Haiti Electoral Update #6 by Stanley Lucas

Background

Elections are currently scheduled for November 28; many Haitian and international analysts have serious doubts that the process will be free and fair and have raised important questions about the process to date.  The overarching concern is that under the Preval Administration, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), has been highly partisan in support of Preval’s INITE political coalition and has worked actively to put in place a structure that favors that coalition. More concerning, the INITE coalition has also been arming supporters. Preval and the Minister of Justice Paul Denis have already claimed victory in the elections (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7137 and http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7108 ). For those who forgot President Preval’s record on democracy and elections, please see: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2008/01/president-rene-prevals-questionable.html ) and for the previous electoral update see: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2010/09/weekly-haiti-electoral-update-5-by.html

 

Furthermore, in the eyes of Haitians, the United Nations Haiti mission, MINUSTAH, which is supposed to support the democratic process, is seen as an occupation force that is highly partisan. They have to manage competing interests. On the one hand, there is the United States and Canada, which are committed to free and fair elections.  And on the other hand, they need to balance the interests of some South American countries are supporting President Rene Preval’s attempts to maintain power.

 

Meanwhile the situation has not improved in-country despite massive commitments from the international community. So far only 15% of the pledged international aid has been delivered, and there is little progress to show for that investment.  In fact, the rubble remains in the streets, and there has been little effort to build more permanent housing for the 1.5 million people still living in the streets. Social tensions are rising (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7114 ). To compound matters, Interim Reconstruction Commission (IHRC) is getting ready to distribute projects to foreign contractors while Haitians continue to be marginalized if not excluded.

 

Aid is slow to arrive … and having minimal impact

The past three weeks have been very difficult for the 1.5 million Haitians living in 1,370 makeshift tent camps. Rain has been pouring into the camps and the “tents” are in no way waterproof; they are merely pieces of cloth on poles in many cases.

 

So far, American citizens have donated $1.1 billion, and it is difficult to track where all of that money went, but it is clear that it has really supported a patchwork of programs that, despite best intentions, have had a limited impact.  The U.S. has already spent $1.2 billion in the immediate aftermath of the quake.  Of that, a couple hundred million went to organizations to provide first aid and recover operations.  The bulk of that funding went to support the deployment of the 82^nd Airborne, which was first on the ground to open the airport and rebuild the ports (see: http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/humanitarian_assistance/disaster_assistance/countries/haiti/template/fs_sr/fy2010/haiti_eq_fs70_09-03-2010.pdf  ). An additional $1.15 billion aid package passed the U.S. Congress for Haiti several months ago but has been held up by the State Department which was tasked with putting together an anti-fraud plan before the money could be deployed.  The State Department just submitted that plan and says they will deploy the money soon.  The money is reportedly all going to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) (see: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2010/10/115-billion-us-aid-package-for-haiti.html ). However, many in the U.S. press are asking what former President Clinton, who is managing both the private, multilateral and other assistance, is doing?

 

Finally, many Haitians are worried that some NGOs are acting outside of their area of expertise and mandate and becoming involved in promoting a specific political agenda (for an example see:

http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/7154-haiti-event-where-has-all-the-money-gone.html ).

 

Voting cards not being issued

Despite a deal between a Brazilian company and Haiti’s National Office of Identification (ONI) to issue the registration cards, many Haitian citizens still cannot obtain their card (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article10080 ). There are only 41 days until the elections and thousands of Haitian citizens cannot obtain the registration card, which is mandatory by law. The ONI, managed by the Organization of American States, is not fulfilling its mandate and leaving the door wide open for widespread electoral fraud. Citizens are reporting that have made repeated trips to the ONI office to retrieve their cards, and have come away frustrated that they have not been able to obtain the card for one reason or another. Many are becoming discouraged saying that they will not return anymore (see: http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=84644&PubDate=2010-10-14 ).

 

In October, the ONI office in Les Cayes in the South was burned down with significant losses, and the authorities believe this was a criminal act (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article10076 ). On October 5, two individuals were taken in custody by the police in connection with that crime (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article10081 ). Since then, no news has been reported on this case. These types of stories are contributing to the general atmosphere of distrust and skepticism of the process. As a reminder, a poll conducted last month found that 92% of the people believe the elections will be rigged.

 

 

Voter lists not up to date

The CEP announced they are not able to up date the registration list prior to the elections. The electoral law requires that the CEP post a month prior to the elections the list of voters on each polling station. Many wonder if the CEP will fulfill that requirement in order to facilitate fraud. An estimated 300,000 people died in the January 12 earthquake, and others died from natural causes prior to the quake. All the deceased names are still on the voting list.

 

There is a gap between what the locals and foreign technical assistance providers are claiming about the status of the lists. Despite these problems many officials seems to be pleased by the process (see: http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=43753 ). In any case, no election could proceed without an up to date voter registration list.  Again, the door to fraud has been left wide open.

 

Polling stations to be staffed with partisan personnel

The CEP recruited 30,000 people to staff 10,000 polling stations. The president of the CEP has not provided any information on the procedures put in place to recruit the personnel of the polling stations, but reports indicate that the vast majority of the staff was handpicked by the INITE coalition in order to facilitate vote rigging at the polling stations. He added that the political parties and candidates that are involved in the electoral process participated in the recruitment, and insisted that he has not received a single complaint about this recruitment process (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article10097 ).

 

Training of CEP personnel

Since the opening of the electoral process the CEP has not provided any information on the training for 10 Departmental Electoral Bureaus (BED), 140 Electoral Municipal Bureaus (BEC), 10,000 polling stations and the technical personnel of the CEP. For a successful process they need to have a good understanding of the electoral law, the voting process, the use of the ballots and tally sheets and other technical aspects of the elections. The CEP has maintained a total blackout on providing information about technical training.

 

Opening of the campaign period

Under charges of favoritism, the CEP has open the first phase of the campaign allowing the candidates and the parties to promote their messages (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article10040 ). The CEP has decided to divide the campaign period in two parts. The first part is called the “silent campaign” period where only posters and banners can be posted. For many analysts that will favor President Preval’s handpicked successor because he has access to unlimited state resources, the funds of the business cartel known as Groupe de Bourdon and drug money. The second phase of the campaign or the “full campaign” opened on October 15 with candidates worrying about the direction of the process and making accusations about the distribution of arms around the country by President Preval’s political coalition, INITE. There is strong perception – and in some cases hard evidence – that President Preval is preparing an autolgole or electoral coup.

