LAMBERT ON JEAN-JACQUES' VICTORY

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/22/2017
TAGS: PGOV KDEM HA
SUBJECT: LAMBERT ON JEAN-JACQUES' VICTORY

REF: PAP 88

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


1. (C) Summary: Chamber of Deputies President Pierre Eric
Jean-Jacques (Lespwa - Delmas, West) took advantage of the
disorganization among the larger political parties and
grouped together the smaller political parties to win his
second term, according to Senate President Joseph Lambert.
Despite Prime Minister Alexis' role in shifting Lespwa
support to another candidate, Jean Felix Delouis, for the
chamber presidency, Jean-Jacques and the PM immediately
patched-up their differences and Jean-Jacques will likely
resist any move to bring a vote of no confidence against the
PM. Lambert will remain at the head of the senate without
calling new leadership elections, after fending off pressure
to resign from senate opponents in private meetings. With
the ineffectual Jean-Jacques back at the helm of the chamber
and Lambert secure in his own position, he cements his status
as the most powerful and influential Haitian parliamentarian.
Underlying Jean-Jacques' re-election are rampant reports
that he bought the victory. End Summary.

Smaller Parties Give Jean-Jacques the Win
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2. (C) Lambert confirmed reports in a conversation with
Poloff on January 19 that Jean-Jacques won the chamber
presidency because no political party or bloc could agree on
an alternative (ref A). He acknowledged Fusion, Alyans, and
OPL efforts to ally on behalf of FUSION candidate Frantz
Robert Monde, but reported that OPL "hostilities" toward
Monde had fractured the alliance, and that in the end only
the Fusion members remained on board. (Comment: Other
Haitian political observers report that Monde remains
controversial because of his role as the principal
parliamentary apologist for the 1991 military coup. End
Comment.) With the larger parties unable to maintain
discipline on behalf of a consensus candidate, Jean-Jacques,
with the help of Famni Lavalas deputy Sorel Francois
(Port-au-Prince, West),rallied the members of the smaller
political parties and acquired enough of the fragmented votes
of the larger parties.


3. (C) Lambert reported that Jean-Jacques was "disappointed"
that the PM and Lespwa did not support his re-election, but
this had not affected his relationship with the PM.
Jean-Jacques and the PM held a meeting on the evening of
January 18 to patch-up their differences, and, as a result
Lambert discounted the possibility of a vote of no confidence
against Alexis in the chamber.

Lambert Foils his Opponents
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4. (C) Nineteen senators on January 9 signed a resolution
seeking new elections for the senate leadership. The
resolution charged that the current leadership lacks
direction, that the treasurer is ineffectual, and that there
is no communication between the leadership and the other
senators. Senate rules that designate two-year mandates for
its officers notwithstanding, Lambert and the others should
resign. Privately, senators accused Lambert of breaking his
word when first elected, claiming he agreed to step down
after one year because of vacancies in the senate
(subsequently filled with the election of three senators from
the Northeast Department in December's elections). Senate
Vice President Edmonde Supplice-Beauzile (Fusion ) Center),
however, maintained that Lambert's opponents sought to block
a senate investigation into a scandal regarding the looting
of a Haitian bank, telling Poloff on January 18 that the
senate's executive office would not be complicit in blocking
the investigation. (Note: Socabank, a private bank set up
in the mid-1990's, was on the verge of insolvency after bank
executives and others allegedly looted its assets. The
Haitian central bank (BRH) took over the bank at the end of
2006 in order to avert a banking crisis. Post will report
fully on Socabank septel. End note.)


5. (C) Lambert insisted he will remain in his post until

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January 2008. He related that he met privately with his
leading detractors, Famni Lavalas Senator Rudy Herivaux,
Artibonite in Action (LAAA) Senator Youri Latortue, and Pont
Senator Evalliere Beauplan, reminding them that he knew many
of their "shortcomings" but had not disclosed them nor
discussed their "wrong doings." For example, he stated to
Poloff that Herivaux is implicated in the Socabank scandal
and that Herivaux and his Fanmi Lavalas colleagues had
approached him about paying former Lavalas parliamentarians
from the current parliament budget. Lambert and the senate
treasurer refused. Other senators had presented travel
documents for personal trips for reimbursement by the
government. In the end, the senators backed down, knowing
that their position had diminished.

Comment
--------------


6. (C) Lambert's account of his meeting with opposing
senators is self-serving, but there are undoubtedly enough
skeletons in everyone's closet to make Lambert's point hit
home. Once again, Lambert has put on display his
considerable political savvy and buttressed his position as
Haiti's most powerful politician.


7. (C) Comment Continued. Left out of Lambert's account of
Jean-Jacques' re-election are the rampant rumors that
Jean-Jacques bought his victory. A leading businessman
recently told Econcouns that Jean-Jacques "is a notorious
drug king-pin and paid $5,000 to each deputy who voted for
him." SRSG Mulet told the Core Group ambassadors on January
22 that he had credible information that Jean-Jacques had
paid $20,000 per vote and that Jean-Jacques' son had provided
cars to at least two supporters. We do not discount the
possibility of blatant corruption determining the outcome of
the chamber presidency race, but since Jean-Jacques is
neither a particular friend or foe of Preval and Alexis, and
otherwise appears to have no political agenda, we wonder what
might motivate him to expend resources to secure a job for
which he has shown little interest so far. In any event,
though Jean-Jacques' and his son's questionable business
connections were not the subject of much gossip after his
initial election as chamber president, the issue is now front
and center in Haitian politics.
SANDERSON