ELECTION RESULTS: TWO MONTHS LATER...

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 000327

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: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM HA
SUBJECT: ELECTION RESULTS: TWO MONTHS LATER...

REF: A. 06 PAUP 2246

B. 06 PAUP 2317

PORT AU PR 00000327 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) Summary. Two months after the December 3 elections,
the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has not certified any
local or municipal election results. The CEP has certified
results of the re-run legislative races, and parliament has
sworn in those lawmakers, leaving both houses short one
member due to a death in the senate and the invalidation of
one deputy race. The CEP indicates that it will re-run at
least 70 local races and has announced these will take place
on March 11, but no informed observer believes the CEP can
meet that date. Since the resignation of former CEP Director
General Bernard on December 14, the CEP is again missing
deadlines and appears unable to take decisions. Concerns and
rumors are growing that the executive will have to step in to
finalize local election results. End Summary.

Challenges and Reruns
--------------


2. (U) Acting Director General (and board member) of the CEP
Francois Benoit told Poloff on February 8 that the CEP plans
to re-run 70 of the elections originally held on December 3.
The CEP did not certify results in 65 races due to
election-day violence or administrative flaws. Additionally,
the CEP's National Contestation Office (BCN) ruled in favor
of candidates challenging the results in five other races,
finding significant fraud or irregularities. The re-run
elections will include one deputy race, ten municipalities
(mayor and deputy mayors),five town delegates (delegue de
ville),29 county district councils (ASEC) and 25 county
councils (CASEC). (Ref A details the convoluted structure of
local government in Haiti and the jurisdictional authority of
the offices listed above.)


3. (U) The BCN received 104 challenges to the December 3
election results and has ruled on 58 (including the five
accepted challenges). Twenty eight cases await final ruling
from the BCN; candidates did not pursue their challenges in
the remaining 24 cases. Benoit told Poloff that he expected
the CEP to rule on outstanding challenges by the end of
February. Additional rulings in favor of appealing
candidates would raise the number of elections the CEP must
repeat.

Results and Rerun Timeline
--------------


4. (U) The executive announced an inauguration for all local
and municipal officials on February 12, but did not meet
that date. Benoit had told Poloff during their February 8
conversation that the CEP had certified the results for the
municipalities not subject to challenge and would send them
to the executive the following day for ratification and
publication in the government's official register. The CEP
did not send the results to the executive, and Benoit
subsequently told Poloff on February 14 that the CEP was
holding those results pending a meeting with the Prime
Minister and resolution of a dispute regarding how mayors
would be inaugurated. Benoit maintained that the results for
the town delegates were &forthcoming,8 but stated that the
CEP would not certify ASEC and CASEC results pending the
completion of ASEC and CASEC posts requiring re-run
elections, because all ASEC and CASEC members must elect
interdepartmental councils within eight days of certification
of the results.


5. (U) Benoit told Poloff, and the CEP subsequently publicly
announced, that elections needing to be re-run will occur on
March 11. The CEP has already negotiated the price of new
ballots with the printer and started discussing election
security with MINUSTAH. The budget for the remaining
elections is estimated at USD 1.3 million. Benoit states
that the UNDP has a sufficient balance from previous rounds
to fund a fourth round without seeking new pledges from
donors.

Parliament: Almost Complete
--------------

PORT AU PR 00000327 002.2 OF 002




6. (U) Parliament swore in the three newly elected senators
from the Northeast Department on February 5 and ten new
deputies on February 12. Both the senate and the chamber of
deputies remain one member short of their full complement of
30 and 99 members, respectively. The CEP invalidated the
deputy race in the LaChapelle district of the Artibonite
Department after a local mob stole the tally sheets with the
results during their transport to the tabulation center in
Port-au-Prince (ref B). Senator Noel Emmanuel Limage's
(Lespwa-Artibonite) death in a car on January 23 accounts for
the senate vacancy. Haiti's constitution calls for a special
election within 30 days to fill a senate vacancy, but the CEP
is making no preparations. Senate sources indicate the seat
will remain vacant until the next scheduled senate races (for
one third of the senate's seats) in November.


7. (SBU) Comment: It is hard to tell whether the work of the
CEP has slowed to a crawl or ground to a halt. As feared
after the resignation of former Director General Jacques
Bernard on December 14, the CEP has reverted to the
dysfunctional performance it demonstrated during the 18
months before his appointment. Despite Benoit's reassurances
that thus and such decisions and actions are forthcoming, the
CEP continues to miss deadlines, and no informed observer of
the CEP believes it can hold rerun elections on March 11. As
rumors abound in Haiti, the word is spreading among
international experts and some government officials that
Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime will dissolve the
CEP and have the interior ministry finish the work of
certifying the local elections, organizing the elections of
the interdepartmental councils, and ultimately overseeing the
selection of a permanent electoral council. While the
executive would have to turn some legal and constitutional
cartwheels to effect that action, we would not anticipate a
serious controversy as most Haitians would be happy enough to
be done with this demonstrably incompetent CEP. However, we
wonder whether the interior ministry or any other part of the
executive could muster the necessary initiative to take on a
project as messy as finalizing the local elections and seeing
through the subsequent indirect elections. Thus, the end of
the local elections remains very much up in the air, and
looming in the near future, as mentioned above, are the
scheduled general elections in November for the senate. End
Comment.
SANDERSON