Haiti Runoff Electoral Update # 1 by Stanley Lucas

Background

On November 28, Haiti organized an election for President, a third of the senate and 99 seats in the lower Chamber. The pre-electoral period was characterized by political manipulation of the electoral process by the ruling party INITE, a partisan Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), corruption, questionable technical assistance that led to organizational failures, and weak international electoral observation missions, for more see pre and post electoral updates: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2011/01/haiti-pre-and-post-electoral-updates-by.html

Election day was characterized by blatant and universal efforts to rig the vote and various technical breakdowns at the local and national levels. As a result, 13 of the Presidential candidates called for the annulment of the elections. Despite calls for the annulment, the CEP went ahead with the ballot counting and in the process presided over the rigging and manipulation of tally sheets.  The following is a chronology of events immediately following the elections:

• On December 6, the CEP completed the “counting” process. That day observers present at the tabulation center of the CEP took notes of the final results for President; it was understood that Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly qualified for the runoff.  Based on that information international news outlets broadcast those results.
•   On December 7, the CEP – under the influence and direction of President Preval -- changed the results and put the ruling INITE party candidate, Jude Celestin, in the run off omitting Martelly. 
•  At the same time, the Legislatives elections were subject to deeper manipulation. A revolt erupted around the country in the following days.  
• On December 9 the OAS Electoral Mission outraged Haitians when they stated in a press conference that: “there were some problem on election day but the process was acceptable and sound”. The Secretary General of the United Nations had to subsequently issue a statement to calm the outraged Haitian voters saying that there were in fact serious problems with the process and they were bigger than previously evaluated.  
•  Preval called on the OAS to recount the tally sheets for the president only (see:  ).  At the end of the process the OAS recommended that the results be corrected and that the ruling party candidate withdraw from the elections leaving Manigat and Martelly to participate in the run off.
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to Haiti to address the situation. No one knows the details of the conversation between her and Preval and Haiti’s political network -- even the US ambassador did not take part in those private discussions according to Haitian government sources.
• Preval’s CEP then published the presidential “results” according to the OAS recommendations. The rigged legislative elections have not been addressed so essentially the ruling INITE party has been allowed to steal a number of seats. Emboldened by the inattention to the initial round of legislative elections, they are currently preparing to steal the remaining seats up for election in the runoff.
•  Two of the losing Presidential candidates have contested the legality of the election results with the Haitian Attorney General’s Office.

Meanwhile former President-a-Vie Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has been charged with economic and political crimes.  Ousted former President Jean Bertrand Aristide is trying to get back in country and will likely face charges for his political and economic crimes.

This is the context in which the OAS is calling on the CEP to move forward with the runoff.

The Provisional Electoral Council

Several members of the CEP have been found responsible for the manipulation of the results -- in favor of the ruling party -- at the Tabulation Center. Vice President Toussaint, Ginette Cherubin, Ribel Pierre, Gaillot Dorsinvil, and Director General Robert Opont appear to be the source of the manipulations. Michel Martelly called for their replacement and Mirlande Manigat requested change within the electoral machinery. The Haitian people have completely lost confidence in the CEP.

The CEP Director General Robert Opont, the CEP technical personnel working at the Tabulation Center and the leadership of the BED and BECs (the local election officials) have played a direct role in the manipulation of the tally sheets and elections results are still in place. None of them have been removed despite calls by the presidential candidates, Haitian civil society and the Diaspora. Every Haitian knows that the partisan CEP’s focus is to give Preval two-thirds of both chambers.

Haitians have become skeptical of the international community’s reaction to and leadership of the electoral process. To date, the OAS Electoral Observation Mission has refused to address the irregularities of the legislative elections despite numerous reports by domestic electoral observation groups documenting the fraud and violence.  Haitians believe that the international community struck a deal with Preval allowing him to steal the legislative elections in order to save face. The belief is that if this process moves forward without addressing legislative election results, there will likely be a huge political crisis in the months ahead. How do you explain to the people that voted for change that the ruling party stole (unchallenged) two-thirds of both legislative chambers?

Election Results

This is the first time in Haiti’s history that the CEP published results without listing the number of vote that each of the legislative candidates received. Even Haiti’s dictators used to take the time to publish fake results. The CEP published a list of 20 names of candidates that were “elected” in the first round for the House of Deputies (most from INITE) and four winning senate candidates (all INITE).

Only four of the eight CEP members signed the elections results; five signatures are required.  The CEP spokesperson was called to the Attorney General’s Office to answer questions about why results were published in the manner that violates the Electoral Law and voter and candidates’ constitutional rights. The next step is for the Attorney General to question members of the CEP. CEP President Gaillot Dorsinvil has expressed concern that he could be arrested at any moment.

Voter Lists

Most observers will agree that after the first round, the CEP manipulated the voter lists in order to prevent high voter turnout, which would be a negative for the ruling party candidate. On election day, voters stood in front of polling stations from 4:00 a.m. until noon and could not vote because their names were not on the voter registration list. An estimated 45-50% of the voters went back home after waiting six to seven hours. Many of those that finally found their names on the list learned that somebody from the ruling party had already voted for them. To date, the corrupt CEP has not taken any steps to correct the voter registration list. In fact, on February 15, the CEP has issued a communiqué (#70) that seems to suppress voter participation by stating that Article 32 of the Electoral Law says that registration of citizens should take place 60 days prior to elections. According to this timetable, no one will be able to register. In other words, the lists will not be corrected to allow disenfranchised voters to participate.

Tally Sheets

Domestic observers and International Observation Mission had shown exactly how the CEP manipulated the tally sheets at the Tabulation Center by comparing the duplicate (copy) of the tally sheet at the polling station with the original used at the Tabulation Center. For example, 18 votes noted at the polling stations were changed to 118 votes at the Tabulation Center. No steps have been taken to address this unsophisticated and blatant manipulation of the resuts.

Security

The security situation has worsened. More than seven police officers have been murdered since the elections. According to witnesses who called into Haiti’s Radio Signal, it seems that in each case the police officers were specifically targeted.

Many are afraid that part of the Aristide network that used to target police and kidnap innocent Haitian citizens are reconstituting. From 2004 to 2006 Aristide ordered his gangs to kidnap and spread violence as part of a strategy to force his return. These groups killed 1,941 Haitian citizens, kidnapped 800, and raped 400 under a violent campaign known as “Operation Bagdad I” -- a similar number of people were brutalized under “Operation Bagdad II”. At that time with the same goal another Operation Pakatan’n (or Operation Can’t Wait) was launched by Amaral Duclona one of Aristide’s right hand men and resulted in the killing of dozens of citizens. (see:  1. http://www.rnddh.org/article.php3?id_article=314  2. http://www.rnddh.org/article.php3?id_article=300 ).  It took three years for the police to disband and get rid of these gangs. Many citizens believe that the recent targeting of the police is linked to Aristide and this marks the beginning of Operation Bagdad III for the return of Aristide.

Political Parties, Haitian Senators and former Presidential Candidates

A coalition of political parties – some boycotted and others participated in the process – have called for the annulment of the elections and the application of Article 149 of the constitution, which would replace President Preval with a Supreme Court Justice.  They assert that Preval’s term legally ended on February 7.  This coalition is comprised of Altenativ, Rasanble, Liberasyon , UCADDE, Lavalas and several Haitian senators.  The 12 presidential candidates who each won 1% of the vote are also calling for the annulment of the elections. This coalition is organizing protests around the country that so far are not having any traction.

Civil Society

Civil society organizations have accepted the run-off solution to the rigged presidential elections. Haitian civil society continues express outrage for the manipulation of the legislative results though. They are calling for the verification and comparison of the polling station tally sheets with the ones used at the Tabulation Center for both the Deputy and Senate candidates.

Preval Term Illegally Extended

Preval’s Constitutional Term ended on February 7, 2011.  Rene Preval has stated that he will remain in office until a newly elected president is sworn in. He has passed a law to extend his term in office until May 14.  For Haitians this law is unconstitutional, but because of the division of the opposition -- and in the interest of stability -- Rene Preval has been given a pass. We have witnessed over the past few weeks the disastrous consequences of prioritizing stability over democracy, however.

OAS Electoral Observation Mission

The OAS observation Mission (EO) needs new leadership. In the eyes of the Haitian people, this mission has not contributed to a free and fair electoral process.  On the contrary, they have made things worse. The Mission demonstrated that it was incompetent and inefficient time and time again.  After the fiasco of November 28, the OAS EO stated that the elections were acceptable to them and needed to retract those statements later. While observations have a key role to play in ensuring free and fair elections, the OAS needs to regain credibility by, at a minimum, replacing the leadership of that mission.

MINUSTAH, Elections, Cholera

As a Mission, MINUSTAH has failed the Haitian people. From the mismanagement of the earthquake, to the strengthening of democratic institutions, through the assistance provided for the elections and the spreading of the cholera, the leadership of the Mission has shown incompetency. While there has been modest progress with their efforts to strengthen the Haitian National Police, MINUSTAH has little else to show for the US$4 billion spent from 2004 to 2010, and does not merit the $864 million requested for 2010-11.

The countries contributing to this Mission, including the U.S. taxpayers, deserve a more productive use of their money. Cholera continues to kill Haitian citizens. There are approximately 7,500 dead and 130.000 contaminated. There seems to be no clear strategy on how to address the epidemic that is killing Haitians at an alarming rate. The evidence presented by the US CDC pinpointing the cholera bacteria to a strain from South Asia combined with the French report concluding the Nepalese soldiers as the source of the outbreak, should be enough to establish MINUSTAH as the source of the epidemic. The UN has denied these claims and has appointed UN personnel to investigate the source of the epidemic (judge and jury). This failure to address the situation will continue to undermine the credibility of MINUSTAH in the eyes of the Haitian people and the Diaspora. Many Haitians expected help from the Obama Administration in order to establish the United Nations responsibility in the cholera epidemic and have them support the cholera recovery in the same way he held BP responsible for the oil clean up. Cholera is not only killing people, it is having a negative impact on the consumption of local rice and vegetables because they are grown on the river that was the source of the cholera epidemic.  People are afraid to buy those products.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction is stalled. Haitians are upset at the Haiti Interim Reconstruction Commission (HIRC) led by former President Clinton and Prime Minister Bellerive. The 12 Haitian members of that commission have public decried the fact that all the contracts are allocated to foreign friends and companies, and they are used merely as rubber stamps for decisions (see: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2011/01/haiti-interim-reconstruction-commission.html ). Many Haitians hope that structure will be addressed for a lack of results and will in the future include greater Haitian input (from Ministers and the Haitian business sectors) and will be more inclusive.

Haiti’s Strongmen

The return of former dictator Jean Claude Duvalier and the potential return of former dictator Jean Bertrand Aristide is a threat to Haiti’s political stability and the rule of law.  Both strongmen have records of political and economic crimes in Haiti. Aristide and Duvalier both have a myriad of U.S. lawyers and lobbyists advocating for them in the United States and the international media in order to silence Haitian voices calling for justice.

Duvalier has hired former US Congressman Bob Barr and others to defend him and promote his reconciliation propaganda on the international scene, see: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/former-rep-bob-barr-haiti-is-worse-now-than-under-his-client-baby-doc-duvalier/ . While Aristide continues to leverage ideology (casting himself as a victim of US imperialism) to hide his political and economic crimes by using lobbyists, lawyers, see: http://www.haitipolicy.org/Lobbying7.htm , ideological actors, and former US government officials to call for his immediate return, see: http://haitisolidarity.net/downloads/Miami%20Herald%20Ad%20Jan%202011.pdf . He made most of these people millionaires by granting them access to sweetheart deals and lucrative retainers.  Members of this network include: Ira Kurzban, Brian Concannon, Randall Robinson, and others. He has also brought to the table some new American political figures like Reverend Jeremiah Wright to advance his case as a victim of US imperialism. For Haitians it’s about political assassination, kidnappings, corruption, drug trafficking, and embezzlement. Haitians want justice brought to Duvalier, Aristide and Preval for their crimes, for more see: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2011/02/united-nations-partisanship-in-haiti-by.html

Launching Runoff Campaigns

On February 17, Manigat and Martelly launched their campaign for the runoff. Manigat chose to hold a press conference focusing on issues and responding to questions about education and the fate of Haiti’s strongmen. Martelly took the road and opened his campaign in Cap Haitien, the second largest city of the country where thousands of youth attended in an environment of victory. During the week Wyclef Jean, a singer that failed to meet the requirements to run for president, endorsed Martelly. Polling showed that if elections were held today, Martelly would get 66% of the vote and Manigat 33%. The runoff campaign was launched without any efforts to address the manipulations of the legislative elections and without any effort to address the technical and political issues that were at the source of political instability after the first round.

Recommendations

There are a number of technical issues that should be addressed in order to avoid further political unrest and ensure a more democratic process in the run offs:

• Partisan members of the CEP under investigation should be replaced immediately
•  The Catholic Church should name its member to the CEP
• The Director General and technical employees of the Tabulation Center should be replaced
• Members of the BED and BECs should be replaced with nonpartisan actors
• Voter registration list should be fixed
• The tally sheets and results for the senate and deputy candidates should be reviewed for manipulation 

Additionally, there are number of critical political environment issues that should be addressed:

• Security strategies should be reviewed and strengthened
• Haiti Judicial System should indict the country’s strongmen
• OAS Electoral Observation Mission should be revamped – replacing the leadership as a first step
•  MINUSTAH’s leadership should be replaced
•  An international independent panel to investigate and establish the source of the cholera epidemic should be appointed. This should include Haitian experts from abroad.

$1.15 billion US Aid Package for Haiti Goes to the Clinton Global Initiative by Stanley Lucas

For the third time this week, Fox News Anchor Bill O’Reilly highlighted the “Haiti Aid Scandal”.  First, I think it would be helpful to outline the various pots of money that the US Government has allocated to Haiti so that we can all be clear about what is being discussed:

 

         1.     In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the US Government allocated approximately $1 billion in aid.  Of that, only a couple hundred million actually got to the Haitian people for emergency assistance (medical, food, water, etc).  The rest was to fund the cost of sending the 82^nd Airborne and military down to Haiti to stabilize the country – as the UN mission was very badly hit by the earthquake.

 

2. Another $1.5 billion was allocated by the Congress for recovery (removing rubble) and rebuilding (permanent shelter).  Nine months later, more than 1.5 million people are still living in the streets.  That money was appropriated by Congress months ago and is only going to be released by the State Department in the coming weeks.  The State Department took months to submit their plan for how to combat waste and fraud with the allocated funds.