 

Polling and Debates

The non-partisan polling company BRIDES published the results of their first presidential poll in September. They polled 6,000 people from the 140 municipalities of the country (70% from rural areas and 30% from urban areas). None of the INITE-associated candidates made it to the top three. Mirlande Manigat (RDNP) finished first with 23.1%, Charles Henri Baker (RESPE) second with 17.3%, Michel Martelly (Repons Peyizan) third with 17.1%. The ruling party INITE with the support of the Groupe de Bourdon decided to take over the company polling after the first results were published. They spent $3 million to buy the investigators collecting the data and manipulated the results of the second poll released in October. The head of the BRIDES, Mr. Fortunat, was not part of the pay off.  The goal was to place President Preval’s handpicked successor Jude Celestin in second place while reducing the percentages of the other candidates. There are three remaining polls (October 24, November 11 and 15), and all will be rigged. That manipulation move backfire because most Haitians are making a mockery of these polls since they learned that the second poll was rigged in favor of INITE.

 

Two debates have been organized.  One was held in Haiti and the other one in Tampa by a group of Haitian students led by Riccardeau Lucceus.  These students received support from the United States League of Women Voters. Four candidates participated; none of the leading candidates responded.

 

Campaign funding coming from drug money and state institutions

Many Haitians are preoccupied by the corruption and the amount of money available in this process. Last week a prominent member of civil society revealed that there is an additional $800 million circulating in the banking system and nobody knows where this money came from (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7115 and http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=84147&PubDate=2010-10-11 ). Analysts believe that 34% of the ruling party candidates and leadership are linked to drug trafficking and corruption. Two seniors leaders of INITE are under the most scrutiny: Senator Joseph Lambert, coordinator for INITE (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article4180 ); and Senator Kely Bastien, who is close to the head of a cartel named “Pasteur”. Many other candidates of the ruling party are linked to the cocaine cartels. About 78% of all cocaine coming to Haiti is from Venezuela via small planes.

 

Also from Venezuela, President Chavez has allowed government to use $103 million from the Petrocaribe agreement between Haiti and Venezuela to finance the ruling party INITE. The ruling party is also benefiting from the support of the largest Haitian business cartel, Groupe de Bourdon, which controls the banking system, the Petrocaribe agreement and the various monopolies. They fulfill a myriad of illegal functions for the ruling party, such as money laundering and financing of national and international political and business deals and lobbying.

 

The use of NGOs to promote political and electoral agendas is also concerning (see: http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/7154-haiti-event-where-has-all-the-money-gone.html ). Meanwhile many other candidates are trying to reach out to the Haitian diaspora to raise money. The Diaspora remit about $1.9 billion every year. During the 1990 elections, they gave $3 million to candidates.

 

Security and circulation of arms

Violence on election day continues to be a concern.  Arms have been distributed around the country to INITE supporters and candidates (see: http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=84552&PubDate=2010-10-13 ). Former Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, former presidential candidate for INITE now with the MPH party, brought this fact to light (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7100 ). According to various sources 40 9mm revolvers and two machine guns have been distributed to the central plateau (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7116 ). In the West department, a man called Dimitri, an influential member of INITE and a close ally of President Preval, distributed the arms. In the South, the arms were distributed to INITE supporters and candidates at the garage of the Ministry of Public Works (TPTC).  In the North, three rounds of arms distribution have been carried out by INITE according to independent journalist Cyrus Sibert. Many sectors do not trust the top presidential advisor for disarmament and head of the CNDDR commission, a Haitian trained by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Alix Fils Aime. Most of the arms recuperated by his commission have been redistributed to the gangs loyal to the ruling party INITE (see: http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=&ArticleID=76321 ). Alix Fils Aime contradicted former Prime Minister Alexis statement: (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7106 ).

 

Meanwhile the Haitian National Police have resisted pressure from Preval and his handpicked candidates to engage in partisan behavior. The leadership of INITE has reportedly changed strategy to recruit police support and is directly contacting police commissioners and officers loyal to INITE in various units. The police are receiving training from international monitors (including France) that will allow them to deal with riots and other problems (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GRgUT6znBI ). It is strange that the police are being trained to deal with any potential uprising by the people but not to investigate the vast corruption and violence being carried out by the government.

 

MINUSTAH viewed as an occupying and partisan force

MINUSTAH has been in Haiti since 2004 at the request of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The mission spent more than $3 billion and to characterize progress as “little” is being charitable. The mission is not performing well and is building local capacity at a snail’s pace. In addition, the mission is viewed as partisan and corrupt because of its involvement in various scandals over the years, including: the kickbacks from the Groupe de Bourdon for a $10 million oil contract (see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/17/AR2007121701914.html ); the raping of Haitian women by soldiers from Bangladesh; the killing of 16 year old Haitian Gaspard in Cap Haitien which was allegedly covered up as a suicide; and inappropriate statements by Edmond Mulet, MINUSTAH head.

 

More and more the mission’s involvement in political issues is being viewed as partisan. Last week, a MINUSTAH patrol was seen putting up posters for the ruling party candidate in Saint Marc, according to local radio station, Tet a Tet. The Haitian population believes that MINUSTAH is aware of the arms distribution by the ruling party around the country, but MINUSTAH remains mute in order to protect Preval’s agenda (see: http://forums.sakapfet.com/WBSakapfet/default.asp?action=9&boardid=8&read=20662&fid=37 ). Last week the United Nations Security Council decided to renew MINUSTAH’s mandate instead of waiting for the elections angered many Haitians. A group of women used the occasion to protest against the UN military presence in Haiti (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article10126  ).

 

The Organization of American States

Haitian political parties and civil society have raised concerns over the manipulation of the political process by Preval to the OAS. The OAS has ignored the complaints of the political parties and the concerns registered by the U.S. Congress. Among the chief complaints brought to the OAS are: CEP has hired ruling party supporters at every level; manipulated the electoral process to allow former government officials involved in corruption to stand for election in contradiction of electoral rules; and INITE candidates linked to drug, kidnapping and corruption are being allowed to run despite existing reports from human rights and other organizations (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article5650 ). There is ample proof of corruption to disqualify these candidates. While the OAS Mission is aware of this, none of its reporting reflects the various manipulations. Each time the OAS finds a way to congratulate the corrupt officials of the CEP (see: http://www.sflcn.com/story.php?id=9300 ) in violation of article 23, 24 of the OAS Democratic Charter (see: http://www.oas.org/charter/docs/resolution1_en_p4.htm ).

 

U.S. Representatives call for free and fair elections on behalf of Aristide’s party

A letter written by the several members of the U.S. House of Representative to Secretary Hillary Clinton (see: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2010/10/united-states-congress-wants-free-fair.html ) requesting that free and fair elections are organized in Haiti has been received in-country with mixed feelings. All Haitians welcome any support for free and fair elections, but they do not like when one political party is singled out for support. While Representative Maxine Waters has tried to do her best to help Haiti, many Haitians view her efforts as lobbying for former President Aristide. There is a popular perception in Haiti that she cares more about her relationship with the former Haitian president than the well being of the Haitian people. News coming from the United States has strengthened that perception because of assertion that Mrs. Waters made millions from Haiti Telecommunication with Mr. Aristide (see: http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/democrat-congresswoman-waters-stole-from-haiti/  ). Haitians always equate the fabrication of facts coming from Washington for Aristide with the number of people he had made millionaires on the back of the Haitian people (see: http://www.haitipolicy.org/Lobbying7.htm ).

 

Specifically, the letter states that Fanmi Lavalas is the majority party of Haiti, which is false. Lavalas participated in the 2006 elections and won only six Deputy seats of the 99 slots available, and only three of the 30 Senate seats. Jean Bertrand Aristide, the head of Lavalas, stole $350 million over nine years from Haiti’s public coffers and is afraid to face Haitian justice (see official report of the Haitian government on Aristide corruption: http://www.radiokiskeya.com/RapportUCREF.pdf and http://www.haitipolicy.org/content/3284.htm and see report of journalist Lucy Komisar: http://thekomisarscoop.com/tag/haiti/ ). Aristide himself has purposely undermined the participation of Fanmi Lavalas in the next elections by not signing, as the head of the party, the authorization allowing their candidates to register. As a result, four Lavalas presidential candidates and many more legislative candidates have left the party to run under new banners. The presidential candidates are Yvon Neptune, Leslie Voltaire, Yves Christallin, and Jean Henry Ceant. In addition, Aristide’s former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune has stated that Aristide, with the support of his lobbyists, has fabricated the theory that he was kidnapped by the U.S. military in 2004 for their political purposes (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7105 ). Neptune said Aristide resigned in 2004, and he has a copy of the letter. Haitians appreciate the letters of support from the House of Representatives and Senator Lugar’s calls to revamp the CEP, but those calls have been ignored by Preval and INITE. Right now four major coalitions -- Liberasyon, Altenativ, Rasanble and UCADDE and the party Fanmi Lavalas -- are boycotting the elections because of the partisan nature of the Provisional Electoral Council.

 

Conclusion

Two trains have left the station.  The INITE train, managed by President Preval, is on track to secure the presidency and control of two-thirds of both chambers by means of an electoral coup d’etat. The other train, led by the Haitian people, is on track for free and fair elections. In past elections the above-mentioned dynamics have led to serious political instability.  We are headed down the same track for these elections, and no one is trying to address these issues.

 

Bill Clinton, Leonel Fernandez and several South American countries also have competing agendas further complicating the situation. It is looking more and more like these trains could collide resulting in more chaos and instability for the Haitian people.

 

For more information, please, contact:

Stanley Lucas

Washington Democracy Project

centurionlucas@gmail.com

(202) 256-6026

 

RAND Haiti Policy Report Review by Stanley Lucas

Report Summary

The RAND Corporation, a non-profit institution that helps improve policy and decision making through research and analysis, released a report entitled, “Building a More Resilient Haitian State” earlier this year.  A book version of the report can be purchased online at http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1039/ for about $20 or can be downloaded free.  The Carnegie Corporation and the Smith Richardson Foundation funded the report.

 

The report states that Haiti's future prosperity and peace require building a more effective, resilient state.  For the past several decades Haiti’s state institutions have been riddled with weaknesses in human resources, organization, procedures, and policies.  The researchers begin by summarizing Haiti’s overall challenges and then assess key sectors, including:  Governance and Administration; Justice; Security; Economic Policy; Housing and Infrastructure; Education; Health; and Donor Cooperation and Building the Haitian State. 

 

For each sector, RAND researchers identified Haiti's main challenges, assessed current strategic plans to tackle the key issues and recommended a set of state-building priorities that are necessary, feasible, and sustainable.  Priorities include civil service reform, justice-system reform, ongoing involvement of United Nations peacekeepers, streamlined regulations for business, and improved access and quality assurance for healthcare and schools.

 

RAND singles out the primacy of Haiti’s poor governance over the past several decades as the key factor for the devastation in Haiti after the earthquake and “society's almost complete dependence on help from abroad to deal with the consequences.”  They conclude that:

 

State-building is intimately connected with politics.  Without executive decisiveness and legislative action, state-building cannot proceed.  Donors and international organizations can assist — not only by providing financial resources but also by promoting political consensus and encouraging adherence to strategic plans.

 

Report Analysis

At the outset the report misses the mark in its analysis of the tent cities as being an effective stopgap solution to the housing challenges.  Haitians are not even living in tents.  Rather, most are living under tarps in unorganized, unofficial camps.  They are facing violence, disease, lack of regular access to food and water, and eviction from landowners.  This is by no means effective and many observers have said that the tent cities do not meet international standards for disaster relief efforts.

 

The governance challenges set forth in this report are well known to the Haitian people.  Haiti – having the most significant income disparity ratio in the world – is controlled largely by a small elite (Groupe de Bourdon) that is resistant to reform and an entrenched, corrupt leadership.  Given high levels of corruption, many donors are unwilling to fund all important capacity building, which has stymied progress even further and failed to tackle the root of the problem in Haiti.  The recommendations in the governance section are well-worn territory but present a good assessment of the current strategic plans.  One of their most interesting conclusions, which is also a theme of the report, is that current plans are often overly comprehensive and fail to set forth priorities and clear timelines for implementation.  They also neglect to establish benchmarks and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) mechanisms.  This is true across all sectors and is a failing of all the strategic plans put forward to date.  In many cases, plans are so broad it allows donors to justify any program that they develop.

 

The healthcare section offers some of the most interesting ideas for how to reorganize the sector.  They advocate having the Haitian Health Ministry (MSPP) set the priorities, with international technical support, but then introducing a competitive bidding system to operate the Haitian healthcare system.  Currently donors operate a patchwork of uncoordinated programs and often operate completely outside of the Haitian government.  Although well intentioned, this dynamic ends up undermining the Haitian Health Ministry and is often not in the best interest of the long-term development of the system.  This is a particularly compelling suggestion as they recommend dividing the country and contracts into regions and having NGOs operate Haitian Government branded facilities in order to build public confidence as well.  Clearly there would be resistance to such a radical shift and to the Haitian Government asserting its authority.  The researchers recognize that some donors could chose to walk away from their programs, but in the end, operating a few large scale programs would have more impact and be more manageable than operating many smaller scale projects.

 

Interestingly, the report also singles out donors for not being as effective as they could be.  The report states that Haiti has been a focus of international donors and aid organizations as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the only country to see a decline in GDP in the past 30 years.  However, all this attention has not translated into any improvement in Haiti’s circumstances.  In fact, Haiti’s social, economic and political situations have worsened.  In order to get this situation under control, the report advocates for the Haitian government to take a greater role in streamlining aid and focusing projects on priorities rather than accepting anything the aid community offers, including the small one-off projects.

