. 29, are far from certain. </div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com43tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-85415406476525708612016-11-22T17:52:00.000-05:002016-11-22T17:52:45.371-05:00Haiti's Political Conundrum<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<i>Guest post by Prospere Charles PhD, Executive Director of the <a href="http://www.1804institute.org/" target="_blank">1804 Institute</a></i> </div>
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Haiti’s politics are complicated. Haiti is a Republic and Haitians are supposed to elect their government through free and fair elections. Elected officials receive a mandate to work on behalf of the Haitian people. They promote Haiti’s interests both locally and abroad, facilitate the development of Haitian communities and foster social progress throughout the country. <br /><br />From the process of selecting the government through the process of governing, however, Haiti has not been a shining example in the region. In fact, for a major part of its 212 years history, Haiti has been either under a direct military rule or a civilian dictatorship. The process of choosing a government for the people, by the people has not been an established tradition in the first black republic of the world. Only approximately three times in Haiti’s history there have been some sort of “commonly acceptable political elections.” In these instances, a majority of Haiti’s electorate went to the polls to elect their representatives, but the resulting government usually would not last long. </div>
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<br />Perhaps emboldened by their apparent popular support, those government would first make it a priority to clean up Haiti’s public institutions from the so-called old guards, i.e. those individuals whom they believe were in charge of managing the country’s public affairs in prior administrations. Those old guards are usually well entrenched and financially connected with the economic elite. Most of them, through their public functions, would establish preferential relationships with individuals from the elite, creating policies that would benefit the already privileged, bestowing on them favors and advantages not necessarily reserved for other groups in Haiti’s society. These practices would understandably create an uneven playing field favoring the haves against the have-nots, creating the conditions for social tensions to rise and persist. The political landscape is therefore engulfed with nepotism and bigotry, staffed with functionaries who work at the behest of private interests. <br /><br />When Haitians demand change and replace a bad regime with members of the opposition, soon after the status quo re-establishes itself and more often than not, for the worst. The change event occurred only at the level of the people, replacing one public figure with another public persona; but the system of corruption still remains. The incapacity (or unwillingness) of political leaders to find the correct formula to lift the Haitian people up from poverty is mind-boggling. Those who come into the political arena with a message of hope and changes are soon defeated and discouraged to never entertain such an endeavor again. </div>
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<br />Every year the fight against hunger and corruption takes a step backwards with more corruption and more poverty. On one hand, the haves, the few, the politically connected, the powerful, believe they are entitled to be at the top of Haiti’s societal construct, and that the government should work in their favor. On the other hand, the have-nots, the many, the poor masses, believe they have been cast away from opportunities and economic advancement. The lack, or total absence, of policies that facilitate their social development relegate them to substandard livings conditions. They feel condemned to stay in their social ranks, hence, they leave the country en masse, realizing that their constant state of revolts and requests for change have not produced any fruit. This is just one aspect of the political dynamic that has been regulating Haiti’s political structures for almost two centuries and with a not-so-promising prospect in the horizon. <br /><br />Another aspect of Haiti’s political environment is the strong meddling of foreign countries and international entities in Haiti’s affairs. There is a persistent perception among Haitians that some western countries, such as the United States, Canada and France, have not been true friends of Haiti as they publicly claim to be. Many Haitians believe that these countries would do anything to reinforce their dominance over Haitians and their natural resources and to keep Haiti from becoming what it was meant to be from the beginning: a shining example of freedom and black power for former colonies in the Americas to follow. These perceptions are not merely the fruit of a fertile imagination or conspiracy theories; they are based on historical facts and hard truths that have been documented by qualified researchers and authors for decades.</div>
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<br />Thirty years of studying and experiencing a phenomenon can contribute to one’s understanding of it. When it comes to the causes of Haiti’s poverty, the modus operandi of this phenomenon can be found in its political system. My soon-to-be published book on “The Causes of Haiti’s Poverty” will go deeper into this issue, but for now, just days after Haiti’s third strike at a presidential election process that started over a year ago, let’s remind ourselves that among the causes of Haiti’s miseries, a failed political system stacked with leaderless leaders is high on the list. </div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-54092308973545148942016-11-20T06:31:00.000-05:002016-11-21T00:19:22.540-05:00Live Updates on Today's ElectionsToday, as Haitians head to the polls, IJDH's Nicole Phillips
(@BuddhistLawyer) and CEPR's Jake Johnston (@JakobJohnston), who are <a href="http://www.ijdh.org/2016/11/topics/politics-democracy/international-teams-to-witness-haitis-elections-in-hurricane-devastated-southern-departments/" target="_blank">in Haiti</a> with delegates from the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, <span class="st">Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains</span>
and the National Lawyers Guild, will be providing reports throughout
the day. The delegation will observe polling places throughout country,
with a
focus on the South and Grand’Anse Departments, which were devastated by
Hurricane Matthew on <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1331209902" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">October 3-4</span></span>.
The difficult conditions caused by the storm have called into question
whether voters in these regions will be able to exercise their right to
vote as protected by Haitian and international law. This space will be
updated throughout the day with on-the-ground reports, so please check
back frequently, or follow Haiti Election Blog (@HaitiVoteBlog) on
Twitter.<span lang="EN-GB"> We cannot verify every report, but will try to verify the most serious incidents.</span><br />
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<b>UPDATE 11:58 PM:</b> Port-au-Prince voters on why they came out to cast their ballots, via the <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article116033543.html" target="_blank"><i>Miami Herald</i></a>'s Jacqueline Charles:<br />
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"I came to vote today for change, to have a beautiful Haiti, to put an end to this rising cost of living."<br />
- Dieunet Joseph, 50, Petionville.<br />
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"We're here to give the international community a lesson. This time, the people will not sleep. We are fed up."<br />- Rita Pierre, 32, Petionville.<br />
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"If I don't vote, it's like I don't hope for anything serious for my country. We're living in a country where we don't have a serious government. It doesn't make sense. For more than two years, we've been trying to elect a president and we can't. We have to give this country another image."<br />
- Calixte Edme, 52, Martissant. <br /><br />
And via the <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/db22666d0b8846639d910093d6a04c84/after-lengthy-drift-haiti-votes-new-leader" target="_blank"><i>Associated Press</i></a>' David McFadden:<br />
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"This is my responsibility as a citizen."<br />
- Alain Joseph, a motorcycle taxi driver, father of four, and proud PHTK supporter.<br /><br />"Women protect women. They make good changes. The men, they boss you and beat you too hard."<br />
- Helene Olivier, 72, who voted Fanmi Lavalas candidate Maryse Narcisse.<br /><br />
"All I know is the next government needs to start picking up the trash around here again. Under the interim government, we've had no garbage collection here at all."<br />
- Nicolas Michel, a math teacher and part-time welder.<br />
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<b>UPDATE 11:22 PM:</b> Voices from the South, via <a href="http://www.rfi.fr/ameriques/20161121-reportage-haiti-conditions-vote-difficiles-grand-anse?ref=tw_i" target="_blank"><i>RFI</i></a>'s Stefanie Schuler:<br />
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"Given the ruinous state of the country, it has been a long time that
there are no leaders to govern it. Us, after the passage of the
hurricane, we lost everything. We may have received a bit of aid, but
now we need leaders. That's why I came to vote."<br />
- Dieutêne Raymond, 74, Grand'Anse <br />
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"We need a chief to be respected. Someone that will be by our sides when there is a problem."<br />- Elianis Médile, 70, Grand'Anse<br />
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And via <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/11/20/world/americas/20reuters-haiti-election.html?ref=americas" target="_blank"><i>Reuters</i></a>' Makini Brice:<br />
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"We are in a political crisis. We need an elected government to get out of this situation."<br />
- 19-year-old Launes Delmazin, 19, Les Cayes (Sud)<br /><br />"The country has been destroyed. We want the country to return to a normal state."<br />
- Luc Albert Jean-Claude, a 74-year-old farmer casting his vote in Damassin (Sud).<br /><br />
<b>UPDATE 9:36 PM:</b> Electoral council and police officials positively assessed the elections, at an end-of-day press conference. The CEP said it not able to give an estimate of voter turnout, but CEP President Berlanger claimed that turnout in the hurricane-affected south was decent, and perhaps even higher than in the rest of the country. Overall, there were 43 arrests during election day, including 7 for illegal possession of arms and 6 for assault. The CEP promised to release the preliminary results within eight days. Berlanger said that although voting was finished, the electoral match was only at half-time. The second half would be hinge on achieving public acceptance of the results.<br />
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Image: Jean-Michel Caroît<br />
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<b>UPDATE 7:17 PM: </b>Interim President Jocelerme Privert and Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles held a joint press conference at the Prime Minister's residence. Privert and Jean-Charles declared that they were satisfied with the elections, but warned against "triumphalism." Privert appealed for calm in the post-election period.<br />
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<b>UPDATE 5:33 PM:</b> Jacqueline Charles of the <i>Miami Herald</i> <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article116033543.html" target="_blank">spoke</a> to the OAS's Gerardo de Icaza about the election day:<br />
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<i>Gerardo de Icaza, director of the Organization of American States'
department for Electoral Cooperation and Observation Secretariat echoed
those sentiments. His 130 observers around the country had registered
only "a few minor incidents," he said. The previous presidential vote on
Oct. 25, 2015, was marred by allegations of widespread fraud that
eventually triggered the rerun. A rerun that had been set for Oct. 9 was
pushed back six weeks after Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti. </i></blockquote>
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<i>"We have
not observed any incidents out of the ordinary," he said. "We're more
optimistic than on Oct. 25. We hope things continue this way."</i></blockquote>
The OAS had publicly praised the October 25 2015 elections when they were held, but took a more critical view after an independent verification commission found evidence of widespread fraud and irregularities. Was OAS aware internally that the October 25 elections were problematic when they endorsed them, as De Icaza's statement suggests? <br />
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<b>UPDATE 4:46 PM:</b> Polls closed at 4pm. Now, the vote count has begun, with each voting bureau opening the ballot boxes and tallying the votes under the supervision of mandataires and election observers.<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB"><b>UPDATE 4:03 PM:</b> </span><span lang="EN-GB">OAS chief observer Juan Raul Ferreira says Haiti's elections are unfolding normally, noting only a few isolated incidents without consequence. The OAS has deployed 130 observers to monitor the vote. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General Sandra Honoré visited several voting centers and <a href="https://twitter.com/MINUSTAH/status/800441977443614720" target="_blank">celebrated</a> the conduct of the vote.</span><br />
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<b>UPDATE 3:27 PM: </b>In Boucan Carré (Centre), PHTK deputy candidate Jude Jean has <a href="https://rezonodwes.com/boucan-carre-une-douzaine-de-partisans-tet-kale-apprehendes-par-la-police/" target="_blank">complained</a> to the press that more than a dozen of his supporters have been arrested. Police arrested 14 young people in three separate operations; 8 are still in custody while 6 others have been released provisionally. Jean accused his rival from OPL of organizing "a vast operation of violence" against him and his camp, with the complicity of the local police inspector. The PHTK candidate called on the CEP and the government to intervene. Other sources, however, told <i>Rezonodwes</i> that Jude Jean's sympathizers had been arrested because of their behaviour and their attempts to disrupt the electoral process. <br />
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<b>UPDATE 2:50 PM: </b>RNDDH's Jessica Hsu estimates that at Ecole National de Filles in Dame Marie (Grand'Anse), over 50 people could not find their names on electoral lists. The majority had noted that they were on the initial partial electoral lists. One found his name inside a voting bureau but not the electoral list posted outside.<br />
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In Les Cayes, Jake Johnson reports similar problems, with names on electoral lists posted outside not always matching those inside voting bureaus. Poll workers claimed this problem was rather limited.<br />
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<b>UPDATE 2:24 PM: </b>IJDH's Nicole Phillips visited Ecole Nationale Vigner in Archahaie (Ouest) and found, like everywhere else, many people couldn't find their name on electoral list. There were also 2-3 people with mandataire cards which didn't correspond with their CIN. They turned card over so no one would notice. <br />
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Earlier, Phillips was at Ecole National de Petit Cazeau in Port-au-Prince where a group of people approached her delegation to complain that their names weren't on the electoral lists, a common complaint of many voters. The school's voting bureaus were still mostly empty.<br />
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<b>UPDATE 2:16 PM:</b> At its mid-day press conference, CEP President Léopold Berlanger declared: "We see that it's a day that has unfolded in calm, and in serenity and that has unfolded well up until now." Berlanger noted that 18 troublemakers had been arrested by police throughout the country and noted that a few isolated incidents of violence had occurred on election day, in Port Margot (attempted arson) Plaisance and Trou du Nord. In Vallières (Nord-Est) and Roseau (Grand’Anse) 4 voting centers could not open their doors, according to the CEP. "There were voting centers that did not receive voting materials on time or at all." In two instances, the CEP resorted to helicopters to transport the materials.<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">Image: Jacqueline Charles<b> </b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB"><b>UPDATE 12:54 PM: </b>After a sluggish start, Haitian media are reporting that turnout is picking up, with long lines at many voting centers. Radio Kiskeya reported that turnout was strong in many popular neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, especially Cité Soleil. At several polling places in Cap-Haitïen, large numbers of voters have come out, despite the rains.</span><br />
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<b>UPDATE 11:52 AM:</b> Jake Johnston interviewed Haitian police officers in Camp-Perrin (Sud), confirming that 5 people had been arrested yesterday in possession of an estimated 300-500 CIN cards, identification cards which are necessary to vote. The town's mayor (affiliated with PHTK) said the cards were collected for food distribution. Fraudulent votes cast with false CIN cards or cards not belonging to the holder were a major problem during the October 25 election, the independent verification commission found.<br />
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Several officers were frustrated that they couldn't vote because there were not on the electoral list. This is a change from last year, when police officers were allow to vote without being on the electoral list. <br />
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<b>UPDATE 11:35 AM:</b> Two improvements noted so far by observers: better indelible ink and voting booths that provide more privacy. During the October 25 2015 election, many observers noted that the ink, which was put on the thumbnail of voters, did not work well as a safeguard against multiple voting since it was of poor quality and washed off easily. This time, voters have to dip their thumbs in ink.<br />
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The voting booths are also better than those used in 2015, as they allow for greater secrecy of the vote.<br />
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Image: Philippe de Bard<br />
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<b>UPDATE 11:04 AM: </b>The Port-au-Prince prosecutor reports that police have made 3 arrests in Bel-Air and 7 arrests in Pétionville, in the latter case because individuals were throwing rocks at voting centers.<br />
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<b>UPDATE 10:47 AM:</b> <i>Le National</i>'s Walter Cameau reports that a Senate candidate, Randevou's Dormeville Gerard, was arrested in Gonaives (Artibonite) after trying to disrupt a voting center.<br />
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<b>UPDATE 10:08 AM:</b> In Port Salut (Sud Department), Jake Johnson reports that turnout is low, which a polling station supervisor said was because voters in the hurricane-hit area were discouraged. Some of those who wanted to vote couldn't find their names on the electoral list. When a group of voters texted the CEP to find where they are registered to vote, they were told to go to Ile-à-Vache. There were very few mandataires and several polling stations had to open without the minimum three mandataires required by law.<br />
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<b><span lang="EN-GB">UPDATE 9:30 AM:</span></b> The first few hours of voting have been calm across the country with the voter turnout still being quite low. <span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;">There is been an increase in female party representatives (mandataires) assuring the smooth running of the elections. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;">Jocelerme Privert, Haiti's Provisional President, has cast his vote in Trou de Nippes. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8b2wsn7_J6LMtr3gHs-P4rl0YMHX7ahumpWJ1umounfwFQl23zwCxKLC1I1k21uHYcOZXpaFx5iqw1f0gqdIGgUr1QlQcshaiZKoAP-CKbUWWRt0FFcuKlWb7bLJR0VNCQhgKBHCPq0E/s1600/CxtmSFgUUAAMxDd.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8b2wsn7_J6LMtr3gHs-P4rl0YMHX7ahumpWJ1umounfwFQl23zwCxKLC1I1k21uHYcOZXpaFx5iqw1f0gqdIGgUr1QlQcshaiZKoAP-CKbUWWRt0FFcuKlWb7bLJR0VNCQhgKBHCPq0E/s320/CxtmSFgUUAAMxDd.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Fe7ul3Lt Z5IeoGpY _2DggF3sL" style="border: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline; font-family: , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0.1rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; word-wrap: break-word;">UPDATE 8<span style="font-family: , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif;">:</span>40 AM:</span></span></b><span class="Fe7ul3Lt Z5IeoGpY _2DggF3sL" style="border: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline; font-family: , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0.1rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif;"> </span>Despite
initial delays and some irregularities noted in Pétionville, the
election day is calm. Although the overall participation is still low, an
increase in women's voting partic<span style="font-family: , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif;">i</span>ption has been noted, in comparison
with last year. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;">Haitian
National Police urges voters not to spread unverified rumours and the
Ministry of Communication opened special phone lines to report any
incidents that might affect the smooth running of the election day.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><b>UPDATE 7:50 AM:</b></span> Michel
Martelly, Haiti's former president, has arrived in Lycée National
voting centre in Pétion ville to cast his vote, amid some tension among
the voters. The former president made no official statement yet. </div>
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With almost an hour of delay, the voting has finally started in Canapé Vert. Otherwise, there is calm in the streets.</div>
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Image credit @<span class="Fe7ul3Lt Z5IeoGpY _2DggF3sL" style="border: 0px; color: #657786; direction: ltr; display: inline; font-family: , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0.1rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; word-wrap: break-word;">gaetantguevara</span></div>
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<b>UPDATE 7:00 AM:</b> With
some delay, voting finaly started at 6.30 am in Lycée Jean Jacques
Dessalines, in Port au Prince. There are hardly any mandataires (party
representatives) but the voting is calm.</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><b>UPDATE 6:39 AM:</b></span> Despite
the official opening time set for 6 am, many voting centres are not
ready yet, including one of the biggest centres in Port au Prince,
Canapé Vert and Croix des Bouquets. <span lang="EN-GB"><b> </b></span><br />
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kasiamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07031676104951673014noreply@blogger.com195tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-21650934755731446542016-11-20T00:12:00.000-05:002016-11-20T00:12:08.611-05:00Haiti Election Primer, Part 5: The International Community<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<i>Read "Part 1: Timeline of Key Events," <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/11/haiti-election-primer-part-1-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </i><br />
<i>Read "Part 2: Presidential Candidates and Their Parties," <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/11/haiti-elections-primer-part-2.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </i><br />
<i>Read "Part 3: The Parliament," <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/11/haiti-election-primer-part-3-parliament.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </i></div>
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<i>Read "Part 4: Hurricane Matthew," <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/11/haiti-election-primer-part-4-hurricane.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></div>
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Ever since the first democratic elections in 1990, the influence of foreign actors over Haiti’s political process has only increased. Foreign donors have financed Haitian elections, UN troops have transported ballots and guarded polling stations, international observers have granted (or withheld) legitimacy to electoral outcomes, and foreign embassies have intervened when post-electoral crises erupt. Due to this preponderant role played in elections, the so-called “international community” – the polite term for the dominant powers, organized now as the Core Group – has often had the last word in Haitian politics.</div>
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<br />This state of affairs has engendered even greater distrust in the political process. Sensing that it was not voters but foreign diplomats who decided who could be president, Haitians’ participation in elections has plummeted, from greater than 50 percent participation a decade ago to only about 25 percent last year. But with the developments over the past year and a half, that cycle looked to be breaking down. <br /><br />The decision of the Haitian authorities, with the support of civil society, to rerun the election was a huge blow to the US and its allies in the international community. The Core Group (which brings together the Ambassadors of the U.S., Canada, France, Brazil, Spain, the European Union, and the Special Representatives of the Organization of American States and the Secretary-General of the United Nations) had vigorously opposed calls for a verification commission and the formation of a transitional government after the October 25 2015 elections. Many advocated for a continuation of last year’s vote, despite the protests of political actors and civil society, and the boycott of second-place finisher Jude Celestin. As Haiti expert Robert Maguire <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dont-blame-haitians-for-election-troubles/2015/12/15/0a984b3c-a288-11e5-8318-bd8caed8c588_story.html">noted</a> at the time, “the objective seems simply to be able to check an ‘elections done’ box.”</div>
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<br />The U.S. and the Core Group was also worried that new elections might give the Lavalas-aligned candidates (Maryse Narcisse and Moïse Jean-Charles) a better chance at the presidency. “They're not thrilled with Aristide's forces coming back,” a U.S. congressional source <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-haiti-election-aristide-idUSKCN0V42TV">told</a> Reuters regarding the Obama administration’s reaction to the anti-fraud protests. Another concern for the Obama administration <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/05/haiti-elections-hillary-clinton-fraud-corruption-earthquake-martelly/">was</a> keeping Haiti – where Hillary Clinton had developed a negative reputation – out of the headlines during the U.S. presidential campaign. <br /><br />An organized and mobilized civil society rejected the dictates of the foreign actors and the interim government that took over when former president Martelly’s term expired responded to these demands. Confronted by this stunning development, European Union observers <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/09/see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-new-report.html">pulled out</a> of the country after the decision to rerun the presidential election. The US withdrew $2 million in funding that remained in a UN-managed election basket fund and, with Canada, pledged not to provide additional money for this year’s election. Foreign aid was reduced over the last year, with many embassies refusing to attend meetings with the provisional president, or even go to the National Palace over the last 9 months.</div>
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A notable exception was the OAS. While echoing some of the EU’s criticisms, the OAS observers did not actively oppose the decision to rerun the election and pledged to continue accompanying the process. Still, after the OAS’ widely criticized intervention in the 2010 election and their early and steadfast support for last year’s results, the OAS has been discredited in many Haitians’ eyes.</div>
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The Haitian government’s pledge to fund the elections itself was another significant step towards greater sovereignty and independence. While previously legitimacy was bestowed from abroad, now it is clear that it must be Haitians that provide the ultimate barometer of the election’s success.<br />
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But some of these advances have been slowed or thwarted by the passing of Hurricane Matthew. With a dire humanitarian situation, it was necessary for the provisional government to obtain funds and support from international actors. With the damage to electoral infrastructure and the newly created logistics problems, further support for the electoral process was also necessary.</div>
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This is has put the international community in a better position to influence and wield power over the Haitian government and the electoral process. Interestingly, after criticizing the postponements and investigations over the last year, it was international actors that pressured for a longer delay after the early-October hurricane, though there was an insistence on moving forward with elections no later than November.</div>
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<br />Since the hurricane, the US has announced they will in fact provide funding for UNOPS to handle electoral logistics and statements from the UN and others have been largely supportive of the interim government’s efforts to hold the elections, even praising improvements in the electoral process. <br /><br />In addition to regaining their diminished influence, foreign donors have other interests ahead of Sunday’s vote. With relief efforts following Hurricane Matthew – and millions of dollars – on the line, there is a lot more at stake in these upcoming elections, for all interested parties.</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-45854137942379378412016-11-19T23:24:00.002-05:002016-11-19T23:24:25.765-05:00Haiti Election Primer, Part 4: Hurricane Matthew <i>Cross-posted from CEPR's <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-election-primer-part-4-hurricane-matthew" target="_blank">Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch </a>blog.<br /><br />Read "Part 1: Timeline of Key Events," <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/11/haiti-election-primer-part-1-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </i><br />
<i>Read "Part 2: Presidential Candidates and Their Parties," <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/11/haiti-elections-primer-part-2.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </i><br />