 

3. There is a third pot of money in the amount of $500 million for infrastructure projects that is currently being held in the Senate by Senator Tom Coburn (R) because it is “unfunded” meaning they have not offset the budget expense by an equal budget cut.

 

 The stunning news tonight is that the Clinton Global Initiative will receive all $1.15 billion of the $1.5 billion to deploy in Haiti as they see fit.  For the Haitian Diaspora in the US and Haitians in-country it is somewhat surprising that the Secretary of State would put the money exclusively in her husband’s hands.  This is disappointing because it is not what President Barack Obama promised Haitians.  He committed to developing a partnership with Haiti – meaning that US aid would go to directly to Haitian institutions to strengthen their capacity not third party. 

 

 There are several potential implications for this money going exclusively to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).  First, there are potentially other organizations that would be deserving of some of these funds but now everyone will have to prove themselves worthy to Mr. Clinton.  Second, this means big dollars for Clinton’s NGO.  The standard overhead or administrative fee used by NGOs is 22%, which means Bill Clinton’s NGO potentially just secured $253 million in overhead expenses, and has potentially fully funded his Initiative for years to come.  CGI will then presumably make grants to other organizations, which will also require an overhead operating budget.  This multiplier effect on overhead could result in more money than necessary going to operational budgets for international NGOs.  This is potentially a lot of money going into the US system and not actually reaching the victims. Third, Clinton does not have a stellar track record of helping Haiti.  On March 31, 1995, President Bill Clinton promised the people of Haiti 1,000 km in new roads, 1 million trees and job creation (see: http://ftp.resource.org/gpo.gov/papers/1995/1995_vol1_437.pdf ).  The people of Haiti are still waiting for him to fulfill that 15-year-old promise.  This has led to much skepticism about President Clinton’s high profile position in Haiti, which was brought to light after his appointment as UN Special Envoy last year (see: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2009/07/former-president-clinton-takes-his.html ).

 

A skeptical young Haitian listening to President Clinton last week

But most importantly, the question remains: Why doesn’t the US use the money to directly fund Haitian institutions (government, civil society, and Diaspora) and place technical advisors within those organizations to monitor the funds and program implementation?  Haitians have serious doubts that the Clinton Global Initiative will use the money to strengthen Haitians and Haitian civil society.  And, they believe that part of the reason that aid has been so ineffective after all these years is because money has not been used to strengthen capacity. See: http://metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.php?id=18364

 

One of the themes that emerged after the earthquake was the complete inability of the Haitian Government to respond to the earthquake and the disarray that the country is in despite $11 billion in aid money that has been poured into the country over the past 25 years.  What happened was that most donors channeled their aid through international NGOs and bypassed the Haitian Government, civil society, Haitian Diaspora and other Haitian institutions.  To be sure, the Haitian Government is rife with corruption, but there are ways to build capacity and fight corruption.  What happened was that many international NGOs built capacity in-house instead of building Haitian capacity.  Furthermore, there was a lack of coordination among aid agencies resulting in redundancy or one-off programs that did little to benefit Haiti in the long term.  If the United States wants to help Haitians and have a real impact with this money, they should change the framework and prioritize investing in bringing skills and capacity to the Haitian people rather merely financing NGOs.

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 

Lugar Calls for Business Reform; Proposes Haitian-American Enterprise Fund By Stanley Lucas

Summary

On July 22, Senator Lugar released a report, authored by senior staff members, entitled, “Without Reform, No Return on Investment in Haiti” (see http://lugar.senate.gov/issues/foreign/lac/haiti/pdf/investment.pdf ). The report summarizes the limited impact of US and foreign investment in Haiti over the past two decades and the serious hurdles to setting up a business. In order to jumpstart the private sector, Lugar has proposed the establishment of a Haitian American Enterprise Fund. The bill was introduced on April 14 and is pending review in the Committee on Foreign Affairs (see http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.3202: ). The Fund would be modeled on the successful models of the enterprise funds created in the 1990s for Poland, Hungary, and other European countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Analysis

Lugar’s team hit the nail on the head by pinpointing the reform of the business sector as the key to sustainable economic growth. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, former President Bush economist Glen Hubbard wrote a similar piece (see http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2010/02/true-marshall-plan-for-haiti-by-glenn.html ) arguing that the success of the Marshall Plan in post-WWII Europe was based on the vibrant private sector, which was lacking in Haiti. To be sure, Haiti needs business reform and to formalize the private sector. The Haitian American Enterprise Fund is an interesting approach, but must be structured in a way that allows all Haitians access to the Fund. As the Fund is currently outlined, it will do nothing more than further strengthen Haiti’s elite business cartel and the current discredited leadership.

The report misses a critical element of why the business sector is in such disarray, and why there is almost no political will to make the necessary reforms. Haiti’s economy is controlled by a business cartel known as the “Groupe de Bourdon”, named after an affluent neighborhood. This cartel controls about 95% of the economy – and contributes a mere 4% of the income taxes collected. In the private sector they control food importation, the agriculture sector, banks, transportation, etc. They essentially monopolize all sectors, including the informal sector. For example, many people in the informal sector will buy bags of rice or other consumer products and then sell these items in the market for a slight mark up. They buy these products from the Groupe at an extremely high interest rate. It is feudalism at its best.

They do this with the support and participation of the Preval Administration. They financed Preval’s campaign, and in return, they gained control of the public and private sector. In the public sector, they leveraged their access to the President, they put in place the ministers of finance, commerce, public works, the directors generals of the tax offices and office to acquire state lands, the port and customs, the governor of the central bank, and economic advisors to the president. They also secured a monopoly of oil (via Petro Caraibe) and grains through PL480, a USAID program for Haiti. It is also the Groupe that is responsible for the incredible interest rates of 48-60% on small business loans and the limited access to credit. With this access they were able to acquire profitable state institutions for pennies on the dollar under the guise of privatization.

This Groupe also has the means to access the US Government, Congress and international aid. Several members of the cartel briefed the senate staffers. Unfortunately, the Lugar staff did not take the opportunity to meet with the local chambers of commerce and entrepreneurs that have been dedicated to bringing opportunity to all Haitians. This powerful group has effectively lobbied US codels, international delegations, Clinton, UN, IADB, and the World Bank. With the support of the Haitian government they have secured international aid funds to finance pet projects that do not at all benefit the Haitian people as a whole. For example, they are trying to secure an $80 million grant to build their own private university rather than modernizing and rebuilding the affordable state university. These loans and grant are taken on behalf of the Haitian people but finance their own end.

The report also misses the reason why there is a “dearth” of political will to make business reforms. The report states that President Preval is “resistant to overtures by the World Bank and other international partners to make difficult decisions, ostensibly because he fears being labeled a dictator by political adversaries if he makes certain reforms by decree.” First, it is unclear why these reforms would need to be made by decree. There is a legislature that is motivated to show some progress on important issues in advance of elections. But more fundamentally questionable is the assessment of Preval’s motives. He was unafraid of illegally extending his term in office and unafraid of passing the Emergency and Reform Act nullifying Haitian civil liberties. It is doubtful that he would be afraid to pass business reform measures that would make access to credit more possible and streamline regulatory procedures. President Preval is “resistant to international overtures” because the current system benefits him personally and his associates in the business cartel.

Finally, it is also somewhat confusing as to why the Dominican Republic factors so prominently into the report. Staff members met with as many representatives of the DR private sector as the Haitian private sector. As noted, the relationship between the two countries has been strained due to poor treatment of Haitian workers and a host of other issues. It is unclear why the DR private sector is bemoaning the fact that Haitian leaders are not looking at “island wide” recovery. The DR did not sustain the damage that Haiti did, and has likely only benefitted from the disaster with the increased numbers of aid workers and aid importation through their airports and ports.

Recommendations

The Haitian-American Enterprise Fund is an excellent idea, but there are additional efforts that could be undertaken to ensure that the private sector is bolstered:

· The Fund should be structured in a way that takes into account an entrenched business cartel and allows all Haitians access to the opportunities the Fund presents.

· While the Fund idea is strong and proven, it would be better as part of a more robust and comprehensive plan that includes technical assistance for legislative and regulatory reform to Haiti’s cumbersome business codes, training the judiciary and professionalization of government staff.

· Considering their past two decades performance, US AID Haiti’s capability to implement such a Fund should be reviewed. The US AID Haiti mission among the highest funded missions worldwide, but has not demonstrated a proven track record of results for the level of funding they have received.

· The report neglects to discuss the role of the Haitian Diaspora’s role as a key resource in supporting the building of the business sector. Unfortunately, the Lugar staff did not meet with prominent Haitian Diaspora business leaders in the US. This has been an issue for the Diaspora with the Administration and Congress throughout the rebuilding process and has left the Diaspora community wondering why they have been so seriously marginalized from the process.

· The regional and departmental Chambers of Commerce have also been neglected these organizations which have proven more representative of Haitian interests. They could use capacity building and professionalization programs. In addition, they are an excellent and more balanced source of information.

· In light of Preval’s resistance to implement private sector reforms, the Congress could consider working directly with Haiti’s legislature, which is highly motivated to undertake meaningful reform, especially with upcoming elections. Congress could consider establishing an interparliamentary exchange program with the Haitian legislature.

· Finally, the report mentions that critical lack of infrastructure is a primary obstacle to doing business in Haiti. This is an excellent area for US aid as it provides immediate job opportunities for Haitians, opportunities for US companies and tangible results. Most importantly, investing in infrastructure skirts the complicated political issues, such as FDI and the DR.

Haiti Diaspora and The Next Elections: Proposals by Stanley Lucas for the Next Provisional Electoral Council (CEP)

Future Members of the Council:

I would like to extend my patriotic greetings to the Council. I am writing to encourage you to formalize participation of Haitian Diaspora in the new Haitian Parliament. Our contribution to Haiti – financially and technically – has been enormous and merits real representation in the Haitian Government.

As you may know, there are more than four million Haitian Diaspora living throughout the world -- two million is the U.S. alone. Last year, we remitted U.S.$1.9 billion. The Haitian National budget is US$2 billion. The Haitian government collects taxes on our remittances, investments and on our extensive and frequent travel to the country.

Despite our significant contribution, the Diaspora is not represented in Haiti. A true representative democracy requires the meaningful participation from such an influential group in the political, economic and social issues of our country. To that end, we respectfully propose that the time has come for Haitian Diaspora representation to be made official.

In the next election, we recommend the Council increase the number of senate seats from 30 to 40 with the inclusion of 10 new seats for the Haitian Diaspora. Seats should be distributed regionally along the following lines:

United States – 4 seats

• New York/New Jersey/Connecticut

• Washington, DC/Northern Virginia/Maryland

• Florida, Georgia

• Boston

Caribbean – 2 seats

• Dominican Republic

• Bahamas & Turks and Caicos

Canada – 2 seats

Europe – 2 seats

Polling stations could be installed in Haitian Embassies and Consulates as well as offering absentee ballots by mail. The Diaspora Senators would be required to be a resident of the region they campaign to represent and voters would cast their votes in their respective region of residency.

At a future date, and after this model has been tested, we could explore extending Diaspora participation to the House of Deputies. In the meantime, these elections are a low-cost, high impact way to engage and invest the Haitian Diaspora in the rebuilding and reinvigorating of our country. The only costs associated with this endeavor would be ballot printing, ballot boxes, and training for polling station workers and monitors. These costs are negligible and could even be requested from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) if CEP lacks the budget.

Members of the Provisional Electoral Council: There is no better way to begin to integrate the Haitian Diaspora at this moment when the country is so in need of resources, capacity and expertise. I eagerly await your response.

Senator Lugar Calls for Haitian Elections, but Challenges are Significant by Stanley Lucas

On June 10, Senator Lugar released a report to the Members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations entitled, "Haiti: No Leadership No Elections" (for a copy of the report, see: http://lugar.senate.gov/issues/foreign/lac/haiti/pdf/report.pdf ). The report, prepared by his key staffers after a visit to Haiti, calls for President Preval to immediately initiate procedures to move forward with November 28, 2010 elections.

While we can all agree that Haiti has a leadership crisis and that a democratically elected leader must emerge, the report misses or dismisses several hurdles that will undermine the credibility of the elections and, more importantly, will pose a serious threat to the safety of the Haitian people. The report focuses largely on procedural aspects, such as issuing electoral registration cards and submission of the Presidential request so the organization work can commence and international aid money can begin to flow in. But the report, unfortunately, complete misses the security aspect of elections and does not factor in the historical precedent for discredited elections to throw the country into complete chaos. The report concludes that the leadership vacuum is more detrimental than the challenges stemming from less than perfect elections. They cite Afghanistan and Iraq as prime examples of this theory.

HURDLES TO NOVEMBER ELECTIONS

1. Electoral Infrastructure Cannot Be Rebuilt by November

The earthquake affected 3 million people, and five months later 2.1 million of them are still living in makeshifts camps 1,350 in total without potable water, healthcare, food, or basic services. Approximately, 90,000 citizens left Port-au-Prince to the Central Plateau; 160,000 went to the Artibonite Department; and, 60,000 went to the Grande Anse. Other Departments have also absorbed people, but there are no official or unofficial numbers yet.These citizens are putting pressure on the public infrastructure of the Departments that they are using as temporary residencies. The public schools and other public facilities have essentially turned into public housing. And finally, of the 140 municipalities in Haiti, the earthquake directly affected 80 and indirectly 40.

The earthquake took an equally alarming toll on the meager electoral resources existing in Haiti:

The headquarters of the electoral council was destroyed;

66% of the polling stations in four geographic department were destroyed;

6,000 schools collapsed along with most of the public government buildings that usually serve as registration and voting centers;

     Of the 4.5 million voters, more that 45% of the voters have lost their electoral registration card, which is mandatory to vote. Approximately, 1.9 million people will need new registration cards and the National Office of Identification (ONI) issuing these cards says that they can produce only 60 cards a day. Many have also lost their national identify cards, birth certificates and ownership papers making it extremely challenging to establish identities for the reissuance of electoral cards; and,

     Approximately 300,000 Haitians lost their lives in the earthquake and probably 70% of them were registered voters; therefore, the voters' list will need to be updated to reflect that loss.

The electoral process has 23 steps from the installation of the electoral council to the publication of the results in the middle of that you have the naming of the municipal and regional oversight officials, issuance of the electoral law, voter and candidate registration, training for officials, etc. Under normal circumstances, it takes ten months to organize legislative and presidential elections.

While the electoral council may tell the U.S. Government that they can organize elections, given these facts, the logistics for a November election are completely unrealistic.Additionally, they have also neglected to factor in that Haiti is facing the added serious threat this summer of the worst hurricane season in decades. It is likely that more than 13 violent storms could hit the country this summer, which will clearly require further aid not to mention emergency planning.

2. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) Has No Credibility

The Lugar report references and IFES report that states that while the CEP is technically capable of organizing elections, "giving the mandate of organizing the upcoming elections to the current CEP would mean that the electoral process will be considered flawed and questionable from the beginning."

The CEP has been politically discredited for previous participation in rigged and manipulated elections in April and June 2009 in favor of President Preval's party, Inite. As a result, civil society groups, political parties, churches, private sector representatives, and the Haitians Diaspora have called for the naming of nine new members in accordance with Article 289 of the Constitution.

Poll worker on election day

Technically, the CEP lacks the infrastructure or expertise to organize elections. U.S. assistance to Haiti's elections started in 1989 at the request of Provisional President Pascale Trouillot.From 1989 to 2010 the United States spent US$400 million supporting Haiti's elections. After 21 years of technical and financial support to Haiti's electoral process, there is nothing to show for that investment: no credible or permanent electoral council, no official voter registry, no professional staff, no IT system, and no permanent infrastructure (such as ballot boxes or ballot formats). Every two years, the entire process needs to be recreated by a provisional electoral council, the CEP, with international assistance and maybe some leftover ballot boxes.

Haiti's electoral machine has not been institutionalized because no benchmarks were put in place to ensure the construction of an impartial and competent electoral council. The beneficiaries of U.S. funding, the United Nations, have a poor track record in institutionalizing electoral processes around the world. Instead of building sustainable indigenous capacity, they typically engage expensive consultants and foreign companies to organize and administer the elections. All the expertise leaves the country after the elections, and there is no effort to build capacity. This practice must change.

3. The Security of the Haitian People Cannot be Ensured

The Preval machine along with his allies in the corrupt business cartel, Groupe de Bourdon, want to preserve their power and privilege and will continue to employ violence and intimidation in that quest. There is no doubt that they are planning to intimidate voters and employ violence to influence the vote. This puts the entire electorate in danger, and there are no security forces to mitigate that risk.

The MINUSTAH (or UN headquarters) was completely demolished in the earthquake and has not been rebuilt. They do not currently have the capacity or credibility among the Haitian people to ensure safety during the elections.

The Haitian police are trying to be professional, but they lack capacity. MINUSTAH has been in country since 2004 and has received $732 million per year (or more than $4 billion) to train the Haitian police force and undertake peacekeeping operations. But the results are minimal compared to the money spent, and consequently the Haitian police, while eager and committed, are not fully trained. Same thing happened in Iraq and Afghanistan. Spending money but never built up capacity

Finally, and most importantly, while the police are trying their best to get guns off the streets, the Presidential Disarmament Commission, CNDDR, undermines their efforts. One of the two presidential advisors leading commission, Jean Philippe Jean Baptiste a.k.a Samba Boukman, was the chief architect and implementer of "Operation Bagdad" which resulted in the murder of 1,900 people, among them 100 police officers, the kidnapping of more than 800 people, and the rape of 400 women. For more see here: http://www.rnddh.org/article.php3?id_article=300Every time the police arrest gang members and confiscate their weapons, they are required to turn them over to the CNDDR, which in turn distributes them to government loyalists.

4. Preval Already Undermining the Electoral Process

President Preval already has a questionable record on democracy, security and electoral manipulation, for more see here: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2008/01/president-rene-prevals-questionable.html . The April 6, 1997 elections were rigged by Presidents Preval and Aristide, and resulted in the resignation of Prime Minister Rosny Smarth who opposed the manipulation of the results in favor of the ruling Lavalas Party. This electoral crisis also led to the dissolution of parliament by Preval in January 11, 1999. They again rigged the elections of May 21 and November 2000, which led to the resignation of President Aristide on February 29, 2004. Political instability and violence ensued after each of these elections. The people did not then swallow false electoral results for the sake of stability and they will not do so this time either.

President Preval has already begun to undermine the electoral process by extending his term in office by three months unless a successor is chosen prior to the expiration of his term. This violates the decree that installed him as president (the official decree of March 24, 2006 states that Preval's term would be over on February 7, 2011) as well as Article 134.1 and 134.3 of the Constitutions which states that the President cannot extend his term in office under any circumstances.

In addition the President enacted an Emergency and Reconstruction Law, which violates many aspects of Haiti's constitution. The law suspends civil liberties (such as the right to organize and the right of free speech) and gives him the authority to arrest and detain any citizen indefinitely and without justification. Additionally, the law gives foreigners political rights in Haiti and eliminates the Haitian government's authority to control expenditures for eighteen months (to given foreign actors complete control over the aid money deployment).Parliamentary oversight has been put aside as has the authority of the office issuing RFP's for the public sector, the inspector general of finance, and the General Accounting Office. The role of the ministers has been narrowed as well. In other words, all key Haitian state institutions have been illegally suspended giving a tiny group of people close to President Preval and the international community total control. All checks and balances have been eliminated.

The constitutionality of both of these actions (the term extension and reconstruction law) has been challenged in the Haitian courts and is pending verdict. 

A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE

The Lugar report quotes the US Ambassador to Haiti as saying,

"If elections are not held before President Preval's extended mandate expires, Haiti may be confronted by a vacuum of power at every level of government. If this occurs, a government of transition would need to be established, which would be difficult to form and likely lack popular support."

In fact, a transitional government is not difficult to form; there is precedent. Article 149 of the Constitution mandates the President of the Supreme Court assume provisional presidency for the purpose of organizing elections and running the day-to-day aspects of governance. This provision has been successfully invoked twice in the past two decades in 1990 for the successful election of Aristide, and in 2004 for the successful election of Preval.Both elections were viewed as free and fair by the people of Haiti and the process of organization was viewed as credible and legitimate. In other words, in the minds of the Haitian people, this is a credible process that has worked in the past.

Given all the challenges to elections and the extreme safety and security risks with rushing forward to organize elections that have the overwhelming odds of being less than perfect, invoking Article 149 is an attractive, credible and safe option for addressing Haiti's leadership crisis in the near term.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The following are general recommendations for conditions that should be put in place for credible elections to move forward.

Recommendation 1. Reorganize the CEP.

     Name new impartial, independent leaders of the CEP in accordance with Article 289 of the Constitution.

     Name new Departmental leaders for the CEP as the current leadership has participated in previous manipulation and needs to be replaced.

     Create the position of Executive Director responsible for the technical aspects and management of elections.

     Refocus international assistance from election administration to capacity building in an effort to put in place a more permanent electoral infrastructure.

     MINUSTAH must have accountability as well. Benchmarks should be put in place for their capacity building efforts.

Recommendation 2. Develop a Security Plan.

     The CNDDR must be dissolved in order to truly get guns off the streets.

     MINUSTAH should be subject to benchmarks for police capacity building as well as for election security.

     MINUSTAH should provide special training for the unique challenges of securing polling stations.

     There must be a plan to disarm the gangs.

Recommendation 3. Set Realistic Deadlines for Technical Procedures to be Met

     Scrubbing the election registry and issuing new cards should be transparent and diligent.Rushing this process will result in mistakes and will open the door for the elections to be discredited.

A FINAL NOTE ON ELECTIONS " AND PRIORITIES

What is concerning more broadly and certainly beyond Senator Lugar's report is the international community's focus on who will be the next leader of Haiti. Certainly Haiti needs and deserves a strong, effective leader. But equally important is having strong, effective institutions. Haiti's ministries, electoral council, judiciary, legislature, and security forces are almost totally and completely inept. We saw concrete proof of this in their complete and total lack of emergency response to the earthquake. There was no plan, no process and no clue about where to begin. The international community stepped in and each organization did their own thing without coordination and chaos ensued.

In order to ensure that Haiti does not need to face constant leadership crises, the international community could play an important and critical role in working to strengthen the Haitian institutions rather than singularly focusing on finding the perfect leader. This approached has resulted in disaster time and time again. Aristide manipulated the international community several times. He requested occupation and then flipped. He requested evacuation and then was restored to power. It simply does not work. Haiti needs a strong foundation to enforce accountability or even the strongest leader will not succeed.

We can all agree that elections are critical. But they are relatively meaningless if we cannot ensure the safety of the people or the credibility of the elections. Less than perfect elections are not and have never been acceptable to the Haitian people. Every single political crisis since 1995 has been sparked by less than perfect elections. The people will not look the other way simply because they are suffering. In fact, they will hold these elections to a higher standard because they are more important than ever.With no hope in sight, no shelter, no access to healthcare, education or regular meals, this is the only opportunity for the people actually living in these tent cities to have a voice in their country. They know that. And organizing and certifying less than perfect elections will certainly ignite the simmering frustration. Already people are protesting in the streets against the unconstitutional Emergency and Recovery Law.

Finally, there is considerable anxiety that the effort and focus required to organize elections, which we can all agree will be flawed, will distract from the real and urgent priorities of getting aid to the people and preparing for the serious threat of the coming hurricane season.Little measurable progress is being made and it is heartbreaking to see the people in makeshift tents bracing against forecasts for the worst hurricanes in decades. There are other more pressing priorities that need full focus and attention so when we have a tested and legitimate process to address the leadership challenge, it seems like we should take advantage of that and roll up our sleeves to focus on the urgent tasks at hand.