ELECTIONS: 4 DAYS AFTER

C O N F I D E N T I A L PORT AU PRINCE 002338 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR S/CRS SOUTHCOMALSO FOR POLAD STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR INR/IAA (BEN-YEHUDA) WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/07/2010 TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM HA SUBJECT: ELECTIONS: 4 DAYS AFTER ¶1. (U) Four days following Haiti,s 3rd round of elections, Provisionary Electoral Council,s (CEP) officials are closely holding all results because, according to CEP Director General Jacques Bernard, several races are extremely close and he wants to be certain of the results. According to OAS, the office responsible for running the Voting Tabulation Center (VTC),95.4% of the ballot tally sheets have been received from the 10 departments with 99% of these tally sheets processed. The remaining 4.4% will arrive from remote areas by week,s end. Voter Turnout ¶2. (SBU) Based on the tally sheets received at the VTC, technical experts at OAS project the voter turnout is nationally at approximately 34%. However, MINUSTAH's chief electoral advisor disputes this number because he believes the OAS counted every ballot cast not considering that each voter, depending on the jusrisdiction, cast 2 or 3 ballots. (Comment: It is hard to believe that Bernard would have made so elementary a mistake in calculating turnout, but 34% seems a high estimation based on observer reports. End Comment.) ¶3. (C) The CEP DG told Poloff that voter turnout was approximately 31% in the metropolitan areas and a great deal higher in the rural areas, estimating voter turn out for mayor at 34%, legislative at 49%, and ASEC/CASEC at 42%. He stated that the election results would be published this evening after the CEP press conference. At that time, the CEP would also discuss those races that will require reruns. MINUSTAH reports that disruptions and irregularities caused the cancellation of elections in 30 of the 822 voting centers. Election officals are reviewing results from an additional 46 voting centers where irregularities may cause the cancellation of results. According to Bernard, all of the races are close with leads being won by a few hundred votes; this proximity will likely lead to &lots of contestations.8 Therefore, he is unwilling to publish partial results. Political Parties in Leadership ¶4. (C) Based on preliminary numbers supplied by OAS to Poloff, Lespwa slates won 312 of 1351 government positions already processed with FUSION and OPL running a distant 2nd and 3rd, with 190 and 165 positions respectively. Fanmi Lavalas comes in 11th place, winning only 41 seats. ¶5. (SBU) TIGHE