<i>Read "Part 3: The Parliament," <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/11/haiti-election-primer-part-3-parliament.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </i><br /><br />The devastating passage of hurricane Matthew has changed the dynamics of the upcoming election in Haiti. Following last year’s fraudulent elections, the new electoral council has been making changes in order to produce a more legitimate outcome this year, but the hurricane has raised new concerns. <br /><br />A significant number of voting centers in the affected area have been destroyed or damaged. Many are also being used as temporary shelters. Efforts have been ongoing to repair or set up tents to replace voting centers, and the electoral council has stated that 80 percent of damaged voting centers have been repaired, and that all are able to be reached. However, the true test will come Sunday. <br /><br />Additionally, many communities remain almost completely out of contact and unable to be reached. Electoral materials have been distributed throughout the country, but there is a high probability of delays on Sunday morning in some hard-to-reach areas. Damage to infrastructure, and ongoing flooding in parts of the country could also dissuade voters from going to the polls. Turnout ― which has already reached abysmal levels in recent elections ― will be a key indicator.<br />
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Many voters also lost their identity cards in the storm. Though it is unclear how many Haitians were impacted, and the government has pledged to provide new cards to those in need, the full scale of the problem is still unknown. The government agency responsible for providing the ID cards said last week that only 2,000 new cards have been requested, indicating that many may simply be dealing with basic necessities like having a roof over one’s head or securing food, rather than voting. This has created uncertainty around the ability of Haitians in the southern peninsula to exercise their democratic rights. <br /><br />Beyond the technical problems that have been created by the hurricane, there are severe humanitarian issues. Hundreds of thousands across the southern peninsula have been left with no homes, no crops and no safe water. Relief efforts are ongoing, but have been inadequate to address the many needs. Is it simply too soon to ask the Haitian people most impacted by this storm to think about an election? <br /><br />Between 10 and 15 percent of registered voters reside in the storm-ravaged southern peninsula, and many more in the northern departments that have more recently been affected by heavy rains and flooding. It is clear the election in these areas will be significantly impacted, and many will be disenfranchised. It’s also possible that with lower turnout in more rural provinces, it will be, more than ever, Port-au-Prince determining who the next president will be.<br /><br />
This is likely to reinforce centralization in the “republic of Port-au-Prince”, further isolating rural provinces and towns that have long felt disconnected from the political and economic elite in the country’s capital.<br />
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<br />Though the results of last year’s election were tainted by widespread irregularities, they do provide some indication of where candidates had the strongest support. The PHTK’s Jovenel Moise was weakest in the West and South-East departments and strongest in the northern departments as well as the Grand Anse and South. Those are the areas that have been the most impacted by the hurricane and subsequent flooding, potentially decreasing the PHTK’s vote share. On the flip side, both Pitit Dessalines and Fanmi Lavalas did comparatively well in the West department, especially in Port-au-Prince. <br /><br />With the elections taking place during a time of scarcity and great need, there is also the potential for vote buying and voter coercion to take on an even larger role. In some areas, local politicians running for office may actually be in control of much needed relief supplies, making the population believe that voting for them is the best way to ensure access to goods. It has also created a larger market for more direct forms of vote buying. <br /><br />The ability of the police to ensure a calm and safe voting environment, in the context of the ongoing humanitarian crisis, is also a big question heading into this weekend. Earlier this week, the United Nations signed a security plan with the Haitian National Police. There will be around 13,000 security personnel from both institutions deployed across the country.<br />
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<br />There is, of course, a tremendous need to hold an election and move again toward an elected government, however there are also serious risks with moving ahead when the country is not prepared for an election. The 2010 election, which took place in in the midst of the aftermath of the earthquake and the cholera epidemic, provides a warning. That election was so flawed that it failed to produce a legitimate president, leading to five years of political instability and the current electoral impasse Haiti finds itself in. Elections are not a panacea, and poorly run elections can do lasting damage to a democracy. <br /><br />Though all parties appear to be supporting the current process, one concern is that the issues likely to arise due to storm damage will give political actors a pretext to contest the results, regardless of how voting goes on Sunday. As reports are gathered from across the country, the risk of violence and other voting disruptions is likely to grow throughout the day. <br /><br />Finally, though improvements have been made in terms of rural access and infrastructure since the passage of Hurricane Matthew, rains continue to fall across the country, causing new flooding and likely new problems ahead of the election. The forecast for this weekend: more rain.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-75379475779557236682016-11-18T13:12:00.000-05:002016-11-18T13:12:04.186-05:00Haiti Election Primer, Part 3: The Parliament <i> Cross-posted from CEPR's <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-election-primer-part-3-the-parliament" target="_blank">Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction</a> blog. Read "Part 1: Timeline of Key Events," <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/11/haiti-election-primer-part-1-timeline.html" target="_blank">here </a>and "Part 2: Presidential Candidates and Their Parties," <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/11/haiti-elections-primer-part-2.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</i> <br /><br />Often lost in the discussion of Haiti’s presidential race is the fact that many legislative seats are up for grabs as well, including more than half of the Senate. Currently, the parliament is pretty evenly split between political factions but with such a high number of seats left to be decided the balance of power could shift dramatically this weekend. Control of the legislative body is especially important in Haiti’s political system, where it is parliament that approves the new prime minister and government program. <br /><br />The presidential election was scheduled to coincide with the expiration of one-third of the Senate. Ten Senators had been elected to six-year terms in 2010, so ten first-round races for senate seats will be conducted on November 20. Six second-round Senate races and two dozen second-round races for Deputy will be held as well. The second-round races are the continuation of last year’s fraud- and violence-plagued elections.<br />
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<br />For the ten first-round senate elections (one in each department), 149 candidates have registered, coming from 43 different political parties. Interestingly, it is Fanmi Lavalas and Pitit Dessalines who have registered the most candidates of the four major presidential parties with 10 and 9 respectively. With candidates competing in all ten departments, it could bolster rural votes at the presidential level. PHTK and LAPEH, on the other hand, have registered 7 and 6 candidates respectively. <br /><br />For the second-round senate races still to be competed, parties allied with PHTK make up the majority of candidates. Due to high levels of fraud and violence in the August 9, 2015 legislative election, first-round reruns were conducted for these races in 3 departments (Center, Grand Anse and Nord) last October. Nine of the 12 Senatorial candidates participating in this Sunday’s second round are from PHTK, Bouclier and Consortium (all allies) while no other party has more than one candidate. With two senators being elected from each of these races, PHTK and its allies are guaranteed at least one additional seat in each department.<br />
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<br />At the deputy level, there are 25 second-round races that will be completed on Sunday. Again, it is PHTK and allied parties that make up the largest number of candidates, accounting for 40 percent overall, putting them in a good position to pick up seats in the lower chamber. The number of races, broken down by department is as follows: West (6), North (6), Artibonite (4), Center (2), Grand’Anse (2), South-East (2), South (2) and North-West (1). <br /><br />A positive showing for PHTK and its associates could cement their control of parliament. The leadership of the Chamber of Deputies is already allied with PHTK, as is a substantial minority bloc in the Senate. In September, 48 of the 93 deputies signed a letter endorsing PHTK’s Jovenel Moise for president and offered about $30,000 in campaign funding. Senator Youri Latortue (who a former US ambassador described as the “poster boy” for corruption in Haiti) has been campaigning in the Artibonite with Moise.<br />
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<br />In the event of a Jovenel Moïse victory, the incoming president would enjoy a blank check from a PHTK-dominated parliament; otherwise, PHTK’s strong position could be a source of gridlock between the parliamentary and the executive branches of government. One caveat is that political allegiances in Haiti are notoriously fickle. While candidates may run under one political banner, once elected, it is entirely possible for them to stake out a very different position. Already in the campaign, parliamentary candidates have endorsed presidential candidates from outside their own party. A new law on the formation of political parties, passed during the Martelly administration, allowed new parties to form with as few as 20 signatures, leading to many new, small parties registering. <br /><br />No matter the outcome of November 20, the legacy of last year’s elections will be cemented with the new parliament. Serious questions have been raised about the legitimacy of current members of parliament, some of whom were elected only through controversial electoral court decisions or in the fraud and violence-plagued 2015 votes. The commission investigating electoral fraud recommended reviewing many of these decisions, but the CEP has made little headway since then. The commission allowed the parliamentary results of the October 25, 2015 vote to stand, even though it called for the presidential results to be discarded due to the level of fraud and irregularities. Parliament has been barely functional since new members took their seats last January.<br />
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<br />The parliamentary elections could also lead to the swearing in of numerous candidates that have been accused of criminal wrongdoing. Before last year’s legislative race, rules were relaxed that allowed candidates to register without proving a clean criminal record. The most notable registrant was Guy Philippe, a former police and paramilitary commander who has been accused of gross human rights violations and who is a DEA most-wanted fugitive. He was an active participant in the 2004 coup against Aristide. Philippe is running for a senate seat in the Grand‘Anse department, where hurricane Matthew’s impact was greatest. Philippe has appeared on the campaign trail with PHTK’s Jovenel Moise and his political movement Consortium entered into a formal alliance with PHTK earlier this year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-56165862071617260512016-11-17T11:43:00.000-05:002016-11-17T11:43:17.267-05:00Haiti Elections Primer, Part 2: Presidential Candidates and Their Parties <i>Cross-posted from CEPR's <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-elections-primer-part-2-presidential-candidates-and-their-parties" target="_blank">Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction</a> blog. Read "Part 1: Timeline of Key Events," <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/11/haiti-election-primer-part-1-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </i><br /><br />In a crowded field of 54 presidential candidates, the top two finishers in last year’s elections were Jovenel Moïse (PHTK) and Jude Celestin (LAPEH). Third and fourth were Moïse Jean-Charles (Platfom Pitit Dessalines) and Maryse Narcisse (Fanmi Lavalas). Although the earlier vote was plagued by fraud and irregularities and the results were eventually discarded, the top four finishers on October 25, 2015 are expected to lead the pack of 27 candidates participating on Sunday, November 20. Here is a closer look at the principal candidates heading into this weekend’s election: <br /><br /><b>Jovenel Moïse</b> is PHTK’s candidate. Prior to the 2015 elections when former President Martelly selected Moïse as his successor, the lanky agricultural businessman from the North was a political unknown. Moïse’s company Agritrans runs a banana plantation primarily for export in Trou-du-Nord and was set up with government financing under Martelly’s administration. During the campaign, Moïse has branded himself as “The Banana Man” (Nèg Bannann Nan). He promises to revitalize Haiti’s neglected agriculture and to remobilize Haiti’s military, which was disbanded in 1995.<br />
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While in office, Martelly campaigned aggressively for Moïse and was accused of using state resources to promote his party’s candidate. For this reason, Moïse was perceived by many as a weak Martelly surrogate. One irony of the long delay since last year’s vote is that PHTK’s Moïse may actually be in a better position now. Time has allowed him to step out from under Martelly’s shadow, posing as an opponent to the provisional government rather than the ruling party’s candidate. PHTK and its political allies in the parliament have accused the interim government and the CEP of being biased in favor of “Lavalas” and claimed that the elections may be rigged against them. They have also consistently questioned the legitimacy of the provisional president, even at one point calling on police officers to disobey orders. <br /><br />After the Hurricane, PHTK leaders threatened the provisional government with street protests and legislative action if elections were not held within weeks of the storm and have been publicizing polling (notoriously suspect in Haiti) that shows Jovenel Moïse with the highest level of support among presidential candidates. <br /><br />Haiti’s interminable election cycle has depleted the finances of many parties, but although PHTK is facing similar problems, they are likely the party with the deepest pockets. With greater access to resources, the party was able to continue to campaign - including in the hurricane-hit south where Moïse distributed aid to victims. Well-financed and with a cadre of international election advisors, PHTK has many factors working in their favor. <br /><br />In their quest for the presidency, PHTK has allied with local politicians that, in some cases, have been tied to corruption, drug trafficking and other wrongdoing. Though the campaign has distanced itself from Martelly, there is lingering dissatisfaction with the previous government, bolstered by recent allegations of corruption, which could weigh on voter’s minds Sunday. <br /><br /><b>Jude Celestin</b>, the second-place finisher in last year’s election and the leading figure in the boycott movement, is the candidate of Ligue alternative pour le progrès et l'émancipation haïtienne (LAPEH). In the 2010 election, Celestin competed under the banner of INITE, the party of then-president René Préval. Those elections were also plagued by widespread fraud, violence and irregularities, many stemming from the fact that elections were held in the same year as the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands and left more than a million displaced. An Organization of American States (OAS) commission recommended changing the results, removing Celestin from the race and replacing him with Michel Martelly, without providing evidence that Martelly had actually received more votes than Celestin. The US then issued diplomatic threats, including a possible cut off of desperately needed post-earthquake aid, in order force the Haitian government to accept the changes.<br />
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<br />Many expected Celestin to eventually call off the boycott and participate in last year’s second-round election, but his position was unwavering and led to the cancellation of the election. His supporters consider him a savior for preventing the fraudulent elections from standing; adversaries see him as the primary cause of the political instability of the last year. After 2010 and his role in cancelling last year’s election, Celestin hasn’t made many friends in the international community, though many close to him have worked over the last year to reestablish a relationship. <br /><br />Celestin has championed his boycott’s role in getting the rerun, and has pointed to his experience at CNE, the national construction company, to present himself as a builder who knows how to get things done. After the Hurricane, Celestin offered to rebuild a key bridge and construction equipment was seen plastered with his campaign image. <br /><br />With the provisional president Privert coming from an allied political party, Celestin is perceived to have benefitted from the change in leadership. But it is important to note that the interim government consists of politicians from many different movements and it would be a mistake to think all, or even most, are willing or able to help his campaign. <br /><br />Still Celestin, similar to PHTK, has received significant private sector backing and can likely count on support from those sectors that have historically been allied with President Préval, giving him a political machine that should be able to generate votes on election day. Still, it is interesting to note that of the three former presidents currently active in politics, Préval is the only one to not openly endorse a candidate. University professor Jacky Lumarque was Préval’s chosen candidate, but was excluded from participating by the previous electoral council under Martelly. <br /><br /><b>Moïse Jean-Charles</b>, a former Senator from the North department, finished third in last year’s election and is once again expected to be a top vote getter. Jean-Charles was the leading opposition voice against the former Martelly government and led street protests against his rule. Jean-Charles joined Celestin in rejecting last year’s election results and initially supported the interim government and the decision to rerun the elections from scratch.<br />
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<br />More recently, however, Pitit Dessalines has struck a similar tone as the other leading candidates in calling for elections to be held as soon as possible after hurricane Matthew. The party has also expressed discontent with the electoral apparatus and interim government and called for greater transparency, especially in the vote counting process. <br /><br />Campaigning against the traditional ruling elite and transnational control of Haiti, Jean-Charles is perhaps the candidate most feared by many in the international community and business sector. Partially as a result, his campaign has suffered from a lack of funds and Jean-Charles has been far less visible this year than he was last year. Without a foil in office such as president Martelly, Jean-Charles could have a harder time motivating his supporters this time around, especially with the lack of funding. <br /><br />The party can draw from its bases in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien, the country’s two largest cities, but it is unclear if it has been able to extend its reach throughout all departments. <br /><br />Pitit Dessalines and Moïse Jean-Charles have likely been the movement most impacted by the reemergence of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide during this year’s campaign. Jean-Charles was a popular youth leader in Aristide’s Lavalas movement before splitting with the party in recent years. <br /><br /><b>Dr. Maryse Narcisse</b> of the Fanmi Lavalas party, the political movement started by Aristide, came in fourth last year but has put far more resources in to the race this year. Aristide, twice deposed in US-backed coups, was largely confined to his residence after returning from exile in 2011 due to political threats and a questionable house arrest order, but with Martelly out of the picture, he has since returned to the campaign trail, leading caravans across the country with Narcisse. Aristide appeared just once with Narcisse during the 2015 campaign.<br />
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<br />The Lavalas party has been prevented from participating in politics in the past, and this is the first political campaign where Aristide has been in country and able to campaign since his 2004 ouster. Still, the party faces significant constraints. While Aristide is still able to generate support, he is also a highly polarizing figure with many among the upper and middle classes associating the former leader with violence, corruption and political turmoil. Among the left in Haiti, there is concern that the emergence of Aristide will pull votes away from Jean-Charles and allow for the passage of the two elite-backed candidates, Celestin and Jovenel Moïse to move on to a second round. Never the less, an alliance between Narcisse and Jean-Charles has never been seriously pursued. <br /><br />The head of the electoral authority, Leopold Berlanger, was a leader of the opposition to Aristide that resulted in the 2004 coup, raising concerns about the impartiality of the electoral apparatus. The presence of industrialist Andy Apaid as an advisor to Berlanger working at the vote tabulation center – though since removed from his position – has added to the lack of trust. <br /><br />Lavalas has come under criticism recently after Aristide was recorded at a campaign event last week calling for electoral protests if there is not a new president by February 7th. Some have interpreted the remarks as a threat of violence and Aristide was called in for questioning by the electoral council last week. Lavalas leaders have characterized the event as just a misinterpretation. Many other parties and candidates have made incendiary remarks over the last year and a half, without ever facing potential ramifications or questioning from the electoral authority.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-17482126166367011662016-11-16T12:42:00.001-05:002016-11-16T12:42:08.365-05:00Haiti Election Primer, Part 1: Timeline of Key Events<i>Cross-posted from CEPR's <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-election-primer-part-1-timeline-of-key-events" target="_blank">Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch</a> blog </i><br />
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Less than a week from now, on November 20, Haiti heads to the polls to choose a new president as well as dozens of legislative seats. The electoral process started in 2015 but has been repeatedly delayed and postponed due to post-election protests, candidates’ boycotts, and more recently Hurricane Matthew. The results of last October’s first-round presidential election were thrown out on the recommendation of an independent investigative commission that identified significant levels of fraud and other irregularities. Below is a timeline that traces the major events of Haiti’s extended electoral saga: <br /><br /><b>December 2014 - January 2015</b>: Protests force Prime Minister<a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/presidential-commission-recommends-removing-prime-minister-as-pressure-mounts-to-resolve-electoral-crisis"> Laurent Lamothe to step down</a> as the terms of many parliamentarians expire. President Michel Martelly’s government had not held elections for its first four years in office, allowing the president to begin ruling by decree. A new Prime Minister and <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/a-look-at-the-new-provisional-electoral-council">CEP are appointed</a>, tasked with organizing the legislative and presidential votes.<b> </b><br />
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<b>August 9, 2015</b>: First-round legislative elections are so <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/fraud-violence-and-protests-cloud-results-of-haitian-election">marred by violence and fraud</a> that many races cannot be completed and must be re-run again in about a quarter of constituencies.<b> </b><br />
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<b>October 25, 2015</b>: The first-round presidential election is held, alongside legislative reruns as well as legislative second-round elections in some localities. The <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-announces-preliminary-election-results-but-race-far-from-settled">elections are rejected</a> by a growing opposition movement that alleges <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/presidential-elections-in-haiti-the-most-votes-money-can-buy">widespread fraud</a> on behalf of the ruling party and its candidate, Jovenel Moise of the Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale (PHTK), who came in first according to the official results. <br />
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<br /><b>December 17, 2015</b>: Facing increasing criticism ahead of the planned December 27 runoff, president <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/martelly-forms-commission-to-evaluate-haiti-elections-but-can-it-break-impasse">Martelly announces a commission</a> to investigate the elections. Given just a few days to perform its work, the commission finds significant problems and makes a number of recommendations for moving the electoral process forward.<br />
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<b>December 21, 2015</b>: The scheduled runoff election is postponed. Before the<a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/evaluation-commission-s-ambiguous-report-may-only-deepen-haiti-s-electoral-crisis"> commission’s recommendations can be adopted</a>, a new runoff is scheduled for January 24. <br /><br /><b>January 11, 2016</b>: Despite growing concerns about fraud-tainted electoral results, a partial legislature is seated, consisting of 92 newly-elected deputies and 24 senators. Races for 6 senators and 26 deputies remain incomplete. <br /><br /><b>January 22, 2016</b>: The second-round presidential and legislative elections <a href="https://medium.com/@JakobJohnston/with-haiti-elections-cancelled-negotiations-begin-for-what-comes-next-a8f0f63a923a?source=user_profile---------2-">are indefinitely called off</a>. Second-place finisher Jude Celestin (LAPEH) had pledged to boycott the second-round and was joined by seven other opposition presidential candidates. This stance was supported by the vast majority of civil society organizations, including human rights groups, church leaders and eventually even the private sector business associations.<br />
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<b>February 5, 2016</b>: With Martelly’s term expiring on February 7 and no elected successor to take his place, <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/accord-or-discord-political-agreement-eases-tensions-but-crisis-persists">an agreement is reached</a> to form a transitional government. Senator Jocelerme Privert is soon after selected as interim president and given a mandate of 120 days. The deal dissipated tensions that had been rising due to concerns that Martelly would try to hold on to power. Armed paramilitaries had appeared in Port-au-Prince and clashed with Martelly opponents.<br />
<br /><b>April 30, 2016</b>: President Privert <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-president-calls-for-electoral-verification-mission-opposed-by-international-donors">establishes an independent investigation commission</a> to examine fraud claims and restore confidence in the electoral process before continuing with the vote. This decision is opposed by PHTK and its political allies – who are well represented in the recently-seated parliament – as well as many actors in the international community, including the European Union (EU) and the United States. <br /><br /><b>June 6, 2016</b>: The independent commission recommends rerunning the first round presidential vote and a new electoral council announces new first-round elections scheduled for October 9, 2016. The EU observation team pulls out of the country and the <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/us-withdraws-funding-for-haiti-elections">US pulls funding </a>from the election after the decision.<br />
<br /><b>June 14, 2016</b>: The interim president’s mandate expires, but parliament is unable to reach a quorum to either replace the leader or extend his term due to obstruction by the <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/martelly-bloc-formalizes-alliance-with-dea-fugitive-guy-philippe">pro-PHTK bloc</a>. Privert’s opponents refuse to recognize him as a legitimate leader and question each decision made by the interim authorities, accusing them of simply wanting to perpetuate themselves in power.<br />
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<br /><b>Oct 4-5, 2016</b>: Hurricane Matthew, a category 4 storm, ravages the country – specifically the southern peninsula – just days before the new elections were set to take place. The election <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/elections-on-hold-in-haiti-after-hurricane-matthew">was once again postponed</a>. One week before the scheduled October 9 vote, prospects for the vote were hopeful. Preparations were in place, electoral materials had arrived in country and were being prepared for distribution, new safeguards against fraud and abuse had been implemented and candidates had taken to the campaign trail. <br /><br /><b>Oct 14, 2016</b>: Facing<a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/elections-on-hold-in-haiti-after-hurricane-matthew"> immense pressure</a> from political actors to hold the election as soon as possible, the CEP issues a new electoral schedule calling for elections November 20. Electoral infrastructure, especially in the southern peninsula, is severely damaged with many voting centers being used as temporary shelters. The new date means that there will not be an elected president in office by February 7, as initially expected. <br />
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<br />However with a dire humanitarian situation still raging in the southern peninsula, electoral infrastructure severely damaged and ongoing flooding in various parts of the country, skepticism remains high as to if a legitimate and free election is possible this weekend, or if it will be another blow to Haiti’s fragile democracy. <br /><br /><i>Up next, Haiti Election Primer, Part 2: The Parties, Parliament and the International Community</i>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-8926466219524863132016-11-07T12:49:00.000-05:002016-11-07T12:49:14.126-05:00Haiti Elections News Roundup - November 7<div style="text-align: justify;">
Campaigning for Haiti’s rescheduled elections set for November 20 officially reopened Thursday last week. But there are growing doubts about whether the elections will happen on the announced date. The southern region remains in the throes of a humanitarian crisis after the country was hit hard by Hurricane Matthew and Jocelerme Privert’s interim administration is struggling to complete repairs to roads and voting centers on time. The Privert government has come under fire politically post-Matthew, assailed for its handling of the relief effort, the presence of Dominican troops and the timing of the elections. Political parties, candidates and local officials, meanwhile, have all been accused of distributing aid in a partisan manner. </div>
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<br />Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) President Léopold Berlanger <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164866/La-realisation-des-elections-le-20-novembre-hypothequee">wrote</a> to President Privert on October 27 saying that elections were possible on November 20 only if, in the next ten days, the government repaired damages at 280 voting centers, made passable roads leading to another 161 voting centers and distributed new <i>Cartes d’identification nationale</i> (CIN) to voters who lost them during the hurricane. Berlanger also asked the Privert government to work with local authorities to vacate approximately 40 public establishments currently used as shelters for the displaced. CEP member Jean Simon Saint-Hubert admitted to having some doubts about elections occurring as scheduled, but stated that missing the November 20 date would place the country in “an extremely difficult situation.” <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />CEP Executive Director Uder Antoine later <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article112168647.html">downplayed</a> the scale of the damage to Haiti’s election infrastructure and expressed confidence that elections would occur on November 20, a date he called “non-negotiable.” “What we are talking about are minor renovations. We are not asking for the schools to be put back to how they were but for a minimum to be put in place to facilitate the electoral process,” Antoine told the <i>Miami Herald</i> on November 2. “A lot of progress has been made.” The CEP executive director said that 45 voting centers were completely destroyed and 43 were being used as shelters. Another 53 voting centers remain inaccessible, down from 175 immediately after the storm, according to Antoine. CEP officials had previously <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164623/86-des-centres-de-vote-detruits-dans-la-GrandAnse-71-dans-le-Sud-apres-Matthew">reported</a> on October 21 that an estimated 300 of the 998 public buildings intended to serve as voting centers had been damaged or completely destroyed. <br /><br />In response to the CEP’s difficult situation, the U.S. Embassy <a href="https://haiti.usembassy.gov/pr-10312016.html">announced</a> on October 31 that it would provide financial support to the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to rehabilitate voting centers and roads in the affected regions of southwestern Haiti. A UNOPS analysis of the damage to Haiti’s electoral infrastructure found that at least 214 of 1,534 voting centers had been damaged, with the worst damage concentrated in the departments of south. The report found that 86% of voting centers in the Grand’Anse, 71% in the Sud and 55% in Nippes were unusable, as of October 14. The U.S. move partly reversed its July <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/07/unhappy-with-verification-us-cuts.html">decision</a> to cut funding to Haiti’s elections in protest over the rerunning of the October 25 presidential vote.</div>
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The CEP had announced on October 14 that presidential and second-round legislative elections would be held on November 20, and a second-round presidential election, if necessary, on January 29 2017. The November date appears to be a compromise: political parties <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/elections-on-hold-in-haiti-after-hurricane-matthew">wanted</a> elections as early as October 30 while the Core Group powers <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article108252197.html">wanted</a> a date in late November or early December. The CEP also <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164434/7-novembre-reprise-de-la-campagne-electorale">announced</a> that the electoral campaign would be reopened from November 7 to November 18. On October 31, the CEP <a href="https://www.cephaiti.ht/Information-electorale/211-COMMUNIQUE-DE-PRESSE-15.html">moved</a> up the restart of campaigning to November 3. </div>
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<br />The international community had reacted positively the CEP’s new schedule. On October 15, the Core Group <a href="https://minustah.unmissions.org/le-%E2%80%9Ccore-group%E2%80%9D-encourage-tous-les-acteurs-%C3%A0-mettre-en-%C5%93uvre-le-nouveau-calendrier-%C3%A9lectoral-annonc%C3%A9">released</a> a statement that welcomed “the resolve demonstrated by the Haitian political actors to conclude the electoral cycle” and encouraged “all actors to implement the new calendar, thereby enabling the return to full Constitutional order.” UN independent human right expert Gustavo Gallon <a href="https://minustah.unmissions.org/conf%C3%A9rence-de-presse-mr-gustavo-gall%C3%B3n-expert-ind%C3%A9pendant-du-conseil-des-droits-de-l%E2%80%99homme-des">said</a> on October 25 that elections would be an “enormous challenge” but that he hoped they would be held on November 20 “with no surprises.” During his week-long visit to Haiti, Gallon remarked upon the prestige enjoyed by the new CEP and the existence of “a calmer political climate than last year.” He warned that Haitians in the hurricane-affected areas could have difficulties voting due to the loss of identification cards or limited access to polling places. Gallon also pointed to the failure of the Martelly government to hold elections from 2011 to 2015 as a factor complicating the political situation. </div>
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The <i>Réseau National pour la Défense des Droits Humains</i> (RNDDH) <a href="http://rnddh.org/en/the-passing-of-hurrican-matthew-in-haiti-rnddh-demands-respect-for-humany-dignity-by-the-haitian-government-political-parties-and-humanitarian-agencies/">criticized</a> the politicization of humanitarian aid post-Matthew in a report released on October 21. Parties and candidates frequently gave out aid in a partisan and disorderly manner, according to the report. PHTK, LAPEH and Fanmi Lavalas were identified as the most visible political parties on the ground engaging in this practice, which RNDDH called on the CEP to formally prohibit. Interim President Privert’s office <a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20768#.WBjhMcmo0WR">issued</a> a <a href="https://twitter.com/PresidenceHT/status/788456109694652416?lang=en">statement</a> on October 17 reporting that it had received “persistent and preoccupying information” that humanitarian aid was being distributed on “a political or partisan basis.” The statement <a href="http://www.lenational.org/distribution-deux-poids-deux-mesures/">reminded</a> public officials, especially local elected officials and directors of the civil protection agency, of their duty to serve those affected in a fair manner and “strongly condemned” the misappropriation of aid. The Ministry of Interior had been ordered to open investigations into such cases, the President’s statement said.</div>
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International NGOs distributing humanitarian aid were also guilty of favouring their staff members’ family and friends of over the rest of the population, according to RNDDH. Senate candidate and former paramilitary leader Guy Philippe <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/20/world/americas/haiti-guy-philippe-hurricane-matthew.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news">took charge</a> of distributing an aid container in Pestel, which he received through “a connection” with the U.S.-based NGO Food for the Poor. Philippe also received aid from Jovenel Moise’s campaign, according to the <i>Miami Herald</i>’s Jacqueline Charles. The mayor of Pestel <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164731/Un-depot-daide-abandonne-aux-parlementaires-et-officiels-a-la-Sonapi">denounced</a> the use of aid for political ends, complaining that while candidates had access to humanitarian supplies municipalities were struggling to find resources to respond to the catastrophe.</div>
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On October 25, <i>Le Nouvelliste</i> reported that deputies, senators and other government officials had taken over of one of the government’s two aid depots, withdrawing supplies without any supervision or control from either the Civil Protection Agency or the Ministry of Interior. “This is very frustrating for us, because parallel to what we are doing to help the victims, we know part of the aid is being misappropriated by parliamentarians,” a high official from the Civil Protection Agency <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164731/Un-depot-daide-abandonne-aux-parlementaires-et-officiels-a-la-Sonapi">told</a> <i>Le Nouvelliste</i>. In the Senate, the pro-Martelly minority bloc, led by Youri Latortue, unsucessfully <a href="http://www.lenational.org/sort-ministre-de-linterieur-nest-fixe/">attempted</a> to impeach Interior Minister Anick Joseph François over his mishandling of the aid effort.</div>
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Frustrations with the aid effort have led some people in affected areas to set up roadblocks or even attack and loot convoys. Last week, police and UN troops <a href="http://www.trtworld.com/americas/teenage-girl-dies-amid-aid-distribution-chaos-in-haiti-214415">opened fire</a> on a crowd during an aid distribution in Dame-Marie, killing one adolescent girl and injuring 3 other people. In Les Cayes, a similar incident <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2016/11/01/97001-20161101FILWWW00210-haiti-un-adolescent-tue-par-balles.php">caused</a> the death of another adolescent on November 1.</div>
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Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis, several parties called for the election calendar to be modified to allow for a transfer of power by February 7. Fanmi Lavalas <a href="http://haitiahp.blogspot.ca/2016/10/des-milliers-de-membres-des-bases.html">mobilized</a> thousands of its supporters in Port-au-Prince on October 24 to demand that the second round of presidential elections be held earlier than January 29. Fanmi Lavalas Senator Nenel Cassy warned that delays in the election may be a strategy to prevent the party’s candidate Maryse Narcisse from winning the presidency. Representatives of Pitit Dessalines and Vérité likewise <a href="http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article10804">called</a> for a change of election dates in order to have an elected president in place by February 7.</div>
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The involvement of Dominican troops in the post-Matthew aid effort caused an uproar in Haiti. The soldiers entered Haitian territory while protecting a 500-truck aid convoy sent by the Dominican government. On October 12, the Parliament’s Justice and Security commission <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164419/La-presence-des-soldats-dominicains-en-Haiti-provoque-des-vagues">called</a> for the departure of the Dominican soldiers within 24 hours and criticized the Privert government for initially denying their presence. The Dominican ambassador responded with a statement denouncing rumours that the soldiers’ presence constituted a disguised military invasion. “It is very regrettable that, on both sides of the island, there still exists people who continue to sell the Trojan Horse fantasy to intimidate and produce fear in their respective populations.” On October 15, the Dominican Foreign Minister <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164424/Les-militaires-dominicains-levent-le-camp">announced</a> that the military had completed its mission and withdrawn its troops.</div>
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The judges of the Cour de Cassation, Haiti’s highest judicial authority, seized on the uproar over Dominican troops to call for the replacement of provisional President Jocelerme Privert. Addressing both the Haitian people and the international community in an October 18 <a href="http://hpnhaiti.com/nouvelles/index.php/politique/36-space/1889-haiti-executif-la-cour-de-cassation-reclame-le-pouvoir" target="_blank">statement</a>, the high court denounced the Privert government as “illegitimate and illegal.” The judges' statement called the November 20 election date an “odious project” that would disenfranchise many Haitians in south and risked plunging the country into even deeper chaos. Complaining of their marginalization in the process of creating a transitional government, the judges called for the application of article 149 of the 1987 Constitution, which would place the court’s president Jules Cantave in the presidency.</div>
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The Cour de Cassation did not find much support for its position. Many parliamentarians <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164554/Des-parlementaires-se-moquent-de-la-nostalgie-de-Jules-Cantave">denounced</a> the judges’ statement, ridiculing their “nostalgia” for previous times (1990, 2004-2006) when heads of the Cour de Cassation had served as interim presidents. According to one parliamentarian, Jules Cantave is the cousin of the virulently anti-Privert Senator Carl Murat Cantave, a claim the Senator has denied. RNDDH’s executive director Pierre Espérance <a href="http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article10804">rejected</a> the motion of the judges, as did Vérité coordinator Génard Joseph. Pitit Dessalines’ Biron Odigé <a href="http://haitiahp.blogspot.ca/2016/10/des-milliers-de-membres-des-bases.html">called</a> the judges’ move a coup attempt intended to prevent the holding of elections.</div>
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U.S. Ambassador Peter Mulrean was quick to clarify that the judges did not have the support of the U.S. government. “We find there is enough instability in the country and no one needs to add to this instability,” Mulrean <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164541/Personne-na-a-rajouter-a-linstabilite-dit-lambassadeur-des-USA-des-juges-de-la-Cour-de-cassation">told</a> <i>Le Nouvelliste</i> the next day. In July 2016, the six judges had <a href="http://www.lenational.org/cour-de-cassation-prete/">travelled</a> to Washington DC to lobby American policy makers, calling for U.S. support for an attempt to make Jules Cantave provisional president. Some officials indicated at the time that they were sympathetic to the judges’ perspective. The junket was organized by the Boulos family-funded Haiti Democracy Project, which was close to the Martelly government.</div>
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On October 13, the UN Security Council <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article107984612.html">renewed</a> the peacekeeping mission MINUSTAH’s mandate for an additional six months. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had called for an extension, pointing to the unresolved electoral crisis. </div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-59711367915315769902016-10-12T13:42:00.000-04:002016-10-12T16:49:04.720-04:00Haiti Elections News Roundup - October 12<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<i>A list of organizations accepting donations for the humanitarian response to Hurricane Matthew can be found </i><i><i> <a href="http://www.ijdh.org/hurricane-matthew-relief/" target="_blank">here</a> </i>on the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) website.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Hurricane
Matthew has forced the suspension of Haiti’s elections, which were scheduled to
be held this past Sunday, October 9. The south-western end of the country was
hardest hit by the Category-4 storm, and <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">over</span> a week later many towns and villages
are still awaiting humanitarian aid. The international community has supported
the decision to put off the vote, and all political actors are now focused on
relief efforts. When the elections will resume is not clear, but given the
extensive damaged caused by Matthew the delay could be long. </span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Hurricane
Matthew struck Haiti’s southern tip on October 4 and left widespread
devastation in its wake. Its 145-mile per hour winds flattened houses, felled
trees, ruined crops and killed livestock. The powerful winds pushed ocean
waters inland and the storm poured down 15-25 inches of rain, causing extensive
flooding in the Sud, Grand’Anse, Nippes departments. Cell phone towers and
other communication infrastructure in these departments were knocked out and
several bridges connecting the south with the capital of Port-au-Prince were
washed out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Initially,
the number of deaths attributed to Hurricane Matthew was in the dozens, in
large part because contact with the affected areas was almost impossible for
days afterwards. Such low initial estimates were revised upwards as the scale
of the catastrophe became clear. As of Monday, October 10, the official death
toll <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/10/10/aid-haiti-hurricane-matthew/91855684/">stood</a>
at 372; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reuters</i>, however, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/haiti-hurricane-cholera-destruction-matthew-1.3798697">estimated</a>
the actual number of dead to be at least 1,000, based on reports collected from
local officials. In Jérémie, the capital city of the Grand’Anse, an estimated
80 percent of homes were destroyed by Hurricane Matthew. Over 175,000 people
have been displaced or rendered homeless by the storm and are living in
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The CEP announced the postponement of elections on October 5, the day
after the Category-4 storm made landfall. “We stand in solidarity with them and
we will not leave them behind in the electoral process,” CEP President Léopold
Berlanger <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article106163162.html">told</a>
journalists. “The country is obligated to make the victims a priority.” The
electoral council had been preparing to ship out sensitive election materials
to voting centers throughout the country before the hurricane spoiled its
plans. Elections will not happen for at least two weeks, according to the
council, but many <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/163961/Haiti-Matthew-Report-sans-nouvelle-date-des-elections-du-9-octobre">expect</a>
the delay to be over a month. The electoral council promised a new date for
elections within a week, once the scale of the damage has been assessed. The
CEP also announced that the electoral campaign would close as scheduled on
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Initial
<a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article106163162.html">reactions</a>
to the decision in Haiti were mixed. “Getting assistance to the population is
more important than elections right now,” said LAPEH’s Jude Célestin, who
called the delay a “wise decision.” Célestin added that he hoped a new date
would be fixed soon enough to allow a new, elected president to take office by
February 7 2017. Pitit Dessalines’ Moise Jean-Charles also called on the CEP to
set a new date for the elections immediately. PHTK spokesperson Renald Luberice
argued that the CEP should have been forced to reschedule before announcing the
postponement, and said that interim President Jocelerme Privert “never wanted
these elections. He wants to take the opportunity to postpone them
indefinitely.” Fanmi Lavalas’ lawyer Gervais Charles, meanwhile, <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164057/Fanmi-Lavalas-estime-que-le-CEP-a-peche">criticized</a>
the CEP’s decision to close the campaign while postponing the elections as “ill-considered
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
international community supported the decision to delay elections. The U.S.
State Department’s Kenneth Merten <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article106163162.html">said</a>
that the decision was Haiti’s to make, but added that he hoped the vote would
be held in the “not-too-distant future.” The OAS observation mission <a href="http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-105/16">stated</a>
that it supported the move and would re-deploy observers when Haitian
authorities decide they are ready to hold the elections.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<br />
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Aid has
been slow to arrive in many towns, and humanitarian groups are now <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/horrors-left-hurricane-matthew-clear-haiti-161008094813244.html">raising
alarms</a> about a possible spike in cholera cases in the hurricane-struck
region due to a severe lack of potable water. Another major concern is <a href="http://info.arte.tv/fr/afp/actualites/haiti-louragan-matthew-aneanti-le-grenier-port-au-prince">food
shortages</a> caused by massive loss of crops and livestock in a region
considered to be Haiti’s breadbasket. The U.S., Canada, France, Spain,
Venezuela and Cuba have pledged to send aid and humanitarian personnel while
the UN has appealed to members of the international community for $120 million
in funding for relief efforts. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Interim President Jocelerme Privert <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164129/Matthew-Privert-veut-donner-a-Haiti-le-leadership-de-la-reconstruction-contrairement-a-2010">stated</a>
that his government would take the lead in directing relief efforts, because it
did not want to see a repeat of the chaotic, foreign-directed humanitarian
response to the 2010 earthquake. Interior Minister Anick Joseph <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/horrors-left-hurricane-matthew-clear-haiti-161008094813244.html">insisted</a>
that “it’s out of the question for NGOs to take charge of humanitarian aid.”
“We are very firm on this point: this country is led by a government. Across
the country, it’s civil protection services that are coordinating everything,”
he added. “We are not going to turn this country into a messy chaos. It’s not
going to happen. We already experienced that in 2010, we learned from our
mistakes, we will act responsibly.” </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"></span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Despite
the CEP announcement, campaigning continued after the hurricane by other means as
candidates launched relief efforts in the south. PHTK’s Jovenel Moïse <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164017/Dans-le-sillage-du-desastre-Jovenel-Moise-change-de-strategie">used</a>
his helicopter to survey the damage and distribute water bags, food and medical
supplies. Fanmi Lavalas <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164093/Fanmi-Lavalas-clot-sa-campagne-electorale-par-une-collecte-de-fonds">closed</a>
its campaign in Port-au-Prince with a fundraising drive for hurricane relief
and lead a “Caravan of Dignity” to the south to distribute supplies. Jude
Célestin, an engineer and former director of the Centre National d'Équipements
(CNE), <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164117/Jude-Celestin-sollicite-du-Premier-ministre-lautorisation-de-jeter-un-pont-sur-la-Digue">wrote</a>
to the Privert government to request permission to re-build the Digue bridge in
Petit-Goâve. His campaign team was also set to work clearing debris in Pernier,
Miragoâne and Fond-Verrettes (Nippes). All three candidates used social media
to promote their humanitarian endeavors.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Before
Hurricane Matthew struck, some observers evaluated the CEP’s preparations
positively while others criticized certain aspects of the planning. On
September 26, PHTK accused the council’s newly-created “community observers” of
being “disguised mandataires” intended to steal the elections. Days later, the
CEP <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/163903/Observateurs-communautaires-le-CEP-fait-machine-arriere">dropped</a>
the idea upon learning that several candidates or individuals registered as
monitors (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mandataires</i>)
for political parties had also signed up to be community observers. Changes
made at the level of the departmental electoral bureaus (BEDs) also caused some
controversy. Less than two weeks away from October 9, the presidents of four
different BEDs resigned. Jonas Badette, president of the BED-Sud said he had <a href="http://www.radiomega.net/2016/09/28/haiti-elections-me-jonas-badette-demissionne-de-la-tete-du-bedsud/">resigned</a>
because he did not want to be “used for partisan purposes.” The CEP, however, <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/163735/Demission-dans-plusieurs-BED-le-CEP-ne-panique-pas">claimed</a>
that the electoral officials were supposed to be removed following an
evaluation of the electoral machinery and were pre-emptively resigning.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Despite
its initial criticisms of the decision to rerun elections, the U.S. <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/hurricane-matthew-forces-haiti-to-postpone-crucial-elections-for-a-fourth-time" target="_blank">looked </a>favorably on the coming
elections. “As of right now, when it comes to preparations, we've had the
impression that the CEP has put in a lot of effort to ensure transparency,”
said Kenneth Merten. Canada, however, took a far more negative stance. Senior
Canadian officials <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/haiti-elections-canada-1.3769376">told</a>
the CBC on September 25 that Canada would not provide any extra funding for the
October 9 elections and was considering withholding aid to the OAS observation
mission as well. Haiti’s government was a “kleptocracy,” according to the
Canadian officials, and the move was intended to send “the clear message that
Canada is fed up with Haiti's leaders playing political games on the donor's
dime.” “At the end we may make some small contribution,” a senior official with
the Trudeau government told the CBC. “But mainly because we don't want to spite
ourselves,” he added, pointing out that if Haiti descends further into chaos
the fallout could end up costing Canada even more. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
final weeks of the electoral campaign had been marked by a growing number of
violent incidents. In Saint-Marc, PHTK deputy-turned-AAA senate candidate
Gracia Delva and a group of his supporters were <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/163622/Yo-tire-sou-mwen-dixit-Gracia-Delva">attacked</a>
by gunmen shortly after a meeting with KID senator Carl Cantave. In St.
Michel-de l’Attalaye, Delva supporters clashed with those of a rival candidate
(Pitit Dessalines’ Patrick Joseph). Delva’s successful 2015 campaign to
represent the constituency of Marchand-Dessalines (Artibonite) was <a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article18890#.VgsLfZfQNCI">riddled</a>
with violence. Tensions <a href="http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article10790&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter">flared</a>
between PHTK and Pitit Dessalines supporters in Milot (Nord) as well. In
Miragoâne, Moise Jean-Charles was <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/163639/La-violence-emaille-la-campagne-electorale">forced</a>
to cancel a campaign rally after shots were fired at his supporters. In
addition, a campaign vehicle belonging to Jean-Charles’ Pitit Dessalines was
vandalized during a stop in Cerca-de la Source. On September 28, PHTK <a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-18748-haiti-flash-incendie-criminel-dans-les-installations-d-agritrans-sa.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">denounced</a>
an alleged arson attack on Jovenel Moise's Agritrans banana plantation in Trou
du Nord. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
response to the incidents of election-related violence, Privert <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/163639/La-violence-emaille-la-campagne-electorale">called</a>
on political actors to demonstrate tolerance and to ask their sympathizers to
allow rival political meetings to “unfold in peace and reciprocal respect.”
Privert also urged the police to deal sternly with those disturbing political
rallies. The Director-General of the Haitian National Police (HNP) reminded
candidates that all political rallies must be held at least 1 km apart, and
that police must be notified in advance.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Jovenel
Moise expanded his alliances in anticipation of the October 9 vote. On
September 28, 48 of 93 sitting deputies from different parties (including PHTK,
AAA and OPL) <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/163776/Elections-48-deputes-endossent-Jovenel-Moise">announced</a>
their support for Jovenel Moise, offering 2 million gourdes to finance his
campaign. The declaration indicates that whoever is elected, PHTK will be a
major force in the parliament. When asked by journalists about the source of
the funds, the deputies’ spokesman Fritz Chéry (AAA deputy, Gros-Morne) was
evasive. Three candidates from smaller parties (Roland Magloire of the Parti
Démocrate Institutionnaliste, Amos André of the Front Uni pour la Renaissance
d'Haiti and Marc Arthure Drouard of the Parti Unité Nationale) also <a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=29206">announced</a>
that they were withdrawing from the presidential race to back Jovenel Moise. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Le National</i> <a href="http://www.lenational.org/candidats-absents-de-campagne-electorale/">noted</a>
that at least 20 out of 27 presidential candidates were virtually absent from
the campaign.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-53555530478729016932016-09-22T18:19:00.000-04:002016-09-22T18:19:01.518-04:00Haiti Elections News Roundup - September 22<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After
a slow start, Haiti’s elections are beginning to heat up. Preparations for the
October 9 vote are on track, according to the Provisional Electoral Council
(CEP) and all of the major presidential candidates that participated in the
annulled October 25 election are again in the race. Sixteen Senate seats are
also up for grabs. The US and other powerful members of the international
community in Haiti have softened their criticisms of the decision to rerun the presidential
race, but concerns about violence disrupting the electoral process have been
raised by a high-profile arms seizure in Saint-Marc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
CEP’s electoral preparations are advancing well and materials are arriving on
time from Dubai. The CEP <a href="http://www.radiotelevisioncaraibes.com/nouvelles/haiti/certains_partis_politiques_contre_l_inscription_en_ligne_des_man.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RadioTelevisionCaraibes+%28Radio+Television+Caraibes%29">announced</a>
that political parties had registered 130,806 polling station representatives (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mandataires</i>) for the October 9 vote.
Advance registration of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mandataires</i>
was introduced to prevent a repetition of the problems that arose during the
October 25 elections, when the previous CEP distributed 915,675 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mandataire</i> accreditations with very few
controls. Lax safeguards allowed the huge number of accreditations to be
illegally bought and sold and used to cast multiple votes, the Verification
Commission found. The CEP also <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/163226/Pourquoi-augmenter-le-nombre-delecteurs-par-bureau-de-vote">published</a>
electoral lists so that voters can verify which polling station they are
assigned to one month before the elections as promised. The Haitian National
Police announced that every single officer will be mobilized on October 9 to
provide security. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While
expressing a guarded optimism about the progress made, the Catholic Church’s
Justice and Peace Commission <a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=29150">called</a>
on the CEP to make public its evaluation of the electoral machinery. Pitit
Dessalines’ presidential candidate Moise Jean-Charles, meanwhile, <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/162683/Moise-Jean-Charles-repond-a-Leopold-Berlanger-et-a-Michele-D-Pierre-Louis">decried</a>
the possible influence of businessman Andy Apaid Jr. within the Tabulation
Center. Jean-Charles alleged that Apaid, a vocal critic of Lavalas and civic
opposition leader during the second Aristide government (2000-2004), was hired
as a consultant by the CEP. Executive Director Uder Antoine <a href="http://www.scoopfmhaiti.com/7448/uder-antoine-aucun-contrat-ne-lie-le-cep-a-lhomme-daffaires-andre-apaid-jr/">replied</a>
that the electoral council has not signed any contract with Apaid. CEP
President Léopold Berlanger has previously served on the board of directors of
an NGO, Fondation Nouvelle Haiti, with Apaid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">American
diplomats have adopted a more conciliatory tone since cutting off funding in
response to the rerunning of the presidential race. US Ambassador Peter Mulrean
<a href="http://www.lenational.org/se-faire-payer-elections-anormalite/">welcomed</a>
Haiti’s decision to finance the elections itself, stating that having another
country pay for elections is an “anomaly.” The OAS <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article102520647.html">announced</a>
that it will send 130 observers for the October 9 elections, led by former
Uruguayan Senator Juan Raul Ferreira. “Even though we never expressly accepted
that the right decision was to do a redo, the OAS is there,” said Gerardo de
Icaza, director of the hemispheric body’s department of electoral cooperation
and observation. “We’re happy that at least a political crisis is being solved
through a democratic way.” De Icaza said that the CEP was implementing some of
its recommendations for improving the electoral process. The OAS has also
offered statistical training for quicker preliminary election results. The OAS’s
own statistical expertise, however, has been <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/why-the-oas-quick-count-doesn-t-mean-what-they-want-you-to-think-it-means">questioned</a>
due to its misleading use of “quick count” vote tallies in the previous rounds.
The OAS has <a href="http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-095/16">deployed</a>
15 electoral observation missions to Haiti since 1990.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c84r4XpYBfM/V-RWysMMwNI/AAAAAAAAAec/xT-bXMFDc904FEwQP09pHPlCqThMWV_pACK4B/s1600/Mulrean%2Blooming%2Bhand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c84r4XpYBfM/V-RWysMMwNI/AAAAAAAAAec/xT-bXMFDc904FEwQP09pHPlCqThMWV_pACK4B/s400/Mulrean%2Blooming%2Bhand.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
EU withdrew its observers after the CEP accepted the Verification Commission’s
recommendation to annul the October 25 presidential vote, but France <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/oasoea/sets/72157672624393500">signed</a>
an agreement with the OAS to contribute to their observation efforts in 2016. A
recent report by the National Lawyers Guild, International Association of
Democratic Lawyers and the Haiti Support Group <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/09/see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-new-report.html">decried</a>
the “monumental failure” of international observers during the first two rounds
in 2015 and called for the foreign monitors to report more honestly and
objectively on October 9.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">PHTK’s
Jovenel Moise was one of the first presidential candidates to hit the campaign
trail in anticipation of the October 9 vote, but was dogged by controversy
early on. The Unité centrale de renseignements financiers (UCREF) released a
partial report at the start of the campaign which <a href="http://www.radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article10752">suggested</a> Moise was
involved in money laundering, based on evidence of questionable financial
dealings by his companies (Agritrans SA, Jomar Auto Parts and others). Then,
Moise made a public appearance in Pestel (Grand’Anse) on August 27 with former
paramilitary leader and Senate candidate Guy Philippe by his side. Philippe is <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/03/guy-philippe-threatens-civil-war-as.html">wanted</a>
by US law enforcement on drug trafficking charges, and has repeatedly
threatened the interim government with civil war. In addition, Philippe is <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/6993336a524847bd8132ffce1b3e848e/remote-stronghold-haiti-fugitive-seeks-political-power">suspected</a>
of involvement in a May 15 attack on the Les Cayes police commissariat. Human
rights activist Pierre Esperance <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/162583/Jovenel-Moise-Guy-Philippe-un-tandem-de-choc">called</a>
the meeting “stunning,” “sad,” and “revolting.” </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-73dy0Qm3FI4/V-RXBqoJl3I/AAAAAAAAAek/j_LchHzbJhoZ6cNpOXL5riINxeQtT6qtQCK4B/s1600/Jovenel%2Band%2BGuy%2BPhilippe%2BAug%2B29%2B2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-73dy0Qm3FI4/V-RXBqoJl3I/AAAAAAAAAek/j_LchHzbJhoZ6cNpOXL5riINxeQtT6qtQCK4B/s400/Jovenel%2Band%2BGuy%2BPhilippe%2BAug%2B29%2B2016.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Moise
dismissed the UCREF allegations as “purely political” and defended his
appearance with Philippe. “I am campaigning and everyone understands what that
means: we are here to charm everyone,” Moise <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/32560522/haiti-lost-time-millions-to-annulled-election-candidate/#page1">said</a>.
“I didn't have a choice but to speak to him because I am currently seeking
votes.” Former Prime Minister Evans Paul <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/162629/Evans-Paul-explique-pourquoi-il-endosse-la-candidature-de-Jovenel-Moise">announced</a>
his support for the PHTK candidate, calling him the “authentic representative
of the people.” Although Paul’s KID is close to PHTK, Paul explained that his
party has not yet endorsed Moise’s candidacy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Concerns
about election-related violence were <a href="http://www.radiotelevisioncaraibes.com/nouvelles/haiti/grosse_saisie_d_armes_et_de_munitions_st-marc.html">heightened</a>
by a cache of illegal arms seized by port authorities in Saint-Marc. On
September 8, port inspectors found over 150 firearms and 30,000 rounds of
ammunitions in an old school bus, which had been shipped to the Artibonite port
from Miami and was registered under the name of Charles E. Durand. Minister of
Security Himmler Rébu announced an investigation to determine who was the
intended recipient and declared that smuggled arms represent a serious threat
to the security and stability of the country. In January 2015, police officials
<a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-18667-haiti-securite-sur-plus-de-250-000-armes-illegales-en-haiti-seulement-15-sont-legalisees.html">estimated</a>
that there were 250,000 unregistered firearms in circulation in the country.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SgQH_wOiow4/V-RXomhFU4I/AAAAAAAAAe4/xedVEGDPA40RBB1UGklxpofNxzqVFaZmgCK4B/s1600/Saint-Marc%2BSeized%2BWeapons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SgQH_wOiow4/V-RXomhFU4I/AAAAAAAAAe4/xedVEGDPA40RBB1UGklxpofNxzqVFaZmgCK4B/s400/Saint-Marc%2BSeized%2BWeapons.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
number of political forces have aligned behind Jude Célestin’s presidential bid.
The LAPEH candidate <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/162688/Jude-Celestin-ouvre-sa-campagne-electorale-a-lArcahaie">has</a>
the backing of one-half of the Group of Eight candidates: Eric Jean-Baptiste
(MAS), Sauveur Pierre-Etienne (OPL), Mario Andresol (independent) and Steven
Benoit (Konviksyon). At his campaign launch in Arcahaie on August 31, Célestin
claimed he had been unfairly persecuted by the international community in the
2010 elections, calling on voters to redress this “injustice” on October 9.
OPL’s Pierre-Etienne reminded the crowd that it was Célestin’s boycott of the
January 24 elections that led to the Verification Commission and the rerun of
the presidential race. On September 15, Célestin <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/163260/Jude-Celestin-scelle-une-alliance-avec-quatre-structures-politiques">signed</a>
an accord with four parties (OPL, Vérité, Inite and ADEBHA) that officially
sealed a political alliance. Vérité and Inite are closely linked to former
President René Préval. Vérité’s candidate Jacky Lumarque was excluded from the
presidential race by the previous CEP. Célestin also <a href="http://www.radiotelevisioncaraibes.com/nouvelles/haiti/election_le_secteur_vaudou_appuie_jude_c_lestin_et_lapeh.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RadioTelevisionCaraibes+%28Radio+Television+Caraibes%29">received</a>
the support of religious leaders of Haiti’s Vodou sector.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Fanmi
Lavalas’ Maryse Narcisse kicked off her campaign on August 29 with a large
march to Pétionville, accompanied by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Unlike in the 2015 elections, Aristide has been actively campaigning for Fanmi
Lavalas, joining a caravan to Cap-Haitïen with Narcisse. The FL caravan was <a href="https://rezonodwes.com/maryse-et-aristide-raz-de-maree-a-cabaret-et-a-st-marc-mais-violences-aux-gonaives/">greeted</a>
by cheering crowds in Cabaret and Saint-Marc. In Gonaives, however,
anti-Lavalas protesters from the neighborhood of Raboteau reportedly forced FL
to cancel a planned public appearance. In Cap-Haitien, Aristide <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/96a24cfaf60847fdaf178491226aa92d">fell ill</a>
shortly before he was supposed to speak and taken to the hospital where he was
treated for dehydration. Aristide was back on the campaign trail the next day,
telling the press that there was “a lot of dirty money” and numerous “professional
liars” tainting Haiti's presidential campaign.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y7MbX9I0ecg/V-RX2KmBzZI/AAAAAAAAAfA/IjEkzQ2qrWYvXqax7K4874qw3EC0mD0SQCK4B/s1600/Aristide%2Band%2BNarcisse%2Bcrowd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y7MbX9I0ecg/V-RX2KmBzZI/AAAAAAAAAfA/IjEkzQ2qrWYvXqax7K4874qw3EC0mD0SQCK4B/s400/Aristide%2Band%2BNarcisse%2Bcrowd.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Like
Célestin, Pitit Dessalines’ Moise Jean-Charles also chose the city of Arcahaie
for the launch of his presidential campaign on August 28. Jean-Charles is <a href="http://hpnhaiti.com/nouvelles/index.php/politique/33-personal-tech/1627-haiti-campagne-electorale-moise-jean-charles-dans-l-arene-sans-directeur-de-campagne">running</a>
as a left-leaning “renovating socialist” and has the support of Dumarsais
Simeus, a wealthy Haitian-American businessman who attempted to run for
president in 2006. His campaign may be hindered by the loss of campaign manager
Daly Valet, who left to serve in the interim government. The former Senator and
mayor of Milot is widely seen to be competing with Narcisse for the votes of
the Lavalas base. When the Fanmi Lavalas caravan arrived in Cap-Haitien, some
Pitit Dessalines supporters <a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20619#.V-MVNzWu1Oo">angered</a>
by the choice of Narcisse over Moise Jean-Charles demonstrated. “Where was
Maryse Narcisse after the political events of February 2004, while Jean Charles
was leading the resistance?” asked one of the protesters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After
the incidents in Gonaives and Cap Haitien provoked by Narcisse’s and Aristide’s
tour, the CEP and Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles <a href="https://www.cephaiti.ht/Information-electorale/203-COMMUNIQUE-DE-PRESSE-11.html">both</a>
<a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=29155">warned</a>
political parties that disruptions and violence would not be tolerated during
the campaign.</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-54901482604132482212016-09-19T14:00:00.000-04:002016-09-19T14:00:00.787-04:00See No Evil, Hear No Evil? New Report Sheds Light on Controversial Role of International Observers<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The National Lawyers Guild, the
International Association of Democratic L<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">awyers</span> and the Haiti Support Group released a report, entitled </span></i><a href="http://www.ijdh.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Democracy-Discouraged-NLG-Report-091916.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Democracy Discouraged: International Observers and Haiti’s 2015 Elections</span></span></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">,
today on the controversial
role played by the OAS and EU observation missions during the 2015
elections. The EU pulled its observers from Haiti in June 2016 in
protest over the decision to rerun the presidential elections, but the
OAS will be observing the October 9 elections. Below
is the Executive Summary of the report; the full <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">document </span>(pdf) is available <a href="http://www.ijdh.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Democracy-Discouraged-NLG-Report-091916.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
2015 elections in Haiti represent a monumental failure of international
electoral observation. With the Presidency, two-thirds of the Senate and the
entire Chamber of Deputies at stake, the elections were crucial for Haiti’s
political future. Instead of assessing the vote according to international
standards for democratic elections, the Organization of American States (OAS)
and European Union (EU) electoral observation missions consistently downplayed,
minimized and obfuscated the serious flaws and violations of voters’ rights
that occurred. Despite clear evidence of fraud, violence and irregularities,
OAS and EU observers opposed calls for an independent verification and defended
the integrity of the election results. The international observers’ positions
closely mirrored those of the United States and other large donor nations,
raising doubts about the neutrality and independence of such missions. Overall,
the presence of OAS and EU observers aggravated Haiti’s electoral crisis and
made a democratic outcome less, rather than more, likely.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y3IyFCDOzeY/V-AkKk-elaI/AAAAAAAAAdc/gwIVW78EdgEx1Qz15HXlxn71tGqrzomxgCK4B/s1600/EU%2Bobservers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y3IyFCDOzeY/V-AkKk-elaI/AAAAAAAAAdc/gwIVW78EdgEx1Qz15HXlxn71tGqrzomxgCK4B/s400/EU%2Bobservers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On
August 9, 2015, legislative elections were marred by widespread incidents of
fraud, violence and voter intimidation. As a result, the vote was annulled at
13 percent of voting centers, and nearly a quarter of all tally sheets were
destroyed, lost or excluded from the final results. Election-day unrest and
poor organization led to low turnout (18 percent) and the disenfranchisement of
many voters. Except in rare cases, police officers stationed at voting centers
did not intervene to halt acts of violence and other disruptions, raising
questions about whether officers had received an order from above directing
them to stand down.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On
October 25, 2015, most voters stayed away from the polls, out of apathy or fear
inspired by the violent and chaotic August 9 vote. Voting centers were instead
crowded with political party observers (mandataires), who cast multiple
fraudulent votes using blank accreditations that allowed them to vote without
being on the electoral list. These passes were illegally bought and sold prior
to the elections after the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) distributed
nearly 1 million of them to political parties and observer groups. Mandataire votes
and votes cast without proper documentation accounted for 40 percent of total
votes and had a decisive influence on the presidential, legislative and
municipal elections.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
contrast to Haitian observers who strongly denounced the August 9 and October
25 elections, the OAS and EU observer missions described the elections as a
successful exercise of democracy. According to both missions, the August 9
elections were marked only by isolated incidents of violence and the October 25
elections experienced minor irregularities, neither of which significantly
impacted the electoral results. The heads of the international missions told
journalists that election day had unfolded in “near-total normalcy” on August 9
and that October 25 represented “a breath of hope for Haitian democracy.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UmYbJIOX5jk/V-AkWbfxYTI/AAAAAAAAAdk/DVE0caDUa30wHNiCXRXrsO4IJa3BGN9BACK4B/s1600/Celso%2BAmorim%2Bon%2BOct%2B25%2Bw%2Bjournalists.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UmYbJIOX5jk/V-AkWbfxYTI/AAAAAAAAAdk/DVE0caDUa30wHNiCXRXrsO4IJa3BGN9BACK4B/s400/Celso%2BAmorim%2Bon%2BOct%2B25%2Bw%2Bjournalists.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
praise amounted to willful blindness on the part of the OAS and EU missions, as
they neglected the well-documented accounts of fraud, violence and
irregularities produced by Haitian observers and corroborated by reports from
local and international journalists. Even more disconcerting, both missions ignored
evidence of election-day violence and irregularities from their own observers.
One quarter of OAS observers were forced to withdraw due to violence at polling
places on August 9, while unrest at certain polling stations was so severe that
EU observers could not leave their vehicles. The EU and OAS observer missions
were aware of the risks that the CEP’s massive distribution of blank
accreditations entailed before October 25, but nevertheless ignored the black
market trade in accreditations and denied the scale of the mandataire multiple
voting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
EU and OAS observers’ endorsement of the October 25 election results undermined
Haitians’ efforts to address the irregularities. Massive protests calling for a
verification of the vote erupted after October 25, backed by Haitian observers,
civil society groups, popular organizations and opposition parties. The
electoral crisis culminated in the indefinite suspension of elections on
January 22, 2016 and the formation of an interim government. Two official
commissions, the Independent Electoral Evaluation Commission (CEEI) and the Independent
Commission for the Evaluation and Verification of Elections (CIEVE), were
appointed to investigate claims of fraud, with the latter concluding that the
presidential race should be rerun.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Every
step of the way, OAS and EU observers called for elections to continue despite
the tainted results and opposed verification of irregularities. In the face of
mounting evidence that a mass of fraudulent votes cast with illegally-purchased
accreditations distorted election results, the OAS eventually recognized that
“irregularities” (though not fraud) involving mandataires had become “a source
of concern” (November 6) and had “generated problems” (January 7). The EU
mission remained intransigent, alternately misrepresenting the conclusions or attacking
the credibility of the CEEI and CIEVE. Both missions consistently defended the
integrity of the official results, even after two official commissions
uncovered ample evidence of fraud and massive irregularities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pqrdBCQRz1s/V-Ak33m1OLI/AAAAAAAAAd8/3nrTwusz5o0EFyH8SVGkLkERCSAl8u__QCK4B/s1600/OAS%2BHands%2Boff%2Bour%2Bdemocracy%2BBAI%2Bsit-in%2BFeb%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pqrdBCQRz1s/V-Ak33m1OLI/AAAAAAAAAd8/3nrTwusz5o0EFyH8SVGkLkERCSAl8u__QCK4B/s400/OAS%2BHands%2Boff%2Bour%2Bdemocracy%2BBAI%2Bsit-in%2BFeb%2B4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
backing of the international observers lent legitimacy to the elections and
hindered efforts to initiate a verification process. Opponents of an
independent verification commission included former President Michel Martelly
and his allies, as well as the U.S. and other leading foreign powers in Haiti.
When pressing the interim authorities to move forward with the second round of
presidential elections, U.S. government officials referred to the international
stamp of approval given by the OAS and EU missions as the explanation for why it
considered verification unnecessary. The OAS and EU reports were used to attack
the credibility of Haitian observers, political parties and others demanding an
investigation. In addition, the international media cited the EU and OAS
observers as credible sources far more frequently than Haitian observers,
shaping perceptions of the elections abroad.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
principal function of international observation missions is to ensure that the
monitored elections comply with international standards for free and fair
elections. Yet despite the widespread and documented violations of voters’
rights, the EU and OAS endorsed both elections as meeting international standards.
The flawed assessments suggest that international observer missions are subject
to influence by the powerful memberstates that sponsor them. OAS and EU
observers’ positions on the 2015 elections closely mirrored those of the U.S.,
Canada, France and Spain – especially where they deviated from the consensus of
local observers and the press – an indication that protecting these states’
political and economic agendas in Haiti may have taken precedence over
upholding international standards.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
following are recommendations to international electoral observation missions
made by Haitian electoral observers, which should be implemented in Haiti’s
upcoming elections (scheduled for October 9, 2016) and in future elections:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">1.
Respect Haiti’s sovereignty and refrain from all interference in the electoral
process, including by economic means such as funding.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">2.
Improve electoral observation missions’ independence and professionalism, not
only in observations, but also in public communication about the observation
results.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">3.
Meet with Haitian civil society electoral observation missions before and after
the elections to learn their perspective.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">4.
Improve the consideration of analyses, opinions and proposals of Haitian civil
society expressed in consultations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">5.
Support a constructive dialogue between political parties and Haitian civil
society organizations for solutions to political matters.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">6.
Facilitate education campaigns and involvement of civil society organizations
to make elections a civic activity.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">7.
Encourage participation of women candidates to meet the constitutional
guarantee of 30 percent female representation in all aspects of political life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">8.
Support investigation and sanctions provided by the electoral decree and the
Haitian Constitution for candidates, partisans, political parties and electoral
staff implicated in fraudulent operations.</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-74559774591482570552016-08-21T15:54:00.002-04:002016-08-21T15:54:57.562-04:00Haiti Elections News Roundup - August 21<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Interim President Jocelerme Privert has </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-18221-haiti-politique-la-permanence-decretee-au-parlement.html"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">bypassed</span></a> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the political
gridlock in Haiti’s parliament and set elections officially for Oct 9. Despite its
withdrawal of electoral </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/unhappy-with-verification-us-cuts.html"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">funding</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> on July
7, the U.S. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20463#.V6TlLTU26VA"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">expressed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> its
confidence in Haiti’s ability to organise fair elections. Kenneth Merten, the
Department of State’s Special Coordinator for Haiti, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20463#.V6TlLTU26VA"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">stated</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> in clear
terms: “I am confident that Haitians can organize good elections. If the
elections are good, the U.S. will not have any problems with the Haitian
government.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">President Privert </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/161516/Privert-tout-largent-des-elections-est-disponible"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">assured</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> the
public that the elections will be funded nationally, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=28919"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">affirming</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> that the
$55 million needed for the elections are available in the public treasury. “It
is a matter of national sovereignty,” he </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20443#.V6Ts0TU26VA"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">stated</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">. In
contrast, former Prime Minister Evans Paul </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=28908"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">said that</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> finding
the money to hold the elections will be “an unsurmountable challenge” for
Privert. In response, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.pressreleaserocket.net/haiti-on-the-verge-of-elections-without-help-from-united-states/477145/"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">members</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> of the
Haitian Diaspora </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/878/757/461/haitian-diaspora-for-self-financed-elections/"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">offered</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> to
contribute to help finance the elections. The IC (L’initative Citoyenne; The
Citizens’ Initiative) </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-18241-haiti-actualite-zapping-politique.html"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">welcomed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> the
government’s decision to fund the elections nationally and strongly opposed the
printing of the ballot papers abroad. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The OAS welcomed the announcement of the elections
declaring that it will observe the October 9 vote. The OAS electoral mission
finally </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20468#.V6TnnzU26VA"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">released</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> a </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.oas.org/fpdb/press/Haiti-Rapport-anglais.pdf"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">report</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> on the
CIEVE (Independent Electoral Evaluation and Verification Commission) </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://drive.google.com/a/ijdh.org/file/d/0BwrRcOqQep6dOFlPaUgzLUxLWHM/view"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">report</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In stark contrast to EU and the US, the OAS </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article93333377.html"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">respected</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Haiti’s
decision to rerun the elections, while recommending improvements to the
electoral process to remove obstacles to voting. For example, the OAS urged the
Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to distribute electoral lists in a timely
manner and to train staff ahead of the elections. The OAS also suggested
sanctioning candidates implicated in incidents of violence and intimidation, introducing
electronic registration of party representatives, and adopting fingerprint
technology. The EU observation mission announced its withdrawal from Haiti, in
protest over the decision to discard the results of October 25 presidential
election and start again.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">G30, a group uniting thirty minority candidates, has renamed itself as RCG30
(The Grouping of G30 and its allies) and </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-18241-haiti-actualite-zapping-politique.html"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">decided</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> to put
forward Jacques Sampeur, of KLE (Konbit Liberasyon Ekonomik; The Economic
Liberation Collective) as its candidate for the upcoming presidential elections<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">OPL (l’Organisation du Peuple en Lutte) </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-18232-haiti-actualite-zapping-politique.html"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">announced</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> a
possible alliance with LAPEH (Ligue alternative pour le Progrès et l’Émancipation
d’Haïti; The Alternative League for the Progress and Emancipation of Haiti).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Moïse Jean-Charles from Pitit Dessalines
recently travelled to the U.S., stating that he was planning the next steps in
his presidential campaign.</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-11862843785840977282016-07-11T11:12:00.004-04:002016-07-11T11:12:48.603-04:00Unhappy with Verification, US Cuts Election Funding: "We've made no bones about it"<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>C<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">ross-posted from CEPR's <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/us-withdraws-funding-for-haiti-elections" target="_blank">Haiti: Relie</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/us-withdraws-funding-for-haiti-elections" target="_blank">f and Recon</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/us-withdraws-funding-for-haiti-elections" target="_blank">structi</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/us-withdraws-funding-for-haiti-elections" target="_blank">on Wat</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/us-withdraws-funding-for-haiti-elections" target="_blank">ch</a> blog</span></span></span></span></span></i> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dismayed by the decision to rerun controversial and fraud-plagued presidential elections, the US State Department <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/07/259433.htm#HAITI">announced on Thursday</a>
a suspension of electoral assistance to Haiti. State Department
spokesperson John Kirby said the decision was communicated to Haitian
authorities last week, noting that the US “has provided over <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/the-us-spent-33-million-on-haiti-s-scrapped-elections-here-is-where-it-went">$30 million in assistance</a>” for elections and that the move would allow the US “to maintain priority assistance” for ongoing projects.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kirby added that “I don’t have a dollar figure in terms of this
because it wasn’t funded, it wasn’t budgeted.” However multiple sources
have confirmed that the U.S has withdrawn nearly $2 million already in a
United Nations controlled fund for elections. Donor governments, as
well as the Haitian state, had contributed to the fund. Prior to the US
move, $<a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article85862377.html">8.2 million remained</a> for elections.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The pulling of funds indicates the growing displeasure with Haitian
authorities’ decision to rerun last year’s presidential elections.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“We’ve made no bones about the fact that we had concerns about the
way the process was unfolding,” Kirby told reporters on Thursday. During
a July 4 address, US Ambassador to Haiti Peter Mulrean was <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/160771/Les-Etats-Unis-suspendent-leur-aide-a-Haiti-pour-la-realisation-des-elections#sthash.EkDuiv65.YxDGSGXP.dpuf">even clearer</a>: “We had difficulty understanding the decision … to start the presidential election from scratch.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">According to University of Virginia professor Robert Fatton, the
withdrawal may be the “typical punishment” for “feeling insulted by the
decisions taken by the people in its so-called ‘backyard.’”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“We believe it’s the sound thing to do, the right thing to do, for
the people of Haiti in the long term,” Kirby said about the suspension.
The Haitian government and electoral authorities have previously
indicated a desire to fund elections from its own coffers. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“We already made ourselves clear: Haiti will make all effort to find
the $55 million to do the elections,” presidential spokesman Serge Simon
<a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article88338777.html">told the <i>Miami Herald</i></a>. “If no one comes to our assistance we will manage because the priority for us is the elections,” he added.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“Haiti organizing its own elections with its own funds is a very good
thing,” Fatton said. While noting that it would not guarantee a cleaner
election, Fatton continued “This new reality may finally compel
Haitians to blame or congratulate themselves for the outcome, and it
represents a small but important step in the country’s recovery of a
modicum of its national sovereignty.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sAKUK0o0QOo/V4O0wna6G_I/AAAAAAAAAbQ/snMhv7hKdGkCClO0nVsr6AK4sQfpTF3JQCK4B/s1600/Robert%2BFatton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sAKUK0o0QOo/V4O0wna6G_I/AAAAAAAAAbQ/snMhv7hKdGkCClO0nVsr6AK4sQfpTF3JQCK4B/s400/Robert%2BFatton.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Second-round presidential elections, scheduled for January, were
scrapped amid allegations of fraud and increasing street protests. The
handpicked successor to former president Michel Martelly had placed
first, according to the since discarded results. The US, European Union,
United Nations and other donors that make up the “Core Group” in Haiti
all endorsed the results as credible.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">With no president-elect waiting, Martelly stepped down when his term
ended in February. The legislature elected a provisional president from
the political opposition – Senator Jocelerme Privert.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Privert, with the strong backing of civil society organizations,
local elections observers and a wide swath of the political spectrum, <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-president-calls-for-electoral-verification-mission-opposed-by-international-donors">created a verification commission</a> to audit the previous election. The five-member panel <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.com/2016/05/final-report-of-independent-commission.html">found evidence</a>
of “zombie votes” — representing hundreds of thousands of votes — as
well as widespread irregularities and recommended tossing the results.
Haiti’s electoral council, heeding the recommendations, scheduled new
presidential elections for October.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">European Union election observers, disagreeing vehemently with the decision, <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article82637347.html">pulled out of the country</a>. The Organization of American States (OAS), after initially backing the results, pledged to <a href="http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-071/16">respect the Haitian-led verification process</a>
and new electoral calendar. However the US suspension of electoral
assistance may impact the OAS’ ability to continue monitoring the
electoral process.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/the-us-spent-33-million-on-haiti-s-scrapped-elections-here-is-where-it-went">US provided $1 million to the OAS</a> for its electoral observation mission last year.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Some have expressed concern that the US suspension of assistance
could have greater ramifications for the electoral process. “The fact
that the US is pulling $2 million from the ‘election basket’ may be a
sign that it is prepared to delegitimize the forthcoming elections if
the results do not coincide with its interests,” Fatton said.</span></div>
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</span>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AjvzXoCOW88/V4O0-nqbDHI/AAAAAAAAAbY/5VH-tSmmGbQ_dFAo-83CQa5cIK2xKc55ACK4B/s1600/Commission%2Bw%2BOAS%2Bat%2Bwork.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AjvzXoCOW88/V4O0-nqbDHI/AAAAAAAAAbY/5VH-tSmmGbQ_dFAo-83CQa5cIK2xKc55ACK4B/s400/Commission%2Bw%2BOAS%2Bat%2Bwork.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Asked prior to the announcement if the US was concerned that the
withdrawal of funds could undermine the legitimacy of the elections,
State Department Public Affairs Officer Joseph Crook did not immediately
respond, later pointing to the Thursday press briefing. Kirby repeated
that “these are decisions that [Haitian leaders] have to make, and we
want to continue to urge them to make the right ones.” The State
Department once again pointed to the press briefing when asked if they
were discussing with other donor countries the possibility of pulling
election funding.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The United Nations and “Core Group” countries previously warned that
the decision to rerun elections and extend the electoral process could
have implications for bilateral assistance. Organizations, such as the
International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Inter-American Development
Bank, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/world/haiti-political-crisis-deepens-international-organizations-are-reducing-aid-just-country-needs">have stated</a> that the ongoing electoral process would impact new funding decisions.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The suspension of US assistance could also have more immediate
political ramifications in Haiti. Provisional president Privert,
initially given a 120-day mandate that expired in June, <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.com/2016/06/haiti-elections-news-roundup-june-20.html">is awaiting a decision from parliament</a>
on whether he will be able to stay on until new elections are held or
if a new interim leader will replace him. Though Privert seems to have
majority support in parliament, certain members from the minority have
maneuvered to block quorum and prevent a vote from taking place.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/martelly-bloc-formalizes-alliance-with-dea-fugitive-guy-philippe">Martelly’s political party and its allies</a>
argue that Privert lacks legitimacy and must resign. The US decision
will likely embolden those voices. Any funds allocated from the Haitian
state for the new elections would likely need to be approved by the
parliament.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P1dCuWZRwIQ/V4O0SUR3siI/AAAAAAAAAbE/IuGK-GRbbTQ0fbMSe6rBYRjErvRyK92nQCK4B/s1600/Carl%2BMurat%2BCantave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P1dCuWZRwIQ/V4O0SUR3siI/AAAAAAAAAbE/IuGK-GRbbTQ0fbMSe6rBYRjErvRyK92nQCK4B/s400/Carl%2BMurat%2BCantave.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This week, the Washington DC-based <a href="http://nachi.nachi.org/%7Ehaiti/Delegations/FifthLegislative/Home.html">Haiti Democracy Project brought</a>
two parliamentarians — both opposed to Privert — to the US for meetings
with Congressional staff and US government representatives. The
delegation is advocating for the holding of the scrapped second round
election and the removal of Privert. James Morrell, the Executive
Director of the Haiti Democracy Project, did not respond to an e-mail
seeking comment.</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-4791259310386485602016-06-20T15:41:00.003-04:002016-06-21T10:44:28.758-04:00Haiti Elections News Roundup - June 20<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
end of interim President Jocelerme Privert’s 120-day term came and went on June
14 without any decision by Haiti’s parliament, leaving confusion in its wake. The
disputes over extending Privert’s mandate spilled out into the streets, with
some of his opponents hinting at the possibility of his removal by force. The
international powers expressed their dismay at the political uncertainty
created by this situation. The verification commission’s (CIEVE) report, meanwhile,
continued to make waves. The EU withdrew its observers in protest of the
decision to rerun the presidential race, while the U.S. also exp<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">re</span>ssed its “regret”
over this decision. Another big question for the upcoming elections is where
the financing will come from, given the disquiet of the international donors.</span></span>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span>Haiti’s
political actors were sharply divided over whether Privert remained President
post-June 14. According the February 5 agreement, it falls to the National
Assembly (a joint meeting of Deputies and Senators) to decide what happens
after the interim president’s mandate expires, but parliamentarians have
repeatedly failed to hold a meeting. Another National Assembly meeting is <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/160065/Deputes-et-senateurs-attendus-mardi-pour-statuer-sur-le-sort-de-Privert">scheduled</a>
for Tuesday, June 21. Pro-Martelly legislators, who had strongly opposed any
extension of the mandate, insisted that Privert was no longer president.
Angered by the verification commission (CIEVE) and especially its call to
re-examine the electoral rulings for 41 parliamentary seats, some of these
legislators indicated their preference for Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles to
carry the electoral process forward. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lj62fAJlX0w/V2hA1iI3ONI/AAAAAAAAAY8/YJFT1nS4mUQZRNL7U6fRfZQ7hLWf-vF5wCK4B/s1600/Privert%2Bsitting%2Bpretty%2Bin%2BParliament.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lj62fAJlX0w/V2hA1iI3ONI/AAAAAAAAAY8/YJFT1nS4mUQZRNL7U6fRfZQ7hLWf-vF5wCK4B/s400/Privert%2Bsitting%2Bpretty%2Bin%2BParliament.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jocelerme
Privert </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="https://fr.news.yahoo.com/ha%C3%AFti-mandat-expir%C3%A9-pr%C3%A9sident-provisoire-affirme-quil-reste-183458683.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">retorted</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
that he would accept whatever decision the parliament came to concerning his
mandate, but that he would not leave office without parliament choosing a
replacement. Eleven of 22 sitting Senators </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=28732"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">declared</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
their support for Privert’s continuing legitimacy as president.
Parliamentarians supportive of Privert claimed that the interim president has
the majority needed to extend his term and accused their opponents of blocking
the National Assembly.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
international powers voiced their concern about the consequences of the
gridlock in Haiti’s parliament. On June 15, the Core Group </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="https://minustah.unmissions.org/le-%C2%ABcore-group%C2%BB-exprime-ses-pr%C3%A9occupations-devant-l%E2%80%99absence-de-mesures-prises-pour-assurer-la"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">expressed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
“concern that no measures have been taken to ensure institutional continuity,”
and urged the National Assembly “to take action and reach a solution which
avoids an institutional vacuum, and facilitate the return to constitutional
order through the holding of elections without further delay.” In a June 16 </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=9813"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">statement</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he was “deeply concerned over the
continuing political uncertainty in Haiti.” The National Assembly needed to
“urgently” arrive at a decision, <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">Ban </span>warned, since further delays in
completing the electoral process could “have the potential to adversely affect
stability in Haiti, as well as international support to the country.” </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v_Y10Eh6kio/V2hBm2uM9uI/AAAAAAAAAZE/wQO3YD992dwVyXZ8oUis8pWO2MN6gcW4ACK4B/s1600/Ban%2BKi%2BMoon%2BSG%2BUN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v_Y10Eh6kio/V2hBm2uM9uI/AAAAAAAAAZE/wQO3YD992dwVyXZ8oUis8pWO2MN6gcW4ACK4B/s400/Ban%2BKi%2BMoon%2BSG%2BUN.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Anticipating
the end of Privert’s term, PHTK and its allies attempted to launch a political
offensive. On June 10, former Prime Minister Evans Paul unveiled the Entente
Démocratique (ED), a new coalition of Paul’s KID, Martelly’s PHTK, Guy
Philippe’s Consortium, Repons Peyizan, Platfòm Viktwa (both Repons and Viktwa are
members of Consortium), <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bloc National
Centre Droit and MONHA. At the launch of ED, Paul denounced the “totalitarian
tendencies” of the interim authorities and </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/159841/PHTK-et-allies-sunissent-pour-exiger-le-depart-de-Privert-le-14-juin"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">called</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
for a full-scale mobilisation against President Privert to ensure his departure
on June 14. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
ED seemed to hope for an uprising that would unseat Privert. In a June 12 </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://i2.wp.com/sentinel.ht/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/881x1d.jpg"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">letter</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
on behalf of the Entente, Paul called on Haitian National Police
director-general Michel Ange Gédéon to revolt against Privert at the end of his
mandate: “We remind you that you have a legal obligation to not obey any
illegal order coming from a person stripped of legality and legitimacy.” The ED
also </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/159933/Evans-Paul-appelle-a-la-rebellion"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">called</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
on the international community to withhold recognition of Privert’s government
after June 14. These hopes were dampened somewhat on June 16, when US State
Department Haiti Special Coordinator Kenneth Merten </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/incertitude-en-ha-ti-apr-s-lexpiration-du-mandat-du-pr-sident-provisoire"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">told</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
journalists: “At this moment, I recognize him (Privert) as being the interim
president of Haiti, but we hope that the Haitian authorities and the parliament
will act soon to clarify this.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
the Dominican Republic, rumours circulated of an insurgency in the making. On
the margins of the OAS meeting in Santo Domingo, Fuerza Nacional Progresista
(FNP) politician Pelegrín Castillo <a href="http://www.elnuevodiario.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=482876">claimed</a>: “In
Haiti they are arming in anticipation of an insurrectional conflict, around a
well-known figure and the international organizations, and the United States in
particular, know this.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Demonstrations,
both for and against Privert staying in office, were held on June 14. The march
announced by the ED as part of its “Operasyon depoze” </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/159934/KP-en-panne-de-recette-la-rue-exige-le-maintien-de-Privert"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">drew</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
only a handful of demonstrators to the KID party headquarters and never took to
the streets. ED blamed the poor turnout on the “climate of persecution”
allegedly created by Privert. Fanmi Lavalas and Pitit Dessalines, on the other
hand, mobilized several thousand demonstrators in support of keeping Privert on
to hold new elections. In front of the National Palace, angry demonstrators
tried to block the passage of the US ambassador’s convoy.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gc6h3XiOTis/V2hDNJf6TKI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/LvVCpm_25zk8vVxKhEhOx-HdGG7mb2qoACK4B/s1600/Lavalas%2BDemo%2BJune%2B14%2Bpro%2BPrivert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gc6h3XiOTis/V2hDNJf6TKI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/LvVCpm_25zk8vVxKhEhOx-HdGG7mb2qoACK4B/s400/Lavalas%2BDemo%2BJune%2B14%2Bpro%2BPrivert.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
U.S. has previously expressed misgivings about the decision to re-run the elections.
In a June 8 statement, State Department spokesperson Mark Toner <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/06/258228.htm#HAITI">said</a> the
U.S. “regrets the decision by the Provisional Electoral Council to restart the
presidential elections from the first round.” Toner did not comment on the
CIEVE’s conclusion that fraud had skewed the results, but criticized the delays
and extra costs that the re-run would entail. “The Haitian people deserve to
have their voices heard, not deferred,” Toner told journalists, who immediately
questioned this stance:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">QUESTION:
Right. Well, on Haiti, just – I mean, is it – what’s more important? For them
to have a president that was elected under suspect circumstances, or for them
to have a president that was elected in a clean and --</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">MR
TONER: I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. And I think our concern is
that by now taking this back to zero, or from the starting line, it’s just
going to add (to the length of the process. And there needs to be leadership
installed there.) </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">...
QUESTION: Well, but weren’t there issues with the first round?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">MR
TONER: There were, but we believe they can be addressed without, again,
restarting the entire process. </span></div>
</blockquote>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rD7JfYwomRE/V2hELqs0TfI/AAAAAAAAAaM/Z_rIx73ifxIsZZxcYCdX2lU37aEOeqEuwCK4B/s1600/Mark%2BToner%2BState%2BDept.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rD7JfYwomRE/V2hELqs0TfI/AAAAAAAAAaM/Z_rIx73ifxIsZZxcYCdX2lU37aEOeqEuwCK4B/s400/Mark%2BToner%2BState%2BDept.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
CEP’s decision to re-run the presidential elections has raised questions about
Haiti’s ability to finance new elections, given the reticence of many donors to
contribute again. On June 9, a spokeperson for Privert </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/159813/Les-elections-couteraient-55-millions-de-dollars-americains"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">estimated</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
the total cost of the upcoming elections at $55 million, of which the Haitian
government already had $30 million set aside. In addition, the UNDP elections </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/159896/Le-PNUD-dispose-de-9-696-989-41-dollars-pour-les-elections"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">basket fund</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
has $9.6 million in unspent funds. To close the gap in funding, Privert </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="https://fr.news.yahoo.com/ha%C3%AFti-mandat-expir%C3%A9-pr%C3%A9sident-provisoire-affirme-quil-reste-183458683.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">said</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
his government would turn to other public institutions to finance “this act of
national sovereignty.” He has also pledged to reduce costs, through mobilizing
students and using existing state-owned vehicles instead of buying new ones. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
U.S. spent $33 million on the 2015 elections and has threatened to withhold
further funds, since the decision to re-run the presidential race was announced.
In a recent </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/159599/Rapport-de-la-Commission-de-verification-Kenneth-Merten-ny-voit-pas-de-probleme-mais-ne-souhaite-pas-une-reprise-des-elections"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">interview for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Le Nouvelliste</i></span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
Kenneth Merten stated: “We still do not know what position we will adopt
regarding our financial support. U.S. taxpayers have already spent more than
$33 million and that is a lot. We can ask ourselves what was done with the
money or what guarantees there are that the same thing will not happen
again.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A detailed </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/the-us-spent-33-million-on-haiti-s-scrapped-elections-here-is-where-it-went"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">analysis</span></a> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of
US spending, however, raised questions about how much of those funds were truly
necessary to hold elections, and how much simply served to enrich foreign
organizations.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
publication of CIEVE’s </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="https://drive.google.com/a/ijdh.org/file/d/0BwrRcOqQep6dOFlPaUgzLUxLWHM/view"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">report</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
and the </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B56RZ3-JtuHxQU5xb3NmLUlRc3c/view?usp=drive_web"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">new electoral calendar</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
revealed divergences among the international observation missions sent to
oversee Haiti’s elections. Secretary General Luis Almagro released a <a href="http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-071/16">statement</a>
on June 8 saying that the OAS “welcomes” the new election dates set for October
9 2016 and assured that “it will continue to play a positive role in the
electoral process.” The EU, by contrast, <a href="http://eeas.europa.eu/statements-eeas/2016/160608_04_en.htm">announced</a>
that it was withdrawing its observation mission in protest of the decision to
re-run the October presidential elections. The head of the Mission, Elena
Valenciano, insisted that the October 2015 elections “were globally consistent
with international norms” and claimed that the CIEVE’s work had “many factual,
legal, methodological and conceptual weaknesses.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
EU observer mission <a href="http://eeas.europa.eu/eueom/missions/2015/haiti/pdf/analyse-cieve_fr.pdf">published</a>
a 15-page report that bitterly attacked the credibility and conclusions of the
CIEVE. The technical staff of the CIEVE <a href="http://www.ijdh.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Rapport_CIEVE_Analyse_MOE_UE-V3_20160614.pdf">issued</a>
a response to the EU’s criticisms, defending the methodology of the CIEVE and denouncing
the “partisan behaviour” of the EU observers. The “arrogance and disdain” shown
by Valenciano and the EU mission, noted the CIEVE technical staff, was “coloured
by the ambient racism towards the Haitian people” that is “more and more
evident among a section of diplomats and functionaries in international
agencies.” The Spanish Foreign Ministry strongly <a href="http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Portal/en/SalaDePrensa/Comunicados/Paginas/2016_COMUNICADOS/20160610_COMU161.aspx?platform=hootsuite">backed</a>
the decision of the EU to withdraw, perhaps not surprisingly, given that most
of the EU observer mission’s leadership is Spanish.</span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4v9ceSfUPoM/V2hFk7L8WRI/AAAAAAAAAak/VDsdds_SYzsHDEa3e7MwN4YiLjK2ObPvACK4B/s1600/EU%2Bobs%2BValenciano%2Band%2Bde%2BGabriel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4v9ceSfUPoM/V2hFk7L8WRI/AAAAAAAAAak/VDsdds_SYzsHDEa3e7MwN4YiLjK2ObPvACK4B/s400/EU%2Bobs%2BValenciano%2Band%2Bde%2BGabriel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The G-8 <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/160008/Le-G-8-est-dissous" target="_blank">confirmed</a> by communiqué that the coalition of presidential candidates, having accomplished its objectives, is now dissolved. So
far, only four presidential candidates have <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/160010/Seuls-quatre-candidats-a-la-presidence-sur-54-ont-deja-confirme">confirmed</a>
their participation in the October 9 election with the CEP. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fanmi Lavalas’ Maryse Narcisse has confirmed, but
Moïse Jean-Charles (Pitit Dessalines), Jovenel Moïse (PHTK) and Jude Célestin
(LAPEH) are expected to confirm their participation before the June 22
deadline. The CEP decided not to allow new candidates to re-register, which might
have opened the door to excluded candidates such as Vérité’s Jacky Lumarque.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-85849973595387981312016-06-09T11:44:00.001-04:002016-06-09T11:44:19.619-04:00The US Spent $33 Million on Haiti’s Scrapped Elections — Here is Where it Went<i>Cross-posted from <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/the-us-spent-33-million-on-haiti-s-scrapped-elections-here-is-where-it-went" target="_blank">Haiti Relief and Reconstruction Watch</a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Haiti’s electoral council
announced yesterday that new first-round presidential elections would be held
in October after a commission found widespread fraud and irregularities in the
previous vote. The prospect of the new vote — to be held alongside dozens of
parliamentary seats still up for grabs, has raised questions about how it could
be funded. The previous elections — determined to be too marred by fraud and
violence to count — cost upward of $100 million, with the bulk of the funding
coming from international donors.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But now, donors are balking.
Last week the State Department’s Haiti Special Coordinator Ken Merten <a href="http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rls/rm/258099.htm">said that</a> if elections
are redone “from scratch” than it would put U.S. assistance in jeopardy. It
“could also call into question whether the U.S. will be able to continue to
support financially Haiti’s electoral process,” Merten added. In a separate
interview, <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/159599/Rapport-de-la-Commission-de-verification-Kenneth-Merten-ny-voit-pas-de-probleme-mais-ne-souhaite-pas-une-reprise-des-elections">Merten
explained</a>:</span></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We still do not know what
position we will adopt regarding our financial support. U.S. taxpayers have
already spent more than $33 million and that is a lot. We can ask ourselves
what was done with the money or what guarantees there are that the same thing
will not happen again.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><br />
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So, what was done with the
money? Could the same thing happen again?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nWD1JV6cFWo/V1mLM8w1VxI/AAAAAAAAAYA/ze3QKOSrSLQ0Ace8N1b7hyZLo2NrpLgMACK4B/s1600/Merten%2Bat%2Bpress%2Bconf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nWD1JV6cFWo/V1mLM8w1VxI/AAAAAAAAAYA/ze3QKOSrSLQ0Ace8N1b7hyZLo2NrpLgMACK4B/s400/Merten%2Bat%2Bpress%2Bconf.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To begin with, that figure
seems to include money allocated in 2012 – years before the electoral process
began. Local and legislative elections, which former president Michel Martelly
was constitutionally required to organize, failed to happen. A significant
share of this early funding likely went to staffing and overhead costs as
international organizations or grantees kept their Haiti programs running,
despite the absence of elections. It’s also worth pointing out that many
millions of that money never went to electoral authorities, but rather to U.S.
programs <i>in support </i>of elections. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In April 2013, USAID awarded a
grant to the DC-based Consortium for Elections and Political Processes. In
total, $7.23 million went to the consortium before the electoral process even
began. An additional $4.95 million was awarded in July 2015, a month before
legislative elections. The consortium consists of two DC-based organizations,
the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the National
Democratic Institute (NDI). In a <a href="http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/ha/hsc/2015report/251223.htm">January
report to Congress</a>, the State Department explained further what some this
money went towards:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1.
“the creation and implementation of twenty-six Electoral Information Centers
(EICs) … to provide information to the general public on the electoral process”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">2.
“training more than 100 journalists in several departments on topics such as
the international standards for elections …”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">3.
“Funding through INL supported election security.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">4.
“USAID also supported the creation of a new domestic election observation
platform that helped build greater transparency into the electoral process by
establishing a grassroots coalition of reputable and well-trained domestic
observers …”</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-goArODcrrvw/V1mMbyI48MI/AAAAAAAAAYU/TGN0BBfMeBgQ9vutX8Ip6F23cd8YuWGwACK4B/s1600/NDI%2Blogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-goArODcrrvw/V1mMbyI48MI/AAAAAAAAAYU/TGN0BBfMeBgQ9vutX8Ip6F23cd8YuWGwACK4B/s200/NDI%2Blogo.png" width="200" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D-ooVu2EPW4/V1mMaYlUVsI/AAAAAAAAAYM/RPBCrUrifTYajsC48WAYg0eZVtP29jPDQCK4B/s1600/IFES%2Blogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D-ooVu2EPW4/V1mMaYlUVsI/AAAAAAAAAYM/RPBCrUrifTYajsC48WAYg0eZVtP29jPDQCK4B/s400/IFES%2Blogo.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some funding also went to
increasing women’s participation in the electoral process. But it’s
questionable what the return on that $12.18 million really was. Not a single
woman was elected to parliament — though it <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article81001627.html">now
appears as though at least one was elected</a>, only to have her seat stolen
through the bribing of an electoral judge. In terms of providing information to
the public about the elections, participation in both the legislative and
presidential elections was only about a fifth of the population. The money
spent on local observers may have been more successful, but not for U.S.
interests. The local observer group, the Citizen Observatory for the
Institutionalization of Democracy, led by Rosny Desroches, agreed with other
local observation missions that a verification commission (opposed by the U.S.)
was needed to restore confidence in the elections. The U.S. spent millions
training local observers, only to later ignore their analysis. Instead, the
U.S. has consistently pointed to the observation work of international
organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the EU. The
U.S. also provided $1 million to the OAS for their observation work.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps it’s not a surprise the
funding didn’t have the intended effect. A 2012 <a href="https://www.norad.no/om-bistand/publikasjon/2012/review-of-norwegian-support-to-strengthening-citizens-political-influence-in-haiti-through-the-national-democratic-institute-ndi/">evaluation
of NDI conducted by Norway’s foreign development agency</a> found that about “4
out of every 10 dollars” went to overhead, staff in Washington DC or to the
expatriate country director who made more than a quarter of a million dollars.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The U.S. contributed $9.7
million to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) “basket fund” for
elections. The UNDP controlled the pooled donor funds and also funds
contributed by the Haitian government (more than any other individual donor).
Funds were used to print ballots, train workers, and for other logistical
operations. However, it’s important to note that $3 million of these funds were
distributed in 2012 and 2014, well before any election would take place.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An additional $7.57 million
went to the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) for logistical
operations for the elections, mainly distributing and picking up ballots before
and after the election. After the August legislative elections were plagued by
violent groups that shut down voting, UNOPS shifted strategy for the October
election. In certain “hot spots,” ballots would not follow the normal
procedures for transportation to the tabulation center, instead, UNOPS would
bypass the chain, picking up electoral information at 67 voting centers and
bringing the materials straight to Port-au-Prince. According to diplomatic
sources, UNOPS threatened to pull out entirely if additional funds for this
measure were not given. The U.S. awarded $1.8 million to UNOPS on September 29,
2015.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uG9vROl8GMI/V1mONP67mnI/AAAAAAAAAYg/lowOFhHAM703_CI5MPTFCmNniMGqf-3wACK4B/s1600/UNOPS%2Blogo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uG9vROl8GMI/V1mONP67mnI/AAAAAAAAAYg/lowOFhHAM703_CI5MPTFCmNniMGqf-3wACK4B/s320/UNOPS%2Blogo.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An additional $1.77 million was
given to UNOPS in December, but the second-round presidential election never
took place. Though it was clear to many that the elections would not be held
given widespread condemnation by local observers and civil society groups, the
U.S. and others in the international community insisted the second round go
ahead. With protests increasing, they moved forward and distributed electoral
materials for an election that was never going to happen. This strengthened
Martelly’s bargaining power over the opposition, but meant millions of dollars
were spent for no reason.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In total, funding to UNOPS,
UNDP, OAS, IFES and NDI totaled $30.45 million. This is the vast majority of
the $33 million the U.S. says it contributed to the electoral process.
Additional funds were also awarded through the State Department for
election-related security.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So yes, the U.S. spent over $30
million on Haiti’s elections, but not all of that went directly to the
elections or was even spent wisely in supporting them. It’s clear it would take
far less for the U.S. to support a Haitian-led electoral process next October.
And perhaps the best reason for the U.S. to continue to fund the election, if
Haiti requests such support, is that it was the U.S. and other actors in the
international community that pushed ahead and put millions of dollars into a
fatally flawed electoral process that Haitians have now determined was
irreparably marred by fraud. The problem is not that Haitian’s wasted U.S.
taxpayer dollars by scrapping the election results; it’s that the U.S. was
throwing good money after bad. That’s something that can be fixed.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All grantee funding data is
from USASpending.gov</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-90254151622826684172016-06-07T13:41:00.001-04:002016-06-07T13:41:45.983-04:00Haiti Elections News Roundup - June 7<div style="text-align: justify;">
I<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">t’s
official: Haiti’s electoral council (CEP) confirmed yesterday that the October
25 presidential election will be rerun, with a new date set for October 9 2016.
The CEP’s decision comes on the heels of a </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://drive.google.com/a/ijdh.org/file/d/0BwrRcOqQep6dOFlPaUgzLUxLWHM/view"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">report</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
by the Independent Electoral Verification Commission, which <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>recommended scrapping the current results and
restarting the process from scratch. The CEP, however, did not clarify whether
it will adopt the commission’s recommendations to review a series of
controversial BCEN rulings concerning 15 deputies’ and 2 senators’ elections.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
verification commission’s report, released last week on May 30, laid bare the failings
of the electoral process as it unfolded on October 25. Commission President
Francois Benoit explained that the results had been badly distorted by “zombie
votes,” i.e. votes that could not be traced to any living voter, the number of
which “exceeded the legitimate votes acquired by politicians.” The largest
source of “untraceable votes” was the huge distribution of accreditation cards
prior to the vote, which were bought and sold by parties in the lead-up to
October 25 and allowed party representatives (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mandataires</i>)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>to vote
multiple times, the report noted. The other major source of untraceable votes
were voters who cast a ballot using a fake or otherwise invalid National Identification
Card (CIN) number. Benoit </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/05/30/world/americas/ap-cb-haiti-election-verification.html?_r=0"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stated</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
that the fraud had been masterminded at a “high levels,” but did not identify
who the perpetrators were. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2zwTC6r3fNE/V1cCJx6RguI/AAAAAAAAAW4/B4AjmXjxNJAO0Y6wbP95fxKB0hJmq8eAACK4B/s1600/Benoit%2Bgives%2Breport%2Bto%2BPrivert%2BMay%2B30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2zwTC6r3fNE/V1cCJx6RguI/AAAAAAAAAW4/B4AjmXjxNJAO0Y6wbP95fxKB0hJmq8eAACK4B/s400/Benoit%2Bgives%2Breport%2Bto%2BPrivert%2BMay%2B30.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On
the whole, the commission found 628,000 </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/final-report-of-independent-commission.html"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">untraceable
votes</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, accounting for 40% of valid votes. As
the report noted, this was “higher than the number of votes received by the
first-place candidate according to the results of the CEP, higher than the
total number of votes received by the second- and third-place candidates, and
higher than the difference between the first- and fifth-place candidates.” In
addition, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://rezonodwes.com/seulement-1-des-3210-proces-verbaux-pv-est-conforme-a-la-feuille-de-comptage/"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">only
1%</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> of 3210 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">procés verbaux</i> examined met all the critiera for acceptable tally
sheets as laid out in the electoral decree. The report, however, failed to
explain how the fraud that tainted the presidential race did not also affect
the legislative contests on October 25.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
report’s call for a re-run of the presidential race, and the CEP’s acceptance
of that recommendation, was a major blow for Jovenel Moïse and PHTK. Former
president Michel Martelly’s party had opposed a verification from the beginning
and denounced the commission as a plot to exclude their candidate Jovenel Moise.
PHTK accused the commission of usurping the constitutional role of the CEP and
urged the electoral council to disregard its findings and organize a
second-round between Moïse and Jude Célestin. A party spokesman </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/159473/PHTK-denonce-le-rapport-de-la-CIEVE-et-menace-de-mettre-leurs-zonbi-dans-les-rues"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">called</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
the publication of the commission report a “non-event” and threatened that
“zombies would take to the streets” to protest the findings. The Chamber of
Deputies criticized the report, claiming that “it puts into question the
founding democratic principles and the laws of the Republic.” The president of
the Chamber who issued the statement is AAA’s Cholzer Chancy, who is close to
PHTK.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There
was some uncertainty as to whether the CEP would accept the commission’s
recommendations. CEP President Léopold Berlanger had previously </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://rezonodwes.com/leopold-berlanger-la-commission-ne-peut-rien-imposer-au-cep/"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stated</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
that the commission could not impose any decisions on the council. Intimidation
was feared to be a possible factor in the council’s decision-making. CEP member
Marie-Frantz Joachim’s driver was </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17504-haiti-flash-attack-of-the-driver-of-the-secretary-general-of-the-cep.html"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">shot</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
several times by unknown assailants on May 21, an attack many suspected was
politically motivated.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uRgXgw52e6w/V1cGu9IAtEI/AAAAAAAAAXs/ActrfOC-po8-XDwkDPwL8YbRSNXatoFNQCK4B/s1600/CEP%2Bnew%2Belections.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uRgXgw52e6w/V1cGu9IAtEI/AAAAAAAAAXs/ActrfOC-po8-XDwkDPwL8YbRSNXatoFNQCK4B/s400/CEP%2Bnew%2Belections.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
cancellation of the presidential elections was a major embarrassment for the
U.S. and the UN, both of which reacted coldly to the commission’s findings.
State Department spokesman John Kirby stated tersely that the U.S. had “taken
note” of the report by the commission, which was convened against U.S. wishes.
Kirby then demanded that the electoral process be completed as quickly as
possible and issued a </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17603-haiti-elections-first-reactions-of-the-usa-following-the-report-of-the-cieve.html"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">veiled
threat</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> to the interim authorities: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Although
this is a Haitian-led process, the longer it takes for Haiti to have a
democratically elected president, the longer it’s going to take for the United
States to consider new elements of partnership in helping Haiti confront the
mounting economic, climate, and health challenges that they continue to face
today.</span></div>
</blockquote>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In an interview, Haiti Special Coordinator Kenneth Merten said he had
not read the commission report and declined to comment on its conclusions, but </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.radiotelevisioncaraibes.com/nouvelles/haiti/kenneth_merten_n_y_voit_pas_de_probl_me_mais_ne_souhaite_pas_une.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RadioTelevisionCaraibes+%28Radio+Television+Caraibes%29"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">reiterated</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Kirby’s warning about a possible loss of funding. UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-Moon </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=9765"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">issued</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
a similar statement “taking note” of the commission’s report and warning that
delays could “adversely affect international support to Haiti.” After the CEP’s
announcement, the Core Group was even more explicit, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://minustah.unmissions.org/le-%C2%ABcore-group%C2%BB-prend-note-de-la-pr%C3%A9sentation-du-calendrier-%C3%A9lectoral-et-exhorte-les-acteurs-%C3%A0"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stating</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
that its ambassadors were “deeply concerned that the decision to rerun the
Presidential elections will have financial consequences.”</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gaA-oQ4CH2s/V1cF2X1yx7I/AAAAAAAAAXQ/XG-0mDv6S08lExjZc8xPG4W7Zcty6C55QCK4B/s1600/Merten%2Bmastermind.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gaA-oQ4CH2s/V1cF2X1yx7I/AAAAAAAAAXQ/XG-0mDv6S08lExjZc8xPG4W7Zcty6C55QCK4B/s400/Merten%2Bmastermind.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ronald
Sanders, who led an OAS mission to broker a solution to Haiti’s electoral
crisis in January, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Commentary%3A-Haiti%3A-No-moving-out-and-moving-on-30608.html"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">said</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
there was “a certain illogic” to the reactions of the U.S. and the UN, which <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>were “puzzling,” “confusing,” and “odd.”
“Normally, the UN would also be anxious to make sure that the validity of
elections in any country is verified before proceeding any further. It is
puzzling, therefore, that there is a different stance in relation to these
elections in Haiti.” On Twitter via its official account, the OAS </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://twitter.com/OAS_official/status/738147205022777345"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stated</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that
it “supports a Haitian solution to continue the electoral process.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Aside
from PHTK and powerful actors in the international community, the commission
was well-received in Haiti, though many felt it did not go far enough. The
Group of Eight (G8) candidates </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20194#.V1AEsL426VA"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">said</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that
the commission “could have done better.” In the light of the “vast operation of
electoral crime directed by the master’s hand” in the 2015 elections,
“exemplary sanctions need to be taken” against candidates and parties guilty of
committing fraud “so that this does not repeat” in the future. All of the
political actors need to “reach a historical compromise” before June 14, the G8
added, in order to avoid any chaos when Privert’s 120-day term as interim
president comes to an end.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KIsiZVu4u1w/V1cGC4qli1I/AAAAAAAAAXY/ONnRmHMGkd0Z_H5lsjk_m4VaVKjgzlYPgCK4B/s1600/Group%2Bof%2BEight%2BG-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KIsiZVu4u1w/V1cGC4qli1I/AAAAAAAAAXY/ONnRmHMGkd0Z_H5lsjk_m4VaVKjgzlYPgCK4B/s400/Group%2Bof%2BEight%2BG-8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Popular
organizations echoed this </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20197#.V1AAp7426VA"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">call
for</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> legal action to be taken against those
implicated in the 2015 electoral fraud. In a joint note, MODEP (Mouvement
démocratique populaire), Cercle Gramsci, GREPS (Reflection Group on Social
Problems), UNNOH (Alumni Association of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ecole
Normale</i>) and MOLEGHAF (The Liberty and Equality Movement of Haitians for
Fraternity) </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20197#.V1AAp7426VA"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">deplored</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
the fact that the Verification Commission makes no recommendation as to the
legal pursuits of those involved in electoral fraud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The popular organizations argued that it is
necessary to redo all of the elections, and not just the presidential race, “in
order to prevent bandits, criminals and drug dealers” from storming the
Parliament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The groups also criticized
the role of the Core Group in the process, seen by them, as “a financial,
electoral and ethical crime.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Private Sector Economic Forum, a grouping of
powerful Haitian businessmen, welcomed the report and hailed the “courage” and
“patriotic sense” of five commission members, in a </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/fesp.ht/home/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Note-de-Presse-01-juin-2016.pdf"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">note</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
issued on Wednesday.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y3tIoQX_6UE/V1cGLlqcwDI/AAAAAAAAAXg/JCV-VPyW-gs39lW7wakpPJm-3csgJIingCK4B/s1600/PSEF%2Blogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y3tIoQX_6UE/V1cGLlqcwDI/AAAAAAAAAXg/JCV-VPyW-gs39lW7wakpPJm-3csgJIingCK4B/s400/PSEF%2Blogo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
the light of these findings, nine former members of the CEP (Provisional
Electoral Council), led at the time by Pierre Louis Opont, and Mosler Georges,
the former Executive Director of the institution, were </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20194#.V1AEsL426VA"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">prohibited</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
from leaving the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, the
two former Prime Ministers, Laurent Salvador Lamothe and Evans Paul, as well as
eleven ministers in Martelly’s administration were equally included in the </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20193#.V1AJi7426VA"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ban
to leave the country.</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Those included on
the ban were implicated in the mismanagement of Petro-Caribe funds as <span style="font-size: small;">well as
electoral fraud in the August 9 and October 25 elections.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Lamothe strongly </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-17609-haiti-flash-vive-reaction-de-l-ex-premier-ministre-laurent-lamothe.html"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">opposed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; line-height: 115%;"> the interdiction, denouncing it as an “illegal,
abusive and arbitrary decision” since it is only the Higher Court of Justice
and not a tribunal of the common law that can impose such restrictions on
former state officials. <span> </span>Alongside other
members of Evans Paul’s administration, they issued a </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://twitter.com/juno7/status/738122666725384192"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">note
of protest</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; line-height: 115%;">,
against what they argued was an anti-Constitutional ruling made without
sufficient justification. Following these protests and less than 48 hours after
the original decision, on Wednesday evening, the Porte-au-Prince Prosecutor’s
Office </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://ayitikandida.com/2016/06/annulation-ordres-dinterdiction-de-depart-anciens-ministres/"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">lifted</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; line-height: 115%;"> the ban issued that forbid the former CEP counsellors
and PHTK politicians to leave the country.</span></span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-18817393597869367232016-05-31T11:58:00.001-04:002016-05-31T11:58:11.468-04:00Final Report of the Independent Commission of Electoral Evaluation and Verification<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Report of the Independent Commission of Electoral Evaluation
and Verification, 2015 Elections </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Executive Summary</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The expected number of completed dossiers (3,235) versus
those found at the Tabulation Center (294) demonstrates the weakness of the
chain of documentary supervision, of which the mission is to protect the
chronological documentation or every documentary trace related to the
reception, retention, control, transfer, analysis and storage of the physical
or electronic evidence. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The proportion of untraceable votes (29%) among the total
number of valid votes (1,560,631) means that polling stations allowed 448,000
citizens to vote without filling out a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">procès-verbal
de carence*</i>, as stipulated in the electoral decree. The second critical element
is the proportion of correct National Identification Card (CIN) numbers compared
to the signatures or fingerprints. The percentage of fake CIN numbers found is
16.2%. For the 1,112,600 traceable votes (valid votes reported on the tally
sheets minus the number of CINs written in by hand) 180,250 were fake CIN,
making a total of 628,000 untraceable votes.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The number of untraceable votes (628,000 votes, or 40% of
valid votes) is higher than the number of votes received by the first-place
candidate according to the results of the CEP, higher than the total number of
votes received by the second- and third-place candidates, and higher than the
difference between the first- and fifth-place candidates. Moreover, by applying
certain criteria defined by the Commission based on article 171.1 of the
electoral decree**, the situation is even more grave, since the percentage of
valid votes falls to 9% of total votes.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In conformity with the mandate of the Commission, which consists,
principally, of correcting the process in order to re-establish the trust of
the political actors, it recommends the rerunning of the process, while taking
the steps necessary to guarantee the right to vote of citizens and those of
candidates (the right to be elected).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The full report (in French) can be read <a href="https://drive.google.com/a/ijdh.org/file/d/0BwrRcOqQep6dOFlPaUgzLUxLWHM/view">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">* A separate list for political party representatives and
national observers who cast votes at polling stations other than where they are
registered to vote, as called for in articles 156 and 222.1 of the electoral
decree.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">** The list of criteria for determining whether a tally
sheet from a polling station can be included in the total.</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-27095570171548977942016-05-23T15:48:00.000-04:002016-05-23T15:48:46.827-04:00Haiti Elections News Roundup - May 23<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Haiti’s
verification commission is finally up and running. But tensions have been raised
by the work of verifying the vote, and the commission faces continued attacks
on its legitimacy and neutrality. Opponents of the verification appear willing
to use even military force to get their way. A police station in Les Cayes
(Sud) was attacked by former soldiers linked to Guy Philippe, a former police
commander, wanted drug trafficker and paramilitary leader, raising the specter
of a coup d’état. The final report of the commission could help resolve the
electoral crisis – or it could merely inflame it.</span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Independent Verification and Evaluation Commission was </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-17423-haiti-elections-25-des-proces-verbaux-seront-verifies-avec-une-marge-d-erreur-de-2.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">inaugurated</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
on April 29 and has up until the end of May to submit its report on the
veracity of the electoral results. Efforts so far have concentrated on the
October 25 presidential election. Commission President François Benoît announced
that 3,235 tally sheets will be analyzed (with 2% error margin). The commission
increased the sample size from 15% to 20% of all tally sheets, after its </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20119#.VznK8L426VA"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">initial sample</span></a> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of
2,000 sheets was criticized as too small. RNNDH and Pitit Dessalines </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-17420-haiti-actualite-zapping-politique.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">expressed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
dismay with this decision, claiming that all 13,675 tally sheets should be
analyzed, not just a sample. The commission has <a href="http://www.lenational.org/centre-de-tabulation-80-proces-verbaux-analyses/">yet
to start</a> work on the 175 complaints received about BCEN rulings concerning
the legislative races.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SicGdL4Io_w/V0NZmH5oOfI/AAAAAAAAAVw/IkA1FGyz24oEXiTT_RaCB-x5aGxadaL8QCK4B/s1600/CTV%2Bcommission%2Bwork.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SicGdL4Io_w/V0NZmH5oOfI/AAAAAAAAAVw/IkA1FGyz24oEXiTT_RaCB-x5aGxadaL8QCK4B/s400/CTV%2Bcommission%2Bwork.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kenneth
Merten, U.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Special Coordinator for
Haiti, </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="https://rezonodwes.com/kenneth-merten-ne-veut-pas-de-second-tour-a-5-tetes/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">opposed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
the holding of a second round of the presidential elections with the five top
candidates, a scenario held out by some as a possible solution to Haiti’s
electoral crisis. Merten indicated that the U.S. government would support only
those solutions in line with the Constitution. The Organisation of Americas
States (OAS) is </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="https://twitter.com/OAS_official/status/731131616865718273"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">monitoring</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
the work of the Verification Commission, with funding by the U.S.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On
May 16, a group of armed men <a href="http://www.radiotelevisioncaraibes.com/nouvelles/haiti/cayes_attaque_contre_la_police_le_gouvernement_promet_de_r_agir.html">stormed</a>
the police commissariat in Les Cayes, provoking a shootout that left one attacker
and one police officer dead, with several others injured. The assailants, who were
dressed in military fatigues and appeared to be ex-FAdH soldiers, fled in
pickup trucks after looting the policy armoury. Three other attackers died
after one of their getaway vehicles crashed on the road heading west from Les
Cayes. The government announced its intention to find those responsible for the
attack, while the UN’s Sandra Honoré “<a href="https://minustah.unmissions.org/la-repr%C3%A9sentante-sp%C3%A9ciale-du-secr%C3%A9taire-g%C3%A9n%C3%A9ral-sandra-honor%C3%A9-condamne-l%E2%80%99attaque-contre-la-direction">condemned</a>
in the strongest terms” the attack.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3nzGa0O2oYM/V0Nb4gKlfEI/AAAAAAAAAV8/NuOxpscbh8cCcVk3fuM64dI6JzMSC1jHgCK4B/s1600/Crowd%2Boustide%2BLes%2BCayes%2Bafter%2Battack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3nzGa0O2oYM/V0Nb4gKlfEI/AAAAAAAAAV8/NuOxpscbh8cCcVk3fuM64dI6JzMSC1jHgCK4B/s400/Crowd%2Boustide%2BLes%2BCayes%2Bafter%2Battack.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
attack was allegedly organized by Guy Philippe, according to one of the captured
paramilitaries <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-haiti-politics-violence-idUSKCN0Y72EF">interviewed</a>
by local media. The assailants had fled in the direction of Pestel, Philippe’s
hometown. The leader of the 2004 paramilitary insurgency, who is running for
Senate, denied any links with the attack and <a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=28559">claimed</a>
he had only called for “civil disobedience” against an “illegitimate” regime,
though in <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2016/03/guy-philippe-threatens-civil-war-as.html">earlier
declarations</a> he clearly threatened to launch a “civil war.” In reaction to the
interim authorities’ determination to investigate the Les Cayes, Philippe alleged
that the attack was staged by President Privert and <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/159028/Guy-Philippe-clame-son-innocence-et-defie-Jocelerme-Privert">threatened</a>
to attack any force sent to Pestel by the interim authorities. Guy Philippe
accused the government of seeking to use the verification process to eliminate Jovenel
Moise from the presidential race and declared he was “100% in support” of the
PHTK candidate.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On
May 14, hundreds of supporters of PHTK </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-17457-haiti-actualite-zapping-politique.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">took</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
to the streets demanding the holding of the second round of elections based on
the current, contested results. Parties in Guy Philippe’s political platform,
Consortium, have been mobilizing their supporters for these demonstrations. May
14 was the date that, according to the February 5 political accord, was to mark
the inauguration of Haiti’s new president. The UN Security Council </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sc12364.doc.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">expressed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
its “deep disappointment that Haitian actors failed to meet the election and
inauguration deadlines agreed upon” and called “on all Haitian actors to ensure
