OAS PREPS FOR APRIL 29 ELECTIONS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 000653 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR S/CRS SOUTHCOM ALSO 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: OAS PREPS FOR APRIL 29 ELECTIONS REF: PORT AU PRINCE 327 PORT AU PR 00000653 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (U) This message is sensitive but unclassified -- please protect accordingly. ¶2. (U) Summary: The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has announced that all necessary local, municipal and legislative re-runs of the December 3, 2006 elections will be held on April 29. The CEP, MINUSTAH and OAS purport to be prepared, but the GoH has not yet issued the executive order necessary to set the official date. A long series of indirect elections are slated for the months following the completion of the re-runs. End Summary. ¶3. (U) Re-runs for local, municipal and legislative elections that were not completed on December 3, 2006 will be held on April 29, according to the CEP. The 73 re-runs are for one seat in the Chamber of Deputies (La Chapelle),ten mayors, six town delegates, 29 communal section assemblies (ASECs) and 27 communal section administrative councils (CASECs). OAS will provide support for the production of voter lists and polling station identification labels to orient voters toward their place of vote. OAS expects to set up ten vote tabulation centers around the country, and to facilitate the transmission of results to the vote tabulation headquarters located at the CEP. They are also continuing to distribute National Identification Cards as they did throughout the 2006 election season. The estimated OAS budget for the April 29 re-runs is USD 87,360. However, OAS elections specialist Bernice Robertson (protect) told Poloff that UNDP will not release any funds to OAS until UNDP has completed the audit of the December 3 elections. OAS asked the international donor community to encourage UNDP to disperse the funds more quickly. (Note: USAID director spoke with Anne Marie Cluckers of UNDP on April 5 and she said she would try to expedite the transfer of funds to OAS. End Note.) ¶4. (U) MINUSTAH declared on April 5 that they are ready to give technical assistance to the CEP for the April 29 elections, including transporting ballots and providing increased security, as most of the elections being repeated were cancelled because of security problems. ¶5. (SBU) Acting Director General Francois Benoit is doing a ''decent job'' of leading the CEP in the absence of a permanent director, according to Robertson. (Note: Former CEP Director General Jacques Bernard stepped down in December ¶2006. See ref A. End Note.) Official results are published for 529 of the 570 communal section administrative councils (CASECs),and the swearing-in ceremonies for the councils began on March 29. The CEP was prepared, at least in terms of technical preparations, to hold the runoff elections on March 11. They delayed because the executive branch did not issue the official decree necessary to hold elections, even though the CEP sent a request for such a decree on February ¶14. The GoH has not issued an official decree for the April 29 elections, but Prime Minister Alexis announced on April 9 that the elections would take place on April 29. ¶6. (U) The CEP's mandate only lasts through the end of the local and municipal elections, and does not include the Senatorial elections projected for November 2007. However, they will continue to prepare for the November 2007 elections while awaiting the formation of the Permanent Electoral Council (see para 7). The successful unrolling of these elections hinges on the timing of the formation of the Permanent Electoral Council, according to Robertson. Funding has not been identified for these elections. ¶7. (U) Once all local and municipal elections are completed, the recently elected officials are tasked with a series of indirect elections as set forth in the Constitution of 1987. Communal section assemblies (ASECs) select representatives to the municipal assemblies, where they are joined by the elected town delegates. The municipal assemblies, in turn, send representatives to the departmental assemblies. Departmental assemblies are responsible for selecting a three-member departmental council, selecting one PORT AU PR 00000653 002.2 OF 002 representative to serve on the interdepartmental council, and, most importantly, nominating candidates for the Permanent Electoral Council. The final nine members of the Permanent Electoral Council are chosen from among the nominees by all three branches of national government. The President of the Republic designates the director general of the council. (Note: Because the departmental assemblies and councils have never been established, a Permanent Electoral Council has never been formed. All elections to date have been overseen by a Provisional Electoral Council. End Note.) ¶8. (SBU) The CEP's goal is to hold all indirect elections between June and September of 2007. However, the indirect elections have never before progressed beyond the municipal assembly level, and the Constitution does not elaborate on the rules governing these indirect elections. There are several decrees and laws dating from 1995 to 2006, but they conflict with each other and with the Constitution. The CEP is now facing a problem - how to conduct the indirect elections. The CEP drafted a new law for the indirect elections and solicited advice from political parties and OAS. The law still needs a lot of work before it is functional, according to Robertson. OAS political expert Gaston Bilbao (protect) described the draft law as ''a mess.'' ¶9. (SBU) Comment: The CEP seems to have pulled its act together and at the moment it looks as though Haiti will have elections on April 29. The OAS and the CEP, at least publicly, are confident that the elections will go ahead as planned. However, funding issues and the lack of a decree from the executive branch leave room for skepticism. The indirect elