ELECTIONS UPDATE: 25 DAYS AFTER

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 002474

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STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR
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TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM HA
SUBJECT: ELECTIONS UPDATE: 25 DAYS AFTER

REF: PAP 2412

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1. This message is sensitive but unclassified -- protect
accordingly.


2. (U) Summary: The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has
published 99 percent of all election results from the
December 3 round. Of the published results, candidates have
contested 15 percent. Following resolution of the
contestations, some reruns are anticipated sometime in
February. The leading political parties, Lespwa and Fusion,
are pleased with the elections but state that violence and
voting irregularities were more widespread than in the
earlier rounds. Implementing the local government structure
may prove problematic to the GoH and frustrating for the
political parties. Currently, a sufficient budget does not
exist for the salaries of local and municipal government
officials, much less their projects. Likewise, no clear road
map exists for the implementation of local governance. End
Summary.

The Status of Election Results and Disputes



3. (U) The CEP has published the election results for 1419 of
the 1431 posts. According to CEP Counselor and Acting
Director General Francois Benoit, the CEP will post the
results for one additional race December 29. The remaining
11 election results will not be published because of violence
that disrupted the voting process or tabulation sheets that
were not recovered. Based on the previously posted results,
there are 222 local contestations. None have been
adjudicated. The number is expected to increase as the CEP
publishes the remaining results. The national contestation
office (BCN) received four contestations for the deputy
seats. The office heard the cases on December 26 and 27 but
has not yet made a determination on the validity of the
disputed results.


4. (U) Benoit told poloff on December 28 that rerun elections
would take place in February for sixty polling stations that
were disrupted by violence on election day as well as those
that are approved by the contestation offices. The CEP had
not selected a date for the inauguration of local and
municipal government officials.


5. (U) The CEP announced the results for the Port-au-Prince
mayor's race on the evening of December 20 after Canadian
election observers shared their copies of the tabulation
sheets with the CEP. (Note: Results for this race were
delayed because the CEP did not receive all of the tabulation
sheets (ref A). End Note.) The Union of Patriotic Citizens
(RCP) cartel won. Lespwa candidates and partisans did not
take to the streets as threatened. Fusion candidate Wilfrid
Joseph, however, publicly claimed that his party agreed to
give up the mayor's race in exchange for two Senate seats, a
claim Fusion leadership denies. The Fusion cartel won only
four percent of the vote while RCP had 15 percent.

Political Party Opinion



6. (SBU) Fusion spokesman Micha Gaillard told poloffs on
December 20 that his party accepts the elections on the
whole. However, the party intended to contest several races
where gross fraud had been committed. He stressed that
Fusion would be a part of the democratic process and not
protest the results outside of the contestation process.
(Note: Gaillard phoned poloff on December 21 to discuss the
actions of mayoral candidate Joseph. Joseph threatened
Fusion leaders at their headquarters with a gun, firing into
the air. Gaillard said that he regrets the behavior of
Joseph and that the party would not support his claims of
fraud in the Port-au-Prince race. The party believes
Joseph's accusations lack merit. End Note.) Gaillard also
opined that there was more violence on election day than in
the previous rounds. He attributed the violence to armed
partisans who felt free to disrupt the electoral process
because those guilty of kidnapping and other serious crimes

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suffered no judicial consequences. Preval's strategy of
negotiation created "small criminals" willing to use violence
to achieve their goals during the election and contestation
periods.


7. (SBU) Minister of Parliamentary Relations Joseph Jasmin,
speaking for Lespwa, accepted the elections in general and
saw no widespread fraud. Lespwa candidates would respect the
democratic process and file contestations where needed. The
party has lawyers in the ten departments to assist with the
local disputes. Jasmin laments that the structure is not
sufficiently in place for local governance to take on their
duties. Lespwa, however, will assist their candidates with
the governance process so that the party can build trust
among the population and maintain its popularity.

Implementing the Local Government: Financial Significance



8. (U) 1996 legislation states that the Ministry of Interior
(MOI) will allocate approximately 205 USD monthly to each
county council (CASEC). USD 155 should be used for the
salaries of the three-member council and 50 USD for
operational costs. The county district councils (ASEC)
receive no remuneration. According to Preval's economic
advisor, Gabriel Verret, the GoH allocated one million
gourdes (approximately USD 25,000) for local governance in
the current budget. The remaining funds for CASEC and ASEC
will come from the territorial fund of the MOI. Verret
admits, however, that the fund and the allocated budgetary
funds are not sufficient for the local governing bodies.
(Note: The territorial collective fund was established in
1996 and draws upon taxes to create revenue. Verret stated
that the fund generates approximately USD 770,000 per month.)
Verret believes that an amended budget is likely. Senator
Kely Bastien, President of the senate finance committee,
agrees although he claims the current budget is sufficient to
cover local government salaries.


9. (U) The director general of the MOI Harry Voltaire told
poloff on December 28 that many of the metropolitan
municipalities would have their own budget but the provincial
municipalities would turn to the MOI for financing. He
stated that there would be a disparity in the municipal
salaries because of the varying responsibilities of the mayor
and deputy mayors. He was currently working on a grid that
would set the salaries and budgets for each municipality
based on the size and responsibility of each municipality.
Town delegates (delegue de ville) do not receive
remuneration. However, Voltaire was concerned not only that
the town delegates did not have a salary but that they also
lacked any legally defined responsibility. According to
Voltaire, the position was "the imagination of a previous
CEP."


10. (SBU) Comment: There are few experts on local government
financing or function in Haiti. Many in the government are
scrambling to determine how the local officials will be paid,
where they will work, what resources they will control, and,
in some cases, what they will do. While having the elections
moves Haiti closer to the decentralized governmental
structure outlined in the 1987 Constitution, the GoH's larger
democratic challenge will be to keep the local governing
employees engaged and responding to the needs of their
constituency. End Comment.
TIGHE