the prompt return to constitutional order.” The CEP has announced that it will publish
the electoral calendar at the end of the month, when the verification
commission has finished its work.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DG_A-xl-Tvo/V0NcMHgieoI/AAAAAAAAAWM/C60VMrbcUFcbctWWNnwTeqMtjXEbKqlkACK4B/s1600/Jovenel%2Band%2BGuy%2BPhilippe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DG_A-xl-Tvo/V0NcMHgieoI/AAAAAAAAAWM/C60VMrbcUFcbctWWNnwTeqMtjXEbKqlkACK4B/s400/Jovenel%2Band%2BGuy%2BPhilippe.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> With
provisional President Jocelerme Privert’s term coming to an end on June 14,
some sectors of Haitian society are calling for a renewal of the existing
political accord. In a </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://rnddh.org/content/uploads/2016/05/7-Commission-V%C3%A9rification-CEP-9mai16.pdf"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">press release</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
RNNDH welcomed the inauguration of the Independent Verification and Evaluation
Commission, reminding of the necessity of “updating the deadlines of the February
accord” in the course of “honest negotiations aimed at establishing a
sustainable, constitutional government.” </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
CEP </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-17416-haiti-elections-bcen-mise-en-garde-du-cep.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">warned</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
candidates and political parties not to “seek to disrupt, influence and
undermine the work of the BCEN (Bureau du Contentieux Électoral National) and
the electoral Judges.” The BCEN is currently hearing complaints from candidates
concerning the municipal elections. The press release, </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B56RZ3-JtuHxWnZjX3ZCSEwtRFE/view"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">issued</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
on May 10, is addressed to all “individuals who want to trouble the work of the
Electoral Judges,” clearly stating that such actions are liable to legal
charges under attempts of corruption. Between May 9 and May 11, the CEP</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-17405-haiti-politique-debut-de-la-remise-des-certificats-aux-maires-elus.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> distributed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
the certificates of the 70 mayors who were elected and have been approved by
the BCEN in the 2015 elections. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">Recent rumours of the </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="https://rezonodwes.com/communique-groupe-des-8-candidats-a-la-presidence-g8/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">dissolution</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"> of the Group of Eight (G8)
further testify to the complexity of the political situation and inter-party
tensions. Mathias Pierre, an advisor to Pitit Dessalines candidate Moise
Jean-Charles, announced the dissolution of the G-8 in a </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="https://rezonodwes.com/flash-un-tweet-de-mathias-pierre-annonce-la-dissolution-du-g8/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">tweet</span></a>.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"> But another G-8 member, Eric Jean-Baptiste, asserted
that he did not sign any act officializing the Group’s dissolution.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M4pwdFP40Us/V0NdEil7DgI/AAAAAAAAAWY/xAiyQXrcbDMG7H5eSPdshf3EiJ0J_CilQCK4B/s1600/Group%2Bof%2BEight%2BG-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M4pwdFP40Us/V0NdEil7DgI/AAAAAAAAAWY/xAiyQXrcbDMG7H5eSPdshf3EiJ0J_CilQCK4B/s400/Group%2Bof%2BEight%2BG-8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On
Friday, the President of the CEP, Léopold Berlanger; the Vice-President, Carlos
Hercule; and the Secretary General, Marie-Frantz Joachim, </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article20130#.VznZx7426VA"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">left</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
for the Dominican Republic in order to observe the neighbour’s elections, which
were held on Sunday, with Danilo Medina</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/158890/Danilo-Medina-en-tete-de-la-presidentielle-en-Rep-Dominicaine"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> elected</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
as the president. The aim of this trip was to “appreciate the technological
electoral advances made by the DR,” which used a full digitised voting system
for the first time. The system, however, was not without its </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/158890/Danilo-Medina-en-tete-de-la-presidentielle-en-Rep-Dominicaine"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">problems</span></a>,</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
as the events of the day proved. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Having exited the presidential palace, Michel Martelly appears ready to go back to being “Sweet Mickey,” the president of konpa. Martelly recently released a new music video (featuring one of his most notorious political collaborators, ‘Roro’ Nelson) and </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article78993332.html">performed</a> </span>in Miami. Asked about the possibility of another presidential bid in five years, Martelly didn’t answer directly.</span></div>
<br />
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-19038022779675201332016-04-27T13:06:00.001-04:002016-04-27T13:06:36.223-04:00Haiti Elections News Roundup - April 27<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<![endif]--><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="line-height: 115%;"></span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Haiti’s
long-awaited, long-debated verification commission will soon see the light of
day … maybe. “We have chosen the five members of the commission, a decree will
be published shortly,” provisional President Jocelerme Privert </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/158023/Les-noms-des-cinq-membres-de-la-Commission-de-verification-sont-connus"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">told</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
journalists during an April 20 press conference at the airport, shortly before
leaving for a UN conference in New York. A verification commission has been a
key demand of many civil society organizations, human rights figures and
political parties, which for months have called for an investigation into electoral
fraud. But the idea of verifying the vote has many powerful opponents, from
former President Michel Martelly’s PHTK party and its allies in Parliament to
the U.S. and other Core Group countries funding Haiti’s elections. And nearly a
week after Privert’s announcement, the commission has still not been officially
constituted.</span>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
principal mission of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a verification
commission, according to the terms of reference </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="https://drive.google.com/a/ijdh.org/file/d/0BwrRcOqQep6dZklOd2EzVzhTVWM/view"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">submitted</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
to Privert on April 14, is “to restore the confidence of political actors in
the electoral process by establishing the credibility of the 2015 election
results.” To do so, a five-member commission will perform an in-depth
evaluation of the vote and the prior decisions of the Electoral Litigation
Bureaus (BCED and BCEN). The commission will have 30 days to complete this
task, and all the major political parties and civil society groups will have
the right to observe its work.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Although
the members of the commission have not been officially announced, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Le Nouvelliste</i> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/158023/Les-noms-des-cinq-membres-de-la-Commission-de-verification-sont-connus"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">confirmed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
all five sectors have selected representatives: Erick Gaillard (representing
the Order of Haitian Chartered Accountants); Marc Donald Jean (Anglican
Church); Gédéon Jean (previous Evaluation Commission); </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pierre Wilfrid Sanon (Haitian Association of
Construction Enterprises); and </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">François Benoit (previous CEPs). The </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Haitian Association of Construction Enterprises</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
was given the task of nominating a representative after the National College of
Haitian Engineers and Architects declined to participate in the commission.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Behind the
scenes, the U.S. and other Core Group countries are </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article73540982.html"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">reportedly demanding</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> the right to
veto any of the verification commission’s conclusions. During Privert’s absence
from Haiti, foreign embassies have been stepping up pressure on interim Prime
Minister Enex Jean-Charles and parliamentarians to amend the commission’s terms
of reference, which currently give the 5-person commission “the final word” on
the fate of the elections, according to sources close to the Haitian government.
The Core Group wants to be able to challenge any decision by the verification
panel, which could ultimately lead to the cancellation of the presidential vote
or some legislative races, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Miami
Herald</i> reported. Haiti’s major aid donors have </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35677-haiti-president-calls-for-electoral-verification-mission-opposed-by-international-donors"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cut off</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> all
non-humanitarian funding to the country and have previously suggested that
funding for elections might be cut as well if the verification process is not
to their satisfaction.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Opponents
of Privert, both in parliament and in the streets, </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/157584/La-commission-de-verification-fait-peur"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stepped up</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
their verbal attacks on the interim president, decrying the missed deadline of
April 24 and move toward verification as violations of the February 5 accord.
Former President Michel Martelly’s PHTK party has begun aggressively mobilizing
against the impending creation of a verification commission. PHTK spokesperson
Rudy Hériveaux </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-17187-haiti-actualite-zapping-politique.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">denounced</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
the commission on April 16 as “a manipulation attempt” solely aimed at
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protesters </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.lapresse.ca/international/amerique-latine/201604/24/01-4974599-des-haitiens-manifestent-pour-reclamer-la-tenue-du-second-tour.php?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">marched</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
to the CEP’s headquarters in Pétionville, calling for the final round of
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Former
President Martelly personally </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-17180-haiti-flash-martelly-ecrit-a-privert.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wrote</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
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of attempting to make their temporary rule permanent. Martelly accused the
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concerned by a number of judicial orders issued by public prosecutor Danton
Léger concerning drug trafficking and corruption charges against figures close
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Intriguingly,
Jude Célestin’s party LAPEH has also expressed growing hostility towards
Privert, despite their stated support for verification. LAPEH coordinator Jean
Hector Anacasis </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/158133/Lapeh-et-PHTK-partagent-les-memes-inquietudes-selon-Jean-Hector-Anacacis"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">declared</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
on April 22 that he was suspicious of Privert’s motives: “Nothing says that Mr.
Privert will hold the elections. Nothing says that his true motivation isn’t a
tabula rasa.” </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Anacasis roundly criticized the
political makeup of Privert’s administration, and openly evoked the possibility
that LAPEH supporters could soon be in the streets alongside PHTK if elections
are not held soon. René Momplaisir, a popular organization leader who
campaigned for Célestin, </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="https://rezonodwes.com/rene-momplaisir-et-secteur-populaire-divorcent-davec-privert/"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">resigned</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> from his post
as political advisor to Privert, calling the government’s motives “obscure and
incomprehensible.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Privert
and his spokepeople have shot back, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">placing the
blame for delays on pro-Martelly parliamentarians who blocked the appointment
of a Prime Minister. “The accord conferred on the electoral council the responsibility
to evaluate the phases already completed,” Privert </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/ha-ti-pas-d-lections-avant-la-fin-du-mandat-du-pr-sident-provisoire"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">argued</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> on April 20.
“How can the credibility of the electoral process be guaranteed without this
verification commission? How can the political stability of this country be
guaranteed if we don’t organize credible elections?” Privert has also
repeatedly reminded critics that only the CEP has the power to establish an
electoral calendar.</span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
move towards verification means Haiti’s elections will not be held according to
the deadlines set out in the February 5 political accord. April 24 was the date
for when the final round of elections were supposed to be held, with the
transfer of the presidential sash from Privert to an elected successor slated
for May 14. Privert has announced that the CEP is </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/158023/Les-noms-des-cinq-membres-de-la-Commission-de-verification-sont-connus"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">expected</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
to release the electoral calendar between May 15 and May 30, and </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17264-haiti-elections-2nd-round-privert-now-speaks-of-end-october-2016.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">suggested</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
that elections may be held in late October, to sync up with the expiration of
one-third of the Senate.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The obvious irrelevance of the political agreement’s
timetable and the looming end of Privert’s 120-day mandate (which expires on
June 14) has led to calls from some sectors either for an extension of Privert’s
mandate or for a negotiation of a new accord.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The U.S. and
its allies in the international community, however, remain strongly opposed to
both options. While visiting Miami on April 14, Secretary of State John Kerry </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/04/255889.htm"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">warned</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Haiti’s interim government that the U.S. would
tolerate the postponement of elections past April 24 only for a “minimal period
of time.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Let me be crystal clear,”
Kerry said in an interview. “The Haitian players, the so-called leaders, need
to understand there’s a clear limit to the patience, the willingness of the
international community to condone this process of delay.” (Apparently unaware
of Kerry’s recent statement, a group of three U.S. senators </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2016/04/marco-rubio-steps-into-haiti-elections-fray-again.html"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wrote</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> a letter on
April 15 urging Kerry to speak out in favour of quick elections.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article72085692.html"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">hardline stance</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> was </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/158015/Contre-la-commission-de-verification-des-diplomates-etrangers-defilent-au-Parlement"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">reiterated</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> by U.S.
Ambassador Peter Mulrean during a visit to Haiti’s parliament on April 20,
accompanied by the ambassadors of the EU, Germany, Spain and the UK. Mulrean
claimed that the February 5 accord did not call for any verification, and said
that the U.S. “fears that this commission could be used not only for a
technical verification but to pursue a political agenda.” Mulrean met with
Chamber of Deputies President Cholzer Chancy (a Privert opponent) and explained
that the visit was motivated by a “certain frustration” with Haiti’s political
situation. In a statement released on April 25, UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-Moon <a href="http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=9648">expressed</a>
his “deep concern” over the missed April 24 elections date set out in the
accord and called for the completion of the elections “without further delay.” While
noting the proposed verification commission, the Secretary General emphasized “the
need to conclude the process with the required urgency.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Popular
organizations and political parties that mobilized against electoral fraud
after October 25 reacted with outrage to the international actors’ recent
statements. On April 20, UNNOH, MOLEGHAF, Lakou, Cercle Gramci, and MODEP held
a joint press conference to </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><a href="http://www.hpnhaiti.com/nouvelles/index.php/politique/33-personal-tech/905-haiti-elections-des-organisations-populaires-denoncent-les-declarations-arrogantes-des-diplomates-etrangers"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">denounce</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> the “arrogant
declarations of certain diplomats and other foreign actors.” The popular
organizations decried this foreign interference in Haiti’s domestic affairs as
an affront to national dignity, and urged Haitians not to allow the foreign
powers to impose leaders that would serve their interests while leaving the
people in misery. “It’s the will of the people that will prevail, and not that
of foreigners,” said UNNOH’s Josué Merilien.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eDP2D4F4Alg/VyDrcXiy5iI/AAAAAAAAAVE/FxDRt3gIClE1gIIXvuhJuZ3n1SdqioZMACK4B/s1600/MOLEGHAF%252C%2BMario%2BJoseph%2Bpress%2Bconf%2BApril%2B2016%2Bvs%2BUS%2Bing%25C3%25A9rence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eDP2D4F4Alg/VyDrcXiy5iI/AAAAAAAAAVE/FxDRt3gIClE1gIIXvuhJuZ3n1SdqioZMACK4B/s400/MOLEGHAF%252C%2BMario%2BJoseph%2Bpress%2Bconf%2BApril%2B2016%2Bvs%2BUS%2Bing%25C3%25A9rence.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Presidential
candidate Moïse Jean Charles of Plateforme Pitit Dessalines </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/158018/Moise-Jean-Charles-ecrit-a-Barack-Obama"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wrote</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> a letter to
Barack Obama denouncing U.S. policy towards Haiti as based on a “flawed approach.”
The letter stated that the crisis had been caused by the “complacency or
complicity” of the international powers regarding Martelly’s corruption and his
attempt to steal the elections. Jean-Charles, who finished in 3rd place
according to the current results, later </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article10681&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">said</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> that Privert
should have already kicked out the foreign ambassadors for making such
declarations, according to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Radio Kiskeya</i>.
Serge Jean-Louis, leader of Mouvement patriotique populaire dessalinien (MOPOD),
<a href="http://lenational.ht/mopod-dit-oui-a-commission-de-verification-non-maintien-de-privert-pouvoir-apres-14-mai/">argued</a>
that the international community’s stance raised doubts about its role in the
controversial 2015 elections.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the few
voices among the international community in favour of verification is Sir
Ronald Sanders. Even while expressing scepticism about scale of the fraud
alleged in the October 25 elections, the Antiguan diplomat has nonetheless </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/No-quick-fix-for-Haiti_57856"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">argued</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that verifying the vote is absolutely necesary.. “The
reason for my conviction is precisely because there is a widespread and
overwhelming belief in Haiti that the first-round elections were seriously
flawed.” Drawing on his experience leading an OAS mission to Haiti tasked with
facilitating a negotiated solution to electoral crisis, Sanders explained: “Among
the over 50 groups with whom my team and I interfaced in Haiti in February, all
except Martelly’s Parti Haïtien Tet Kale (PHTK) party, expressed concern; some
stronger than others, but none without misgivings.” “If Jovenel Moïse and Jude
Célestin ... have faith in their electability, they should have no fear of
verification,” Sanders observed.</span></div>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sanders urged
the international community to give Haiti’s interim authorities the time and
resources it needs to conduct a credible verification. Without a verification,
Sanders worried, the elections would inevitably produce a president lacking the
legitimacy necessary to govern. “There can be no ‘quick fix’ in Haiti. Indeed,
it is the urge for quick fixes in the past, and the desire to wash hands of the
country, that has kept it in constant turmoil and retarded its chances for
long-term political stability and economic growth.”</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-21645955079097716542016-04-15T11:21:00.000-04:002016-04-15T11:23:21.333-04:00Privert Pushes Ahead with Electoral Verification Despite Opposition by Donors<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>C</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>ross-posted from <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-president-calls-for-electoral-verification-mission-opposed-by-international-donors" target="_blank">Haiti R<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">elief and Reconstruction Wat<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">ch Blog</span></span></a></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Interim President Jocelerme Privert has <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/157641/Elections-Privert-lance-les-consultations-sur-la-commission-de-verification">announced</a>
his intention to move forward with the creation of an electoral
verification commission. But the commission faces significant pushback
from both international actors who provide the bulk of the funding for
Haiti’s elections and Haitian politicians connected to former president
Michel Martelly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Responding to the “<a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/157472/Commission-de-verification-deux-lunettes-au-sommet-de-lexecutif">unanimous expression</a>”
of civil society and political leaders, Privert declared on Monday that
a new round of consultations would be held this week, aimed at
establishing common terms of reference and identifying potential members
for a verification commission. The body, which has yet to be formally
organized, would be tasked with reviewing previous election results and
electoral court decisions before moving forward with the
as-yet-unfinished electoral process. A verification process is
necessary, Privert said, to establish confidence and encourage “players
to trust the [electoral council] and to participate in the upcoming
elections.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Political and civil society leaders have long demanded a verification commission, after <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/fraud-violence-and-protests-cloud-results-of-haitian-election">earlier elections</a> in 2015 were <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/11/05/presidential-elections-haiti-most-votes-money-can-buy">marred by violence and widespread reports of fraud</a>.
Official results from the first round of voting put then-President
Martelly’s handpicked successor, Jovenel Moise, in first place, followed
by Jude Celestin in second place. Celestin joined with other opposition
candidates, demanding a verification and other changes to the electoral
system before agreeing to participate in a runoff. On April 6, the
coordinator of Celestin’s party LAPEH told <a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article19957#.Vwv-WPlsPAV">the Haitian press</a> that they would not participate in any second-round election without a verification commission first being established.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In response to Privert’s announcement of the commission, supporters of Moise have taken to the <a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=28359">streets to denounce the move</a>.
They argue that the process will be used as a smokescreen to remove
their candidate from the race. Moise’s hostility to a verification is
shared by the U.S., the European Union and United Nations, all of which
have come out against the verification commission and have urged Haitian
authorities to complete the electoral process as soon as possible.
“That’s one reason why the U.S. did not want to hear about verification …
they know it will create fears” among Martelly’s supporters, an
international official involved in the electoral process told me last
week. Last week, some 60 leaders and organizations in the <a href="http://www.ijdh.org/2016/04/topics/politics-democracy/diaspora-groups-and-leaders-ask-kerry-to-drop-u-s-resistance-to-haiti-vote-fraud-inquiry/">Haitian diaspora wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry</a>, urging the U.S. to support a verification.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“We believe … a new assessment, or even verification, is not necessary,” U.S. Ambassador Peter F. Mulrean <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/157392/Elections-Nous-attendons-les-decisions-du-CEP-dit-lambassadeur-americain-Peter-F-Mulrean">told the Haitian daily <i>Le Nouvelliste</i></a>
last week, adding that additional financing for Haiti’s electoral
process would be reassessed after seeing how the question of a
verification commission was answered. “The last card to avoid a
verification: no money,” said the international official. International
donors have also <a href="http://www.alternet.org/world/haiti-political-crisis-deepens-international-organizations-are-reducing-aid-just-country-needs">withheld budget support</a> from financial institutions like the Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The stance of the international powers leaves many in Haiti puzzled.
Pierre Esperance, the director of a prominent human rights organization
and head of a local electoral observation mission team, wondered, “how
can Haiti go to the second round without a verification?” Trying to push
forward without a verification is likely to lead to a repeat of the
street protests that rocked the capital almost daily in late 2015 and
early 2016, and that contributed to the election’s cancellation in the
first place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“The verification process must take place. There is an awful lot of
suspicions that there was fraud in that election process, and it would
not suit any government that is elected without a verification process
because there would always be that suspicion,” Sir Ronald Sanders, an
Antiguan diplomat, <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article70818937.html">told the <i>Miami Herald</i> last week</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sanders led an Organization of American States (OAS) mission to Haiti
that helped broker the political accord in early February, though he
made it clear he was not speaking on behalf of the organization. In
2010, a similar OAS special mission <a href="http://cepr.net/press-center/press-releases/oas-overturned-haitian-presidential-election-in-a-qpolitical-interventionq-new-cepr-paper-suggests">had overturned the election results</a>, putting Martelly into the second round and eventually the presidency.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“If we go ahead and force Privert to hold elections without it, an
election that is not ultimately acceptable to the majority of Haitians,
we are courting trouble,” Sanders added. “We are going to let a possibly
fraud process deliver a government? In which country would we accept
that? Can you tell us the U.S. would allow that? The English-speaking
Caribbean?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ambassador Mulrean has tried to reassure skeptics by arguing that
Haiti’s elections have already been verified by an evaluation commission
appointed by Martelly in late December, making a second verification
unnecessary. Yet the conclusions of the report <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.com/2016/01/evaluation-commissions-ambiguous-report.html">were hardly reassuring</a>:
accreditations passes had been used to cast multiple fraudulent votes
and some 50 percent of voting booth tally sheets contained what the
commission deemed “grave irregularities,” including missing voter
signatures and identification and evidence of tampering.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The commission called for a further examination of the records and
warned that accepting the outcomes of “elections tarnished by major
irregularities would further aggravate the political crisis and
instability of the country.” But before the recommendations could be
adopted, Martelly issued a decree scheduling the final round of
elections for January 2016. <a href="https://medium.com/@JakobJohnston/with-haiti-elections-cancelled-negotiations-begin-for-what-comes-next-a8f0f63a923a">That date</a>
was also indefinitely postponed and a political agreement designed to
fill the constitutional void was signed on Martelly’s way out of office,
which resulted in Privert becoming provisional president.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rony Desroches, the head of a local election observation mission
primarily funded by the U.S. and Canada was a member of that initial
commission. “We did not have enough time to determine if the results
were acceptable,” he told me during an interview in early February. He
anticipated a further investigation would be necessary before elections
could be held. “We asked for an investigation two days after the October
25 election,” Pierre Esperance noted. The international community
resisted at the time, but now, “they can’t say, ‘we were wrong.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Esperance’s organization, along with a number of other prominent civil society organizations have put <a href="http://rnddh.org/communique-de-presse/">forth their recommendations for what the verification commission</a>
should be tasked with doing and a timeline for achieving the completion
of the elections. The groups believe the conditions will not be in
place to do so until the end of 2016, with a new government taking
office in February 2017. Yet such a long timetable would require either a
new political agreement or an extension of Privert’s term past its May
14 expiry date, something the Martelly-aligned legislature is not likely
to grant.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Behind closed doors, according to the international elections
official, it was becoming increasingly clear that a verification would
take place, with the terms of reference being the main sticking point.
Given their stance throughout Haiti’s electoral crisis, the
international powers in Haiti can be expected to fight for the
verification process to be as quick and as superficial as possible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“If you need a verification commission, have it and do it quickly,” U.S. State Department Special Coordinator Ken Merten <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/157751/Ce-nest-pas-au-gouvernement-americain-de-dire-oui-ou-non-a-une-commission-de-verification-tranche-Kenneth-Merten">explained yesterday</a>,
reacting to the new reality on the ground. “If this verification
commission takes time … it will force us to reconsider the support we
give to elections.”</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4184645694803401745.post-1222965972156281892016-04-01T10:17:00.000-04:002016-04-01T10:17:23.493-04:00Haiti Breaks Political Deadlock, But Fight Over Verification Looms<div style="text-align: justify;">
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</xml><![endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After weeks of wrangling between President Privert and
parliamentarians, Haiti suddenly broke out of political deadlock this week, appointing
a new prime minister and a new Provisional Electoral Council (CEP). With the
Privert government rapidly approaching the halfway mark of its 120-day mandate,
however, the impossibility of organizing elections by April 24 as per the
February 5 political agreement is increasingly evident. The international
community nonetheless continues to push for quick elections with no
verification commission, against the wishes of opposition parties and much of
civil society.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Enex Jean-Charles was approved as interim Prime Minister by
parliament on March 24, during a marathon session of the National Assembly that
stretched into the early hours of the next morning. Jean-Charles’s nomination
as Prime Minister by provisional President Jocelerme Privert came just two days
after the Chamber of Deputies rejected his first choice, economist Fritz Jean,
on March 20, whom pro-Martelly legislators accused of being too close to
Lavalas. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After Jean’s rejection, both Privert and parliamentarians
were under heavy pressure from the Core Group to quickly find a replacement. Sandra
Honoré, UN Special Representative for the Secretary General, met with Privert
the day after Jean’s rejection. Haiti is under intense financial pressure, due
in part to the loss of PetroCaribe financing as Venezuela struggles with its
own economic troubles. Allegations of corruption and mismanagement of
PetroCaribe funds have spurred calls for an audit of Haitian government
finances under former President Martelly. Despite a worsening economic outlook
and a severe drought, Haiti’s major aid donors have <a href="http://www.alternet.org/world/haiti-political-crisis-deepens-international-organizations-are-reducing-aid-just-country-needs">cut</a>
all non-humanitarian aid, pending a completion of the electoral process.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jean-Charles, a university professor and career civil
servant, is </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16954-haiti-politic-who-is-enex-jean-charles.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">known</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
for being a quiet, behind-the-scenes operator. He has served as presidential
advisor to both Michel Martelly and René Préval, as well as holding the post of
secretary-general of the Council of Ministers in the interim government of
Boniface Alexandre (2004-2006). </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To restart the electoral process, Jean-Charles </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Haiti-lawmakers-approve-interim-leader-s-2nd-nominee-for-PM"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pledged</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
to implement the “technical recommendations” of the Evaluation Commission, but
was silent on the possibility of a verification commission to examine electoral
fraud. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">The new
prime minister was also careful to avoid committing his government to the
February 5 political accord’s electoral timetable. “We’ll do all we can to have
a new elected president as soon as we possibly can,” Prime Minister
Jean-Charles </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-haiti-politics-idUSKCN0WR118"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">told</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reuters</i>
shortly after he was approved by parliament. “But it will be up to the new
electoral council, following a technical assessment of what remains to be done,
to determine whether the April 24 deadline can be met or not.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">The question of
a verification commission to address fraud allegations looms for the new
government. During the parliamentary session confirming Enex Jean-Charles, many
deputies </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article68189602.html"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">insisted</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"> that no second round could be
held without first carrying out an investigation into fraud. “We need to know
what happened in these elections. We need to know who is in the second round,”
Fanmi Lavalas deputy Bertrand Sinal told Jean-Charles. While the Prime Minister
was non-committal, Privert’s chief of staff Jean Max Bellerive </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=28306"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">told</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"> journalists on March 30 that a
verification of the October 25 vote was “indispensible” for re-establishing
popular trust in the voting process. Bellerive added that it was impossible for
the government to respect the agreement’s tentative electoral calendar. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The international community, however, continues to call for
respect of the accord’s timetable and to oppose a verification. In a March 26
statement “welcoming” Enex Jean-Charles’ confirmation by parliament, the Core
Group </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://minustah.unmissions.org/communiqu%C3%A9-de-presse-3"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">called</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
on Haiti’s political actors “to redouble their efforts to ensure the
implementation of the 5 February Agreement.” Taking an even stronger stance, U.S.
ambassador Peter Mulrean explicitly <a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=28314">opposed</a>
a verification commission, warning that it would unduly delay the second round
and could be manipulated by ill-intentioned individuals. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The first order of business for Prime Minister Enex
Jean-Charles’s government was the inauguration of a new Provisional Electoral
Council (CEP). The list of nine members selected to serve on the electoral
council was officially announced over two weeks ago, but the creation of the
council was delayed by the conflict over the choice of prime minister. The
formation of the CEP was finalized on March 30.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The new CEP members </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-16836-haiti-actualite-zapping-politique.html"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Marie
Frantz Joachim (women’s sector), Carlos Hercule (Catholic Church), Jean Simon
Saint-Hubert (human rights sector), Léopold Berlanger<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(media), Marie Hérolle Michel (private
sector), Dorcély Josette (trade unions), Kenson Polynice (peasants’ and vodou
sector), Frinel Joseph (Protestant denominations), and Bernard Jean Lucien
(university sector). This final list </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article19836#.VubQdNAdCVA"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">respects</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
the 30% quota for women’s representation, as specified by the Constitution and
the Electoral Decree. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is a near-consensus in Haiti that the political
accord’s April 24 date for elections is now unrealistic. Rosny Desroches, of
the NDI-funded observation group OCID, was </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://lenational.ht/pour-ou-contre-une-redefinition-de-laccord-du-5-fevrier/"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">categorical</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">:
“There isn’t any possibility of those electoral races happening on the date set
out in the February 5 accord.” OPL’s Sauveur Pierre-Étienne was likewise very skeptical
that elections could be organized in less than one month. André Michel (Jistis)
and Moise Jean-Charles (Pitit Dessalines) have </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://lenational.ht/pour-ou-contre-une-redefinition-de-laccord-du-5-fevrier/"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">argued</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
that the political accord must be renegotiated. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even politici<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>ans close to Martelly,
such as Chamber of Deputies president Cholzer Chancy and Daniel Supplice, are </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://rezonodwes.com/cholzer-chancy-et-delacruz-admettent-que-les-elections-sont-impossibles-pour-le-24-avril/"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">no
longer</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=28252"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">insisting</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
on a strict adherence to the election dates of the political accord. A PHTK
spokesman </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://lenational.ht/position-nuancee-des-acteurs-politiques-sur-laccord-du-6-fevrier/"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">said</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
his party hoped elections could still be organized for April 24, but that Jovenel
Moïse would no longer launch his campaign on March 24, as announced previously.
Jovenel Moise and his supporters had previously insisted that elections be held
on April 24 as called for by the accord. Repons Payizan (Peasant’s Response)
and Viktwa (Victory) of the Consortium political coalition led by
ex-paramilitary Guy Philippe, had </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.haitilibre.com/article-16868-haiti-actualite-zapping-politique.html"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pushed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Privert to stick to the timeline outlined in the February accord by holding the
presidential elections on April 24 with the final results announced by May 14.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UZnwSYwgcCc/Vv6B8w-X82I/AAAAAAAAARk/bTEkdd1t0_wIidjXydsJPbMkahzvb2AyQ/s1600/Cholzer%2BChancy%2Bcampaign%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UZnwSYwgcCc/Vv6B8w-X82I/AAAAAAAAARk/bTEkdd1t0_wIidjXydsJPbMkahzvb2AyQ/s400/Cholzer%2BChancy%2Bcampaign%2Bposter.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jean Hector Anacasis of Jude Célestin’s LAPEH party,
meanwhile, stated that his political formation hoped for elections to be held
quickly, but that it was ready for any eventuality. Proving that Haitian
politics makes for strange bedfellows, Anacasis had previously <a href="https://twitter.com/VwaBetonAn/status/709509665902604288?lang=en">threatened</a>
on March 15 to ally with PHTK in order to force Privert to hold elections on
April 24, indicating that LAPEH is perhaps not entirely comfortable with what
an investigation into fraud could reveal.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sandra Honoré, Special Representative for the UN Secretary
General, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://minustah.unmissions.org/conference-de-presse-de-la-representante-speciale-du-secretaire-general-des-nations-unies-en-haiti"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">recognized</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
in a March 23 press conference that the accord called for an “evaluation of the
steps already accomplished” in the electoral process and that a verification
commission was demanded by many political actors as well as various sectors of
Haitian civil society. President Privert was holding consultations on the
subject of a verification commission, Honoré reported, though she added that
the UN’s opinion was that the “irregularities were not sufficient to invalidate
the electoral process.” Honoré said the UN was awaiting details on the shape of
the verification process and the impact it would have on the continuation of
the halted elections.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Honoré’s apparent openness to a verification commission was
a stark contrast to the message </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/PV.7651"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">delivered</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
earlier by the main international players in Haiti at the UN Security Council
meeting on March 17. The U.S. ambassador to the UN, David Pressman, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/PV.7651"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">accused</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Haitian observers and opposition parties of spreading “a narrative ... of
widespread fraud in the electoral process,” and thereby denying “the Haitian
people the opportunity to have their voices heard through a democratically
elected Government.” “That narrative does the Haitian people a real disservice.
It was not just unhelpful but harmful,” Pressman said, adding that the U.S. had
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tVbQ9uIzhMQ/Vv6COPXimCI/AAAAAAAAARs/qHSqu65wgWA1JR48wOzevJe0YjKOezrAA/s1600/USUN%2BDavid%2BPressman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tVbQ9uIzhMQ/Vv6COPXimCI/AAAAAAAAARs/qHSqu65wgWA1JR48wOzevJe0YjKOezrAA/s400/USUN%2BDavid%2BPressman.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The representatives of the U.S., France, the European Union
and the Group of Friends of Haiti (which, in addition to the United States and
France, includes Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala,
Uruguay, Venezuela and Peru) all insisted on going ahead with elections on
April 24 based on the current contested results. A confidential source </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/157089/Tractations-dans-les-cuisines-du-gouvernement-Jean-Charles"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">confided</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Le Nouvelliste</i> that a fear of
embarrassment was one of the EU’s motives for opposing a verification of the
vote: “It would tend to discredit the position of the EU on the last
elections.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br /></span><br />
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<![endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Senate
candidate and former paramilitary leader Guy Philippe has threatened a “civil
war” if the Privert government fails to hold elections on April 24. Efforts to
restart the electoral process have been stalled by a stand-off between interim
President Jocelerme Privert and pro-Martelly legislators, who insist on quick
elections without a verification of the vote. Philippe’s threat to resolve Haiti’s
electoral crisis through violence would seem very real, given the recent parade
of militiamen sympathetic to PHTK on February 5. Despite his bellicose comments
and his name appearing on the U.S. government’s Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) <a href="http://www.dea.gov/fugitives/mia/EC072DAE-68BF-4268-A267-FE61993DFDE8.shtml">wanted
list</a> for drug trafficking, the international powers do not appear concerned
by Philippe’s political involvement or his repeated threats of violence.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XvsxRAjXmXc/VurU0clF8SI/AAAAAAAAAP4/S_jz5G3-aXkPzxjMuQNh4qeKs3cfhuguw/s1600/Guy%2BPhilippe%2Bcirca%2B2004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XvsxRAjXmXc/VurU0clF8SI/AAAAAAAAAP4/S_jz5G3-aXkPzxjMuQNh4qeKs3cfhuguw/s400/Guy%2BPhilippe%2Bcirca%2B2004.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In a
February 29 radio message commemorating the 12th anniversary of the 2004 coup
d’État, Philippe <a href="https://soundcloud.com/cyrus-sibert/message-de-guy-philippe-12e-anniversaire-du-renversement-daristide?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=facebook">accused</a>
President Privert of wanting to hold on to power beyond his 120-day term limit
and warned of “a macabre plan, a Machiavellian plan to bring the country
directly into a civil war.” Philippe called for “vigilance” on the part of
former soldiers and others who had fought against the “dictatorship” of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, and declared that “there are people who are
prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice if necessary.” Philippe concluded by
saying:<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a></span></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Once more, we say no coup, no
Machiavellian plan will pass. No one in power will be able to be my enemy.
There’s an election that needs to happen, and it will happen. And if it doesn’t
happen, neither Parliamentarians, nor the provisional president, nor anyone
with any repressive force they know and have in their service, no one will be
able to hold back this people, no one will be able to hold back these honest
citizens, no one will be able to hold me, Guy Philippe, back. Thank you.</span>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In a
subsequent television interview at his home in Pestel, Philippe <a href="https://www.facebook.com/rtvh16/videos/1694598234151855/">reiterated</a>
this message, stating that a civil war would break out if the “Lavalassian
tendency” tried to stay in power. “I believe Privert has no choice; he must
organize elections or he must leave power May 14.” Philippe also denounced
Prime Minister Fritz Jean’s appointment as contrary to constitutional norms.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Philippe’s
political position mirrors that of Youri Latortue and other PHTK-aligned
figures, who have alleged that Jean, a former governor of Haiti’s central bank,
is too close to Lavalas and is thus not qualified to handle the resumption of
elections. At issue is whether or not the interim government will conduct a
verification of vote on August 9 and October 25. Pro-Martelly candidates,
including presidential candidate Jovenel Moïse, are widely suspected of having benefitted
from fraudulent votes in previous rounds. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3L2jpOOdcpk/VurWqFIuVaI/AAAAAAAAAQE/lXUj0eYRDf0apU1cOTyLm6n8I6zP61AYA/s1600/Youri%2Bin%2Bparliament.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3L2jpOOdcpk/VurWqFIuVaI/AAAAAAAAAQE/lXUj0eYRDf0apU1cOTyLm6n8I6zP61AYA/s400/Youri%2Bin%2Bparliament.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Philippe
ran for Senator of the Grand’Anse, finishing first with 22.5% of the vote on
October 25. Violence, confrontations and allegations of ballot-stuffing were <a href="http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/148447/Jeremie-amere-apres-le-1er-tour-des-legislatives">rife</a>
in the Grand’Anse during the first-round legislative elections on August 9. These
disruptions meant that for the constituencies of Pestel, Anse-d’Hainault/Les
Irois, Jérémie, Corail and Roseaux (5 out of 9 in the department) only 70.7% to
75.9% of tally sheets were <a href="http://haitielection2015.blogspot.ca/2015/08/setting-bar-too-low-preliminary.html">received</a>
by the CEP’s Tabulation Center. The CEP ultimately decided to withhold
publication of first-round results until after October 25, when Senate voting was
re-run in Jérémie and Pestel (Philippe’s hometown). Philippe’s party,
Consortium, ran candidates in the region and has two deputies in the new
parliament. Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a notorious leader of the death squad FRAPH
during the 1991-1994 coup, ran under the Consortium banner as a candidate in Les
Anglais-Chardonnières, Sud. Chamblain served as Philippe’s lieutenant during
the 2004 paramilitary insurgency and was acquitted of the 1993 murder of
pro-democracy activist Antoine Izmery in a widely-denounced retrial after the
coup.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Haitian
human rights groups, election observers and opposition parties continue to call
for a verification commission as an indispensible step before resuming the electoral
process, even if this means extending the term of the transition government.
Moïse and his parliamentary allies, on the other hand, insist that the
elections be held on April 24, as called for in the political accord, and on
the basis of the current results. They strongly oppose any verification
commission. Philippe’s statements clearly place him in the latter camp. The
political party he leads, Consortium, is <a href="http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=27339">reputed</a>
have had close relations with former President Michel Martelly. During the
presidential campaign, Jovenel Moïse was photographed with Guy Philippe when he
toured the Grand’Anse. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X-mkSoudh0A/VurW3-mjndI/AAAAAAAAAQM/jpiebDcwgosEnznZXfcww_KYoCWPtNb7A/s1600/Jovenel%2Band%2BGuy%2BPhilippe.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X-mkSoudh0A/VurW3-mjndI/AAAAAAAAAQM/jpiebDcwgosEnznZXfcww_KYoCWPtNb7A/s400/Jovenel%2Band%2BGuy%2BPhilippe.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Philippe’s
threats of a civil war may be a bluff to frighten the Privert government. But
the danger cannot be lightly dismissed, given the apparent influence Philippe has
over recently-mobilized paramilitaries seen in Port-au-Prince and other towns
on February 5. After the cancellation of second-round elections by the CEP on
January 22, Guy Philippe had <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-haiti-election-idUSKCN0V20XH">denounced</a>
opposition protesters as “anarchists” and declared that he and his men were
“ready for war.” Days later, nearly a hundred armed men in green military
fatigues claiming to be members of Haiti’s disbanded military paraded menacingly
through the streets of several Haitian cities, as negotiations over the
creation of an interim government were unfolding. Clashes between the
paramilitaries and anti-Martelly protesters left one paramilitary member dead. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The
international community has been surprisingly silent on Philippe’s calls to
arms. U.S. representatives in Haiti have made no comments about the threat of
armed rebellion by pro-Martelly paramilitary forces or the inflammatory calls
to insurrection made by Philippe. When opposition protesters committed acts of
vandalism in late January, however, State Department envoy Kenneth Merten reacted
by strongly denouncing these incidents as “electoral intimidation” that was
“not acceptable.” The UN, for its part, merely "<a href="http://minustah.unmissions.org/communique-de-presse-1">noted with concern</a>
the organized presence of several dozen people in green uniforms, some armed."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ipLdIlGePqU/VurRk7OT62I/AAAAAAAAAPU/p23kJtoEfaMhDN2vxl1VFoAT0XDzRwYWw/s1600/Paramilitaries%2Bin%2Bpickup%2BFeb%2B5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ipLdIlGePqU/VurRk7OT62I/AAAAAAAAAPU/p23kJtoEfaMhDN2vxl1VFoAT0XDzRwYWw/s400/Paramilitaries%2Bin%2Bpickup%2BFeb%2B5.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The
complacency of the U.S. is all the more intriguing, given that Philippe is
wanted by U.S. law enforcement for involvement in drug trafficking and money
laundering. Philippe has been on a DEA fugitive list for years and has escaped
numerous attempts to arrest him. A DEA spokesperson confirmed he remained a
fugitive, adding that he has proven to be “very elusive,” and that the U.S.
Marshalls had been given apprehension authority. However, a spokesperson for
the Marshalls replied that this was not the case, stating given the “solid
information” possessed by the DEA “about the subject’s whereabouts,” there was”no
reason” to transfer apprehension authority. The DEA later acknowledged its sole
responsibility for apprehending Philippe. Despite his rising public profile,
however, Philippe has yet to be arrested.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Interestingly,
the DEA has had the cooperation of the Martelly administration in other
high-profile cases. In an interview with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New Yorker</i>’s John Lee Anderson, a DEA informant <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/01/aftershocks-letter-from-haiti-jon-lee-anderson">said</a>
that no one was particularly concerned about allegations that Martelly’s
associates were involved in drug trafficking or corruption, because "whatever else
Martelly had done, he complied with the DEA’s local operations."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XjdEZpWGKaM/VurRYXQ_6hI/AAAAAAAAAPM/5v4MBUAbh20Wjn_XT9AqrLtfMaDynEVQw/s1600/Guy%2BPhilippe%2BDEA%2BWanted%2Bpage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XjdEZpWGKaM/VurRYXQ_6hI/AAAAAAAAAPM/5v4MBUAbh20Wjn_XT9AqrLtfMaDynEVQw/s400/Guy%2BPhilippe%2BDEA%2BWanted%2Bpage.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Human
rights groups worried prior to the start of the 2015 elections that Haiti’s
next parliament could become a redoubt of drug dealers, criminals and human
rights abusers. The political involvement of Guy Philippe, who is on the U.S.
government’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) wanted list for drug
trafficking, and his political party Consortium underlines how real this
concern is.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Transcript
of Guy Philippe’s February 29 radio address (translated from Kreyol):</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">We
greet every Haitian, everyone who loves their country. Today is an important
day, February 29. Not only is it my birthday, but what’s more important is that
it’s the day—in 2004—where Haitian men and women put their heads together to
say “no” to a dictatorship. And they stood before a bloody regime that Jean
Bertrand Artistide put in place to end it and give Haiti rest, to give the
country another chance. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">I
know there are many things you were waiting for that haven’t been done. I also
know, and everyone must know, that there are many Haitians who sacrificed their
lives to make that day possible, like Clotaire Jean-Baptiste. Some citizens
abandoned family, wealth and everything they had so they could fight for the
country, for Haiti. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">So I
tell all those people, everyone in the private sector, everyone who’s in the
universities, everyone who was in the military or ex-military as they call it,
everyone who stood and fought to say “no” to that dictatorship that Jean
Bertrand Aristide put in the country. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Today
once more, the country is going through a difficult time, a hard time. Every
Haitian always thinks that they are the clever one and another is the imbecile.
Today, we see that there is a plan—a macabre plan, a Machiavellian plan to
bring the country directly into a civil war. I’ll remind all the actors, all
the people who are making these decisions like a crazy person: Remember what
happened in 1915. Remember what brought us to the American occupation. It was
exactly the obstinacy of the men who were making the decisions that brought us
all the things we faced, provisional government after provisional government,
and that made what happened happen: Vilbrun Guillaume Sam and then –<span style="color: #00b050;"> </span>occupation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">We’ll
remind everyone that there’s an accord. And today we have the chance that the person
who is president of the Republic is the one who discussed the accord, he’s the
one who signed the accord, he’s the one who said everything the accord says is
possible, and he’s the main beneficiary of the accord. So we are counting on
his good faith. We are counting on his patriotic sense. We are counting on the
love he might have for the country, so he doesn’t think like all the others
that he can hold on power and perpetuate a regime that can’t be perpetuated. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">We
ask the Parliamentarians to take responsibility. The people have lost faith in
everyone. The people have lost faith in all the leaders, because they think
they can buy us. Because they know we have a price. We ask you to think about
Haiti, think about the country. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">I’m
taking this opportunity to call for vigilance from all our soldiers, all our
people, all the authentic Haitians who believe in Haiti, to stand strong and
firm and if Haiti needs them, to answer the call. So today is a big day for me.
I say “Congratulations” to all these soldiers, who stopped Jean Bertrand
Aristide in his dictatorial tracks. And it’s a point of pride for me that I was
the chief commander of this rebellion. And I say to all those people, “thank
you.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Twelve
years later, we haven’t lost like everyone is saying. It’s not true: There’s
been progress made, steps have been taken, there’s more liberty in the country.
But it’s step-by-step. I tell them to believe in the country. And I tell my
Haitian brothers and sisters: believe that there are people who still love
Haiti and there are people who are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice if
necessary. Once more, we say no coup, no Machiavellian plan will pass. No one
in power will be able to be my enemy. There’s an election that needs to happen,
and it will happen. And if it doesn’t happen, neither Parliamentarians, nor the
provisional president, nor anyone with any repressive force they know and have
in their service, no one will be able to hold back this people, no one will be
able to hold back these honest citizens, no one will be able to hold me, Guy
Philippe, back. Thank you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">https://soundcloud.com/cyrus-sibert/message-de-guy-philippe-12e-anniversaire-du-renversement-daristide?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=facebook</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Transcript
of Guy Philippe’s March 7 interview with Radio Télévision Hirondelle (translated from French):</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">I
don't think Lavalas, or people from the Lavalassian tendency can take power--
hold on to power, it will be difficult, it will be complicated, and if Privert
stubbornly refuses to give up power, you'll see, he'll lose -- Haiti as well. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">But
we must prepare ourselves to counter the derives of this regime. We have seen
that from the start, Mr. Privert wanted to violate the laws of the Republic,
that Mr. Privert chose a Prime Minister without taking into account the rules
of the Constitution, we saw that Mr. Privert would like to hold on to power.
So, my message was a message for vigilance, a call for vigilance to all
authentic Haitians, Haitians who love their country, patriots to prepare
themselves to defend Haiti if necessary.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">I
believe Privert has no choice; he must organize elections or he must leave
power May 14.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">If he
is stubborn - if he really wants to hold on to power, I believe we are heading
directly towards a civil war. That's not what I want, but it is my assessment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">https://www.facebook.com/rtvh16/videos/1694598234151855/</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com9