HAITI ELECTIONS: WHERE ARE WE AND WHAT NEXT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT AU PRINCE 000900

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/17/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM EAID HA
SUBJECT: HAITI ELECTIONS: WHERE ARE WE AND WHAT NEXT

REF: PORT-AU-PRINCE 828

Classified By: Ambassador Janet A. Sanderson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d
).


1. (C) Summary: With the successful presidential
inauguration and nearly 90 percent of legislators seated,
Haiti's electoral process is almost completed. Municipal
(mayoral) and local elections remain requiring only a
relative majority and therefore just one round.
Additionally, three remaining Senate seats and 11 Deputy
contests must be decided. Despite the success of the process
thus far and the positive momentum generated, several issues
remain to resolved in order to bring the process to a
conclusion. The single most critical issue is one of a
projected budget gap of at least USD 10 million necessary to
hold the municipal and local elections. The Provisional
Electoral Council (CEP) Director General (DG) Jacques Bernard
and the CEP counselors are anxious to move ahead and hold the
remaining elections. MINUSTAH technical staff, however, are
advocating a scenario which postpones the pending contests
until the fall. Regardless of the timing, there appears to
be a growing consensus that the running of the municipal and
local elections can be separated with the 1435 local contests
deferred and combined with the Senate election in late 2007.
We are pressing our interlocutors at all levels to complete
the electoral process at least through the municipal seats as
soon as possible, preferably by July. End Summary.

Current Situation


2. (C) Subsequent to reftel, one further deputy race was
finalized. Patrick Brutus, Lespwa, won the seat in President
Preval's home district (circonscription) of Saint
Michel/Marmelade, Artibonite Department. Lespwa now has 20
seats in the 87-member Chamber of Deputies. The result in
the April 21 first round re-run in Verrettes district,
Artibonite Department, is pending the conclusion of a CEP
investigation resulting from claims of widespread fraud. CEP
counselor Josefa Gauthier told poloff that the outcome will
likely be another first round contest necessary in Verrettes
as is the case of a third Artibonite district, Grand Saline.
At least eleven second round races including the Senate race
in the North East Department remain to be held in order to
complete the National Assembly's total complement of 129
members.

Different Views on Timing, One Voice on Budget Shortfall

CEP Director General


3. (C) DG Bernard told poloff May 11 that the "bare
minimum" he required to complete the legislative races and
hold the municipal elections by mid-July was USD 10 million.
He said that preparations and plans for these elections were
laid and could be set in motion if additional funding becomes
available. With the current available funding, Bernard said
he has enough to keep the electoral machinery in place and
running only until the end of June. After that time, all
election administration staff would be dismissed and offices
closed without any provision for an orderly dismantling of
the electoral machinery so painstakingly constructed since
Bernard's became the DG in October 2005. (Note: Bernard
promised poloff an annotated budget outlining his
requirements. However, the document was not completed prior
to his recent temporary departure from Haiti. End Note.)


4. (C) Bernard strongly advocated holding the municipal
elections in conjunction with the remaining legislative
races. He outlined the persuasive argument regarding the
importance of elected mayors versus appointed mayors. The
mayors in the 142 delimited collectivities are responsible
for collection of certain local tax revenue. An elected
mayor is responsible to his or her constituents to use the
local taxes for the local community. In the case where
mayors are appointed by the Minister of Interior (and
Collectivities),the mayors are less accountable to the local
population and are, in fact, beholden to the Minister of the
Interior for their position who expects the majority of
collected revenues to be forwarded to Port-au-Prince for
inclusion in the central Interior Ministry's budget. This

PORT AU PR 00000900 002 OF 003


practice undermines the decentralization envisioned in the
1987 Constitution and sabotages provision of basic services
and possible community development projects.


5. (C) Local elections Bernard maintained were not as
critical as the municipals as the positions lack the noted
financial concern. Additionally, Bernard confirmed that the
results of the local elections would result in 7000-plus
elected officials all of whom would expect a government
supported salary as well as associated benefits. It would be
difficult for the beleaguered Haitian government budget to
absorb that amount of civil servants as it already unable to
pay those currently employed. He opined that President
Preval would likely appreciate not having that burden added
to the state budget. Bernard also mentioned some technical
electoral aspects that would need to be addressed prior to
holding local elections. Ideally, some re-districting of
collectivities/communes is required. Any re-drawing of
local-level district lines would necessitate revision of the
associated voter lists. Also, at present there is not an
identified voting center in each commune. Bernard suggested
that the local elections be postponed to allow for the major
technical issues to be resolved and for the elections to be
held at the end of 2007 when the first third of the Senate is
re-newed for six years. Bernard claimed that the 1987
Constitution went too far in trying to ensure democracy and
contained the "seeds of its own destruction" with the
cumbersome and unwieldy local government structure.

MINUSTAH Election Support Unit


6. (C) MINUSTAH's Election Support Unit (ESU) prepared an
options papers in which it advocated delaying the pending
legislative and municipal elections until the
September-November timeframe. (Comment: DG Bernard did not
openly oppose or contradict the MINUSTAH plan but clearly
tried to distance himself from its conclusions. End
comment.) ESU chief Gerardo LeChevallier outlined the
conditions associated with the delay. First and foremost,
LeChevallier is adamant about the necessity of replacing the
current CEP immediately. Citing the April 4th (2004)
Agreement, he maintained that the CEP's mandate had expired
with Preval's assumption of power May 14. In the opinion of
the ESU, this issue, in addition to general incompetence and
the difficulty of working with the nine current members, is
sufficient to replace the current CEP. While the "white
paper" paper did provide the gamut of possible options, it
did not include a projected budget for its recommendation to
delay the elections until November while right-sizing the CEP
staff and keeping those most competent and qualified. (Note:
While the paper suggests a timeframe of
September-to-November, in discussions with poloff
LeChevallier clearly expected a November date to be the most
likely scenario. End Note.) Additionally, the ESU wants the
registration process re-opened to allow for the registration
of an ESU-estimated one million persons including those who
have turned 18 since voter registration was completed.

Provisional Electoral Council


7. (C) The CEP is trying to move forward and at least
schedule the remaining legislative races, the "third"
(troisieme) round for late June or early July. The
counselors recognize the budget shortfall and requested
funding from the interim Minister of Finance. Additionally,
they have requested a meeting with President Preval to engage
his assistance in concluding the election process. In
contrast to the CEP DG and MINUSTAH, the CEP members do not
seem to have contemplated splitting the local elections out
from the municipal contests. However, Gauthier was
supportive of the idea in a May 16 exchange with poloff and
offered to facilitate poloff's further discussions with her
CEP colleagues.

Other Donors


8. (SBU) In a May 9 electoral donors meeting, poloff joined
counterparts from Canada and the EU in calling for a formal
budget request from MINUSTAH ESU and the CEP. Without the
underlying specific and formalized request outlining the
rationale and necessity for the assistance, the


***********************
* Missing Section 003 *
***********************