PRESIDENTIAL VOTE COUNT ENDED, OTHER COUNTING

UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 000336 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CAR DRL S/CRS SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR INR/IAA (BEN-YEHUDA) TREASURY FOR JEFFREY LEVINE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM PKAO HA SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL VOTE COUNT ENDED, OTHER COUNTING RESTARTED ¶1. Summary: MINUSTAH reports that it has stopped counting presidential ballots, and Provisional Electoral Council Director General Jacques Bernard says the CEP will formally announce results soon. Meanwhile, vote counting for the deputy and senate races began February 16; MINUSTAH has already finished counting 482 of the nearly 9,000 proces verbaux. Based on the time they believe each step on the way to a second round will take. End Summary. ¶2. MINUSTAH contacts reported February 17 that 8,791 or 95.5 percent of the proces verbaux have arrived at the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) Vote Tabulation Center (VTC),and 8,663 or 94.1 percent were counted. Vote counting for the presidential race stopped as of early February 16, and MINUSTAH officials do not believe that it will restart. CEP General Director Jacques Bernard reports that he will make a final announcement of the results shortly, which take into account the inclusion of blank ballots (reftel). Bernard ¶3. Vote counting for the Senate and Deputy races began February 16. MINUSTAH officials say the process will be slow because the names for all the senate and deputy candidates are hand written and in different orders on each process verbal. As of early February 17, they had entered 648 proces verbaux into the system and finalized 482. They expect tabulation for Parliament to finish by February 26. However a number of problems must still be worked out. Some VTC staff went on strike on February 16 because they had not yet been paid. UNDP promised VTC workers February 17 that they would be paid by February 17. Further, the main international observer groups have stopped going to the VTC as have members of the CEP. Though Bernard invited political party leaders to visit the VTC, the presence of international observers remains critical to maintaining the credibility of the counting process. ¶4. MINUSTAH created February 16 a time line that placed the second round of elections on April 26. The timeline projects that vote counting for the senate and deputy races will finish February 26. Then it allows until the February 29 for a 72 hour contestation period with 12 days for the CEP to deliver decisions, provides two days for the CEP to deliver candidate lists to the departments, gives the CEP 24 days to print ballots, and provides 14 days for the CEP and MINUSTAH to deliver elections materials to the provinces. CEP Director General told DCM February 17 that the original March 19 date is still achievable. ¶5. Comment: The new MINUSTAH timeline is heavily padded, though it reflects some realities of the process leading to the second round, some of its projections are based on old incarnations of the electoral law. After an October 20 amendment to the electoral law, the CEP is required to leave contestation open for 24, not 72 hours. If any candidate contests the results of their race, the CEP is legally supposed to deliver a final response within ten days, not twelve. Regardless, the CEP and MINUSTAH will have to move very expeditiously in order to hold the second round by mid to late March. End Comment. CARNEY