Haiti elections update - June 9

UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 001609 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM KPAO HA SUBJECT: Haiti elections update - June 9 Ref: A) PAP 1537, B) Tokyo 3020, C) Oslo 868, D) Ottawa 1734, E) USEU TBD Registration process moves forward -------------- ¶1. 27 registration centers are now open, 39 more will open "within the next few days," and another 140 or so are being refurbished by UNOPS in order to be opened by June 15, according to UN and OAS officials. These last include a registration center in Delmas and one in Petionville (both in the capital) and several others in the provinces that are also slated to be communal-level election offices (BECs) after registration. One registration center was opened in the Prime Minister's office on June 6, and the PM registered before he departed for New York. ¶2. The most recent unofficial estimate from the OAS is that nearly 120,000 voters have been registered. Elections calendar -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The electoral calendar has still not been finalized by the CEP and submitted to the government (ref A). Privately, some officials tell us this is not hampering the registration effort, and that holding off on publishing the electoral calendar might be useful if a consensus is reached to change the election dates by a few weeks. Budget -------------- ¶4. (U) MINUSTAH elections chief LeChevallier told us that Spain had pledged to provide 300,000 Euros (approx. $369,000) to the OAS to support its registration efforts, and that France (through its Embassy here) had pledged the same amount for the post-election "consolidation" of the CEP (reorganizing it for post-election tasks). We shared with LeChevallier Norwegian and Japanese promises of support (refs B and C). LeChevallier said he would be meeting with Japanese assistance officials this week to follow up on their interest in funding the three specific projects noted in ref B. Regarding EU funding (ref E),LeChevallier said the CEP had provided a letter to the EU representative here pledging that it would implement the steps outlined in Canadian expert Ron Gould's recent assessment mission. This, he hoped, would be sufficient to allow the EU to release its promised additional tranche of 8 million Euros (approx. $9.79 million). (Our thanks to colleagues in Oslo, Tokyo, Ottawa, and Brussels for timely reporting!) Legal framework still in development -------------- ¶5. The decree establishing the legal basis for the voter registration card as an identity card remains stalled at the Justice Ministry. According to CEP member Duchemin, MOJ Gousse insists that the institutional responsibility for overseeing the ID card process, once the elections are past, be established within the MOJ, not within the CEP as the decree currently states. This issue will need to be resolved before the decree is published. ¶6. The Prime Minister's office circulated earlier this month a "memo" outlining a possible program of financial support to political parties. LeChevallier told us MINUSTAH has suggested that the program needs stronger oversight controls and transparency, and that ultimately this must also be issued as an IGOH decree with the force of law. Another Presidential candidate -------------- ¶7. (U) Rigaud Duplan, former head of the Haitian Bar Association, announced his candidacy for President June 5 in Jacmel. Duplan, who served as lawyer to former General Prosper Avril and to former Senator Dany Toussaint, was one of the lawyers who represented the ex-FADH in negotiations last fall with the IGOH. He is strongly pro-Army and threw his hat in the ring as the head of a new, independent organization called "Justice, Peace, and National Development."