 

On the flip side, the report advocates for aid organizations to subtly guide the political process in Haiti and encourage adherence to plans.  This seems somewhat incongruent with the tone of the report overall.  In several places the researchers advocate that the Haitian government should be stronger in asserting its leadership and providing direction to the aid organizations.  It recognizes that the Government may need technical assistance in developing priorities, but that there should be more consideration to what is best for building the Haitian state rather than what is in the best interest of the NGOs.  In fact, they note that many NGOs compete with each other for funding and primacy on issues.  It is not the role of the NGO community to subtly guide the political process or promote political consensus.  To do so may contribute to the perception that aid organizations are trying to build winners and losers.  We agree that NGOs and donors should focus more on capacity building more in line with the Nine Principles of Development and Reconstruction issued by the USAID.

 

One other aspect of the rebuilding process that would have been useful to delve into was to help build up a national watchdog function to monitor the Haitian Government and donor community by tracking dollars and impact and publicizing the results.  A key lesson from the tsunami recovery in Aceh was that donor confidence was bolstered by financial accountability.  A small Haitian watchdog group has tried to monitor funds but was undermined by the UN, which said they would provide that function.  While it is of course fine for the UN to provide a watchdog function, they missed an important opportunity to build a more resilient state by providing technical and financial assistance to building capacity in-country.  Haiti has been plagued by corruption for decades and has landed at the top of Transparency International’s list for the past several years as being one of the most corrupt countries in the world.  Surely a civil society watchdog function would go a long way toward building resiliency in the Haitian state.

Overall the report is a very useful overview of the various plans out there to tackle Haiti’s problems and provides a very valuable contribution in noting the main shortfall with those plans (namely the lack of timelines and priorities). 

Weekly Haiti Electoral Update #5 by Stanley Lucas

Earthquake victims surprised by tropical storm…5 dead 57 injured

The week of September 20 has been horrible for the 1.7 million victims of the earthquake that are still living under tarps in the 1,370 makeshift tent camps. Rain and wind deluged Haiti this week causing chaos and panic for people across the island (see: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/09/25/haiti.storm/  ). Earth reports indicate that five people died and 57 were injured while hundreds have lost their “tents” (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article10036 ).  

 

Framework of international aid to Haiti continues to be a challenge

There is no shortage of aid money for the Haitian earthquake victims, but there is a shortage of results and impact.  Americans donated about $1.2 billion (see: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2010/07/haiti-six-mois-apres-quid-des-11_04.html ) and the United States government allocated $2.9 billion (see: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41232.pdf  ) for a total of $4 billion from the US alone.  Additionally, billionaire philanthropists donated an undisclosed amount of money for Haiti to the Clinton Foundation.  

 

Internationally, the World Bank pledged $500 million (see: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:22664745~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html and http://www.tv5.org/TV5Site/info/communiques-de-presse-article.php?NPID=FR227082  ).  The Inter American Development Bank provided $2.2 billion to Haiti (see: http://www.iadb.org/en/countries/haiti/hope-for-haiti,1001.html ). 

 

The question asked by all Haitians is: where is all this money going since the Haitian people are only getting only seeing table scraps right now?  The first analysis shows that the money donated or borrowed in Haiti’s name is contributing to strengthen the capacity of NGOs, foreign foundations and international contractors.  The way these funds have being spent in Haiti is ad hoc and short term at best.  Foreign actors are not developing programs that contribute to Haiti’s institutional capacity and the transfer of human capacity and knowledge.  Haitian government institutions are getting less than one cent on each dollar donated, and the Haitian private sector, civil society and the Diaspora have been almost totally excluded from receiving a piece of the donations.  International foundations, NGOs and contractors are doing their “own thing” without any coordination or view to the long term rebuilding of the country.  This is shaping up to be a boon for foreign actors and yet another bust for Haitians.  This is not what President Obama promised Haiti when he said that he wanted to create a partnership between the United States and Haiti.

 

CEP continues mismanagement and execution of electoral coup

After lobbying Washington, the CEP President Gaillot Dorsainvil went to Venezuela to observe and learn how to manage the November 28 elections in Haiti.  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is a key ally of President Preval and has instituted a dictatorship in Venezuela controlling the media and the billions of dollars in oil revenue.  

 

Meanwhile several issues continue to raise concerns among the political parties and various sectors of civil society.  There is a strong belief throughout Haiti that the CEP is purposely creating disorder and chaos to facilitate the finalization of what everyone is calling an electoral coup (see: http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=83828&PubDate=2010-09-22  ).  Despite the assurances provided by the number one CEP supporter, UN Haiti Chief, Edmond  Mulet, all Haitians are in agreement that this is not going to be an election.  Rather, this election will be hijacked in order to keep in place Preval and his cronies.  New developments this week include:

 

First, the CEP is trying to staff the polling stations.  They want to hire 30,000 people for this operation. The procedures for hiring these people are not clear (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article10022 ).  Many questions remain unanswered: Will the partisan BEDs and BECs that are playing a key role in this process favor Preval’s party in the hiring?  Will they have time to train these people about the contents of the electoral law and how to manage a polling station?

 

Second, access to electoral cards required by the electoral law continues to be a challenge.  Citizens that lost their cards in January 12 and the new voters are having difficulties retrieving their cards.  For example, in the South East Department, 235,702 have not been able to retrieve their cards despite showing up with the proper identification.  The National Office of Identification (ONI) in that region can only provide 50-60 cards per day.  On this issue there is a big gap between what the CEP and the OAS are saying and reality (see: http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=83820&PubDate=2010-09-21 ).

 

Third, the CEP is working on the ballots.  However, 34 % of the candidates for president and congress have been linked to drug trafficking, corruption and kidnapping by human rights groups If they are already working on the ballot, it seems they have already dismissed this allegation without investigation or response to serious critics. (see: http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=83815&PubDate=2010-09-22 ).

 

US and Canada release partial funds for elections

This week, the United States provided $5 million and Canada provided $5 million Canadian for Haiti’s elections (see: http://metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=18263  ). Haitians are disappointed that Senator Richard Lugar’s call for reform of the partisan CEP has been ignored.

 

Preval and Chavez strike a deal to raid the fuel to support INITE candidates

The Haitian government and President Chavez reached an agreement that $103 million will be used to the elections from the joint Venezuela-Petrocaribe fund that provides Haiti with low cost fuel.  Of those funds, $7 million will go to the management and organization of the elections, and the remaining $96 million will go to Preval’s INITE candidates (see: http://www.lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=83102  ).  Therefore, the INITE candidates will be well funded by state funds, drug cartels and the corrupt Groupe de Bourdon business cartel.  As an aside, 78% of the drugs trafficked through Haiti come from Venezuela. 

 

Political parties make bold moves

This week the Louvri Barye (Open the Door) party abandoned the INITE coalition.  Originally the beneficiary of Preval’s electoral coup was former Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis fired in 2008 for corruption and incompetence.  The division that emerged within INITE has provoked a realignment of allegiances.  There is infighting among seven candidates:  Jude Celestin, Preval’s hand picked successor; Jacques Edouard Alexis, recently pushed aside at the last minute by Preval; Leslie Voltaire, former Minister of Haitian Living Abroad; Yvon Neptune, Aristide’s former prime minister; Yves Christallin, former Minister of Social Affairs; Jean Henry Ceant a prominent lawyer and public notary that met recently with Jean Claude Duvalier and Jean Bertrand Aristide; and, Gerard Blot, an independent candidate from the December 16 platform.  Preval replaced the Minister of Social Affairs, Christallin, with Gerard Germain, a man close to his hand picked successor Celestin and did the same with the Presidential Representatives around the country.  

 

These moves have weakened Alexis who seems to have now sought support from the pro-Cuban National Popular Party (PPN).  By embracing Cuba, Alexis has signaled a move toward the extreme anti-American left that worries many Haitians. This organization has always promoted ways to seek power outside the Haitian constitution (see: http://www.haitilibre.com/article-1269-haiti-politique-le-mpn-apporte-son-soutien-a-jacques-edouard-alexis.html ).

 

Two other coalitions have changed their tactics to combat Preval’s electoral coup. COREH, a coalition of former parliamentarians, has decided to join the electoral process to fight the coup from within.  The Platform of Haitian Patriots (PLAH) coalition has decided to do the same.

 

MINUSTAH tries to cover up a murder in their camp; judge issues subpoenas

After a young Haitian, Gerald Gilles, 16 was “executed” in the MINUSTAH camp in the North Department, there was a widespread perception was that MINUSTAH personnel covered it up by trying to make it look like a suicide.  Since then, the relationship between the Mission and that Department is deteriorating fast with the rest of country watching the situation and becoming more concerned with the role of the UN in Haiti.  Last week, we noted that Mulet requested that the Ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs grant the Mission immunity from investigation of this crime.  His letter was released this week (see my updated report from last week with the letter attached:  http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2010/09/weekly-haiti-electoral-update-4-by.html ).  Despite the silence of the government, the judge in charge of presiding over the case has subpoenaed the parties involved (see: http://metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=18276 ).

 

Government under fire

This week the Minister of Youth and Sports Evans Lescouflair has been accused of raping a 16 year old boy, raping 30 year old Williot Dort at gunpoint and molesting that man’s 17 year old nephew.  This news shocked and outraged the nation this week when one of the victims recounted the crime on a Haitian radio station (see: http://radiovision2000haiti.net/home/?p=5315#more-5315  ).  According to three Haitian senators, Evaliere Beauplan, Youri Latortue and Edmonde Beauzile, the Attorney General acted on formal complaints filed by the victims by requesting the President Preval allow the cases to proceed against the minister, who otherwise would have immunity due to his government status.  Lescouflair is one of Preval’s closest allies so he has ignored the Attorney General’s formal requests dated August 6.  The Minister says this is part of his political opponents plot to unseat him and has refused to speak with Haitian press (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7081 ).  Meanwhile the Commissaire du Gouvernement has gathered medical evidence and testimonies on the issue.  Since the radio testimony of one of the victims, other victims have now come forward over the radio to state that they were also brutally and sexually abused by this minister.

 

This situation unfolded while Preval was in New York at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York this week.  Preval again earned low marks amongst Haitians for a speech they thought was a missed opportunity to address their continued suffering.

 

Simmering tensions lead to murder of a policeman and burning police headquarters

In the South East, a police officer was accused of abusing his power when he shot a young Haitian three times.  The young Haitian died and people throughout the region revolted killing the officer, Guilloteau Hubert, and burning down the police headquarters (see: http://metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=18277 ).  This situation is emblematic of the fragile and perilous situation simmering throughout the country.  The smallest perceived impropriety by the government can provoke such a strong reaction.  People are fed up with government corruption and trust is very low.  Unless the government moves to institute some accountability and demonstrate that they are addressing the needs of the people, these types of small incidents can end up galvanizing the public into organizing their own coup.

 

Also this week, the murder of the popular young Haitian businessman Gary Sajous has raised questions about the further deterioration of the security environment in Haiti.  There seems to be an emerging armed civilian contingent loyal to INITE.

 

Four candidates show up for the first President debate

On Saturday, September 18, 2010, the Haiti Aid Watchdog (HAW) held Haiti’s first 2010 Presidential Debate.  Of the 19 presidential candidates, four took part in the first event:  Jean Hector Anacacis, Pastor Jean Chavannes Jeune, Gerard Blot, and Wilson Jeudy.  In a post-debate survey, 31% of the attendees believed that Senator Anaccacis had a good understanding of governance issues, while 23% thought Wilson Jeudy and Pastor Louis Jeune somewhat understood these issues.  Only 14% thought Dr. Blot had a good notion of governance, and 4% of the participants believed none of the candidates understood what governance is about. 

 When asked “which candidate has articulated his vision clearly”, 31% said Wilson Jeudy, 30% voted for Pastor Jeune’s, 20% were for Anacasis, and 14% for Dr.Blot (5% did not respond). Most of the questions to the candidates were focused on governance issues.

 

This week’s polling results

Jean Henry Ceant:                         50%

Michel Martelly:                         16%

Charles Henry Baker:             16%

Mirlande Manigat:                         8%

Jacques Edouard Alexis:             2%

 

*  Candidates that received 2-4 votes:  Jude Celestin, Leslie Voltaire, Chavannes Jeune, Leon Jeune, Axan Abellard, Eric Charles, Genard Joseph, Garaudy Laguerre, Yvon Neptune, Yves Christallin, Josette Bijou

*  Wilson Jeudy, Jean Hector Anacacis , Gerard Blot received no votes

For more details see: www.solutionshaiti.blogspot.com

 

Conclusion

It is astounding that with Haiti in these circumstances with two months to go before perhaps the most meaningful elections in decades that no one in the international community has expressed any sort of skepticism or concern about the upcoming electoral coup.  Haitians in Haiti and abroad must redouble efforts to ensure that foreign governments providing funding to the elections understand the full scope of the situation on the ground and encourage them to withhold funds until changes are made to address the serious issues.  People are facing a tough hurricane and tropical storm season and things are likely going to get worse before the get better.  Tensions are running high and patience is running thin.

 

For more information, please, contact:

Stanley Lucas

Washington Democracy Project

centurionlucas@gmail.com

(202) 256-6026

 

Weekly Haiti Electoral Update # 4 by Stanley Lucas

Earthquake victims continue to suffer… and continue to protest

The week of September 13-17 has been hard on the 1.7 million children, women, men and senior citizens victims of the earthquake that are still living in the streets. Rain has been pouring in the 1,370 camps that do not meet international standards for disaster victims. The impatience of the victims is rising. They have organized their third sit-in to protest the government inaction and inefficiency of international assistance as well the abusive expulsions from properties where they have set up camps. In absence of any official assistance or plan for the camps, where are these people supposed to go?

Preval decrees right to seize private property

Haitian human rights organizations have condemned the inhuman treatment of the earthquake victims by government officials and their associates in the business cartel known as Groupe de Bourdon for leveraging this tragic situation to enrich themselves (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article9991 ). Preval has issued a decree (see: http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=&ArticleID=83428 ) to allow the state to seize private property in Port-au-Prince commercial district. The goal of the decree is to allow the government and their associates to acquire properties and land for their personal business agenda.  The government office in charge of the issue was not aware of this decree, which violates the constitutional right of private property (see: http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=83582  ). 

 

Meanwhile citizens in the Antibonite, considered the bread basket of the country, are facing famine (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article9981 ). These are the conditions in which Preval and his associates are implementing what everybody is calling an electoral coup.

    

Growing Discontent with the CEP continues; the CEP lobbies Washington

Following a series of illegal decisions discontent against the partisan CEP continues.  Let’s recap the CEP violations:

 

First, the composition of the CEP does not meet the requirement of Article 289 of the constitution (see last week elections update: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2010/09/weekly-haiti-electoral-update-3-by.html ). 

 

Second, the CEP allowed former government officials linked to corruption and drug trafficking to make the final list of presidential and legislative candidates while not providing legal explanations to legitimate candidates that meet the requirements to run, among them Mayor of Petionville Lydie Parent and Ambassador Raymond Joseph.  Around 34% of the candidates are linked to corruption and drug trafficking while Haiti has appeared again on the list of countries released by the White House and the State Department as being a major drug trafficking problem (see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/16/presidential-memorandum-major-illicit-drug-transit-or-major-illicit-drug  ).

 

Third, major coalitions, including Altenativ, Liberasyon, Fusion, UCADDE, have decided to pull out of the electoral process because of the partisanship of the CEP. The partisan CEP decided that they have no right to do so without providing a legal basis for that decision.

 

Fourth, the CEP remains under investigation by the ULCC, the government anti-corruption unit.  One of the charges being investigated is for the 14 million gourdes spent by the CEP president for t-shirts.

 

This week the CEP with the support of the Departmental and Municipal Electoral Bureaus (BED and BEC) announced they will hire thousands of people to run the polling stations.  Due to the partisanship of the BEDs and BECs people worry that supporters of the ruling party INITE would have the control of the majority of the polling stations.

 

Gaillot Dorsainvil, president of the CEP, was in Washington this week to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), including Chairman John Conyers, and Cara McDonald at the State Department. Dorainvil provided his “reassurances” that everything was on track with the elections. Observers found it strange that he would reassure the State Department and the CBC and not the Haitian people and various sectors of the Haitian Diaspora that believe he is in the process of rigging the elections for Preval. It appears as if the Preval team is worried about ensuring they receive the $30 million the US has promised to support the elections. If the CBC and the State Department asked the tough questions, it is unclear how he could provide any meaningful reassurances.  Meanwhile, the Haitian Diaspora have redoubled efforts to call their Representatives and Senators to urge the Congress to freeze the funding for the elections until the CEP is reformed.

Where are we supposed to vote?

The MINUSTAH launched a civic education campaign this week to inform people where they should go to register for the elections. MINUSTAH has come under fire over the past few years for spending $2.1 billion in the country with nothing to show for that investment.

 

Security concerns heighten scrutiny of MINUSTAH

This week Haitians have accused MINUSTAH of being responsible for the increasing insecurity in Haiti. There is a strong belief among Haitians who have seen a pattern of increasing violence in Haiti every time the renewal of the MINUSTAH mandate come up. In the popular mind, MINUSTAH is behind rising levels of violence, which are used to justify its presence. MINUSTAH Chief Edmond Mulet dismissed these claims in a press conference (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7056  ).  Other analysts familiar with the country believe that the government is behind the increase of violence because they need the presence and protection of the UN forces so they can continue to focus on organizing their electoral coup. MINUSTAH is viewed as a necessary tool to prop up the government. Following the hanging of a young Haitian Gerald Jean Gilles in the MINUSTAH Nepalese camp in the north, relations between MINUSTAH and the population in that region have deteriorated.

MINUSTAH Chief Mulet heightened tensions when he sent a letter to Haitian authorities requesting that the Haitian judge cease his investigation of the murder (see: letter below and http://reseaucitadelle.blogspot.com/2010/09/enquete-judiciaire-edmond-mullet.html  ).  This situation has created a strong reaction among the population and the popular radio talk shows of the region.

 

Separately, the Haitian National Police (PNH) successfully captured two prominent gang chiefs responsible for kidnappings around the country.

 

Political parties hold a strategy summit

Hundreds of delegates from the countryside of four political party coalitions, Rasanble, Altenativ, Liberasyon and UCADDE, participated in a three-day convention to analyze the deteriorating situation in-country and develop solution. At the conclusion of the summit, the parties issued a resolution, which serves as a roadmap against: 1. the corruption that is undermining reconstruction; 2. future actions to stop Preval’s electoral coup; and 3. proposed the application of Article 149 of the constitution at the end of Preval’s constitutional mandate on February 7, 2011 (see: http://www.prevalhaiti.com/messages.php/24222 ).

Widening gap between Haitian civil society and UN and the OAS

The OAS responded to last week’s criticism by Haitian civil society with a press release (see: http://media-newswire.com/release_1127279.html  ) that has angered Haitians and widened the gap between OAS, which is supporting the government’s management of the elections, and the rest of Haitian society that believes the process is being rigged while OAS has done nothing to correct the partisanship of the CEP and call out the irregularities. Haitian civil society has written a letter to the Secretary of the United Nations citing the irregularities, the manipulations and the technical realities that make it impossible to organize elections in November. Further, they advocated the postponement of the elections (see: http://forums.sakapfet.com/WBSakapfet/default.asp?action=9&boardid=8&read=20184&fid=37  ).  Two days later MINUSTAH’s Mulet gave a satisfaction sheet to the government and the CEP.

 

Meanwhile former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has visited the country and has showed a great sense of political sensitivity toward Haitians acknowledging the  huge political and technical problems within the electoral process that need to be fixed. He did not take sides in the debate and kept his comments factual.

 

Exclusion and radicalization of the Diaspora

Since the exclusion of the Diaspora from Haiti’s political process, there is a strong sense of frustration and animosity toward the Haitian government, the CEP and the Groupe de Bourdon. After eight months of attempting to engage in reconstruction, various elements of Haitian Diaspora report that the Haitian Government, MINUSTAH and the Interim Reconstruction Commission have excluded Diaspora organizations and businesses from participating in the reconstruction process. Many Diaspora organizations have reached out to the offices of Senators Kerry and Lugar requesting that funds for the elections should be put on hold until irregularities are addressed. Haitian Diaspora are upset by the fact that after eight months there are still 1.7 million of their family and friends living in dangerous conditions. There are some estimates circulating that about 30,000-35,000 Haitians have died since the earthquake due to a lack of medical and humanitarian assistance.

 

Tentative Presidential Debates

For the past four weeks the Haitian Diaspora have organized a series of virtual presidential debates to educate Haitians in-country and in the Diaspora on the importance of debates on issues. There were three debates: one on economic issues such as job, investments, privatizations, fiscal policies, and reconstruction as a whole; one on political issues such as corruption, drug trafficking, amending the constitution, security and national sovereignty; and one on social issues such as education, access to health care, inclusion of the Diaspora, and emergency preparedness. These Diaspora virtual debates pushed Haitian civil society to organize a real debate with the candidates. Of the 19 presidential candidates only four responded. Most of the candidates close to the government linked to corruption boycotted the debate. In addition the Groupe de Bourdon used their economic monopolies to pressure radio station not to broadcast the debate and leaned on the government to shut down electricity to prevent the broadcast of the debate to the population. According to insiders, a real debate would interfere with the electoral coup. In addition analyst have learned that Groupe de Bourdon has scheduled their own debate with the candidates under the banner of an “economic forum”. When analysts found that Groupe de Bourdon had already provided the questions in advance to their chosen candidate, they had to back track and announce that the questions would be provided to all candidates. For information on both virtual and live debates see: http://www.haiticonnexionnetwork.com/Politiques_haitiennes.htm

 

Conclusion

The environment in Haiti is uncertain and dangerous. In the near term, more complications will arise with the reopening of the schools. No efforts have been made to address the issues raised by various sectors of Haitian society. Valid questions based in constitutional law have been completely dismissed.  The disconnect between the international community and the valid concerns on the ground is spiraling into a perception that they are in cahoots with the government in the election rigging. And the international community has done nothing yet to dispel these perceptions.  The only thing that is certain is that uncertainty will prevail over the next 45 days.

 

For more information, please, contact:

Stanley Lucas

Washington Democracy Project

centurionlucas@gmail.com

(202) 256-6026

 

Weekly Haiti Electoral Update # 3 by Stanley Lucas

Eight Months – Still under Rubble

Haiti continues to struggle after the January 12 earthquake. Sunday will mark eight months since that tragic day, and, unfortunately, will mark little progress on the reconstruction front.  Only 2% of the rubble has been removed.  Port-au-Prince has an estimated 28 million cubic meters of debris.  Worse, more than 2 million people are living in 1,370 makeshift camps with no estimate of when they might receive more permanent housing.  Most of the aid organizations on the ground – while very good in intention – are inefficient with little coordination among the organizations and almost no accountability for spending the money.  There have also been reports that some programs are being used to meet the political goals of the Preval Administration.  This is in that context that we released last week electoral update, see: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2010/09/weekly-haiti-electoral-update-by.html      

 

Growing Discontent with the CEP

This week the CEP representative of the Catholic Church, Enel Desir, resigned leaving eight members of the contested CEP in office.  The constitutionality, legality and partiality of the CEP continue to be challenged.  Of the eight remaining members representing various sectors of society only one has legal status.  Article 289 of the constitution stipulates that, “Awaiting the establishment of the Permanent Electoral Council provided for in this Constitution, the National Council of Government shall set up a Provisional Electoral Council of nine (9) members, charged with drawing up and enforcing the Electoral Law to govern the next elections, who shall be designated as follows:

 

1.     One selected by the Executive Branch, who is not an official;

2.     One from the Episcopal Conference;

3.     One from the Advisory Council;

4.     One from the Supreme Court;

5.     One from an agency defending human rights, who may not be a candidate in the elections;

6.     One from the Council of the University;

7.     One from the Journalist’s Association;

8.     One from the Protestant religion; and

9.     One from the National Council of Cooperatives.”

 

Only one of the current members represents one of these sectors.  Preval appointed the others from sectors, such as voodoo and women’s organizations, that are not stipulated in the constitution.

 

1.     Ginette Chérubin was delegated to the CEP by a woman’s organization, Fanm Yo La, headed by Madame Lassegue the current Minister of Culture. Madame Cherubin is also a former Minister of Women’s Affairs under Preval.  While it is of course important to have women well represented on the CEP, women’s organizations are not one of the nine sectors.

 

2.     Laurette Croyance is a close ally of Preval and was picked by the Anglican Church, which of course is not one of the nine sectors.

 

3.     Leonel Raphaël was supposedly picked by the Protestant Federation; however, a network of Protestant members of the Federation has demanded his recall because of the immoral management of the elections by the CEP (see: http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=83303&PubDate=2010-09-07). 

 

4.     Jacques Belzin was designated by a union, Confédération des Travailleurs Haïtiens (CTH).  Prior to his appointment, Belzin worked as an advisor to Preval traveling with him on all his overseas delegations.  Unions are not one of the nine sectors.

 

5.     Gaillot Dorsainvil was selected by the Centre d’Education Spéciale (CES), which is a member of MORENO, one of Preval’s political organizations.  Gaillot is a close associate of Preval.  This is not one of the nine sectors.

 

6.     Anthenor Guerrier represents the voodoo community.  This is not one of the nine sectors. 

 

7.     Ribel Pierre represents the National Council of Political Parties.  This is not one of the nine sectors.

 

8.     Jean Theleve Pierre Toussaint is a friend of Preval nominated by the Minister of the Interior, Paul Antoin Bien Aime, on behalf of the Federation of Locally Elected Officials (CASECs), which is affiliated with the Ministry.  This is not one of the sectors and furthermore he represents a quasi-governmental agency.

 

Meanwhile all the managers of the Departmental Electoral Bureaus (BEDs) and Municipal Bureaus (BECs) that were recruited on the basis of interviews and exams have been fired and replaced by partisan elements of Preval’s INITE Party.

 

In the court of public opinion, 8% believe that the elections will be free and fair and 92% believe that Preval will conduct an electoral coup.  When asked what should be done to stop the coup, 53% believe civil disobedience should be the course of action while 46% believe that the international community should freeze the funds for elections until the appropriate reforms in the CEP take place.  Protest against the CEP is growing, people went after one member of the Council, Ginette Cherubin the South (see: http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?breve2262) and the Haitian Protestant Federation Network have asked the Protestant Federation to recall their representative for the “immoral management of the elections” (see: http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=83303&PubDate=2010-09-07 ).

 

Voter Lists Cannot Be Updated in Time for the Elections

Access to the registration offices to obtain an electoral card remains a huge challenge.  Furthermore, the spokesperson of the National Office of Identification (ONI) stated this week that prior to the elections it would not be possible for the CEP to update the registration list to account for the 300,000 people who lost their lives in the earthquake.  Not cleaning the list will certainly result in massive electoral fraud.  

 

Electoral Identification Confusion

Adding fuel to the fire are conflicting reports on electoral card issuance coming out of the ONI.  On the one hand, Jean Francois claimed that the institution has distributed 48,000 electoral cards but then later revised the number to 800,000.  Between 2007 and 2010, the institution said it had identified 928,000 new voters.  On top of that, nearly 45% of the registered voters lost their electoral cards in the earthquake.  When asked how they intend to reach out to the 2 million potential voters and displaced persons to ensure that every single voter can reapply for their electoral cards, the office said that the OAS was going to do a civic education campaign and offered no details.

 

Security Concerns Escalate

Security continues to be an issue with violence up 33%.  A senior member of the United Nations stated they were greatly concerned about the security situation in light of the huge amount of illegal arms circulating around the country.  A senior Brazilian diplomat added that looking at the conditions in-country, elections will not take place in November.

 

This week, the Haitian police captured a major gang leader, responsible for the kidnapping and killing dozens of Haitian, while he was visiting the Ministry of Finance.  This again raises questions about the link between the government and the gangs (see http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7018).  Since 2006 Preval’s security advisor, Jean Phillippe Jean Baptiste alias Samba Boukman, has been under fire for being a gang leader and head of Operation Bagdad (see http://www.rnddh.org/article.php3?id_article=300) while serving as the head of the Disarmament Commission (CNDDR).  The Commission is supposed to collect arms from the gang leaders to get them off the streets.  In practice, they are collecting arms to distribute them to their own gangs (see http://lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=&ArticleID=76321).  The police are doing their best, but are constantly undermined by criminal elements in the governments.

 

Criminal elements linked to former President Aristide continue to pose a threat to the elections through their ongoing involvement in kidnapping and drug trafficking.  The CEP has allowed many human rights violators, people involved in corruption and drug trafficking to run for the presidency, Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. These candidates are part of a heavily armed civilian network of the government – and of Aristide – that will use violence and intimidation in the run up to the elections.  Because of their political connections, the police will be very timid toward them.

Political Parties to Hold Political Strategy Meeting

Political parties continue to call for a new independent and non-partisan electoral council to manage the elections. They are organizing a political summit next week to decide a unified course of action.  The majority of them seem to tilt toward a civil disobedience campaign, while some would prefer that international funding for the elections be frozen until the CEP is changed.  So far, the Canadian government has not provided the funds that they promised for the elections yet.  

 

Preval and Aristide’s coalitions have splintered into many groups.  Many presidential candidates from that old coalition are distancing themselves from both men.  Preval’s corruption and mismanagement of the country since 2006 and especially after January 12 earthquake has plunged his job approval rate into the single digits eroding his political support.  There is renewed outrage with Aristide’s corruption as Haitians are reminded of the fact that Haiti’s General Accounting Offices established that he stole $350 million from the state coffers (see official reports on Aristide’s corruption:

1. http://www.radiokiskeya.com/RapportUCREF.pdf

2. http://www.haitipolicy.org/cont).

 

Among the 19 candidates, at least five are from the former Preval-Aristide coalition. They include: Jacques Edouard Alexis, a former prime minister fired for corruption and incompetence by the Haitian Senate in April 2008; Leslie Voltaire, former Minister of Haitians Living Abroad; Preval and Aristide advisor, Yves Christallin, Preval’s Minister of Social Affairs; Yvon Neptune, former Prime Minister under Aristide and close ally of Preval; Jean Henry Ceant, an Aristide lawyer and, Preval’s handpicked successor, Jude Celestin.  Preval had initiated a series of meetings characterized as “briefings” for the presidential candidates.  Most of the candidates have declined the invitation, and the one that did meet with him released a statement denouncing his management of the country and the partisanship of the CEP (see http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7034).

 

Civil Society Criticizes the Silence of the UN and the OAS

The major organizations of civil society came out this week against all the irregularities and technical failures of the electoral process and the partisanship of the CEP.  They have also focused their criticism on the poor performance of OAS Secretary General Miguel Insulza for acting in violation of the institution’s Democratic Charter that requires free and fair elections for the transfer of power.  They cannot fathom why the OAS is silent on Preval’s obvious attempts at an electoral coup.  The organizations also went after Colin Granderson, the head of the OAS electoral observation mission, which they perceive as partisan (see http://radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7019).  The organization has been criticized for providing technical assistance to the CEP to organize the elections while simultaneously observing and evaluating the process (see

1. http://metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=18227

2. http://metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=18167).

 

Haitians believe that the OAS is acting as both judge and jury.  The organization has not addressed any of the criticisms and tried to meet privately with the actors who responded that until the OAS starts issuing reports on each step of the process, they are wasting money and will not be taken seriously.

 

Using International Aid to Campaign

It is becoming increasingly clear that the government is using humanitarian aid to support its candidates. The “cash for work” program has been under fire this week because Rene Momplaisir, a gang leader advising Preval, has been distributing favors with aid money in the first, second, third districts in Port-au-Prince as well in Croix des Bouquets, Leogane, Grand Goave and La Gonave.  Several NGOs and aid organizations close to the government have been implicated.

 

Exclusion of the Diaspora

All presidential candidates from the Diaspora community have been excluded from the process, and it seems that the four million Haitians living in 20 countries will not have representation and will not be able to vote.  That has created a growing anger within the Diaspora community particularly in the United States, who are calling their Members of Congress requesting that the United States freeze the funds they agreed to provide for the elections until the necessary reforms to ensure that the elections are managed fairly are taken.

 

Conclusion

After eight months living in camps among rubble in primitive conditions, tempers are wearing thin.  Everyone knows aid money poured into to support the Haitian people and no one is seeing the affect of that money.  They are aware of the election rigging underway and are fed up.  This is becoming a highly volatile situation with a strong prospect of erupting into a violent and chaotic political mess.  Meanwhile, the international community is sitting on the sidelines.  It is time for them to back up the Haitian people and insist on a free and fair electoral process – particularly since they are footing the bill. 

 

For more information, please, contact:

Stanley Lucas, Washington Democracy Project, centurionlucas@gmail.com (202) 256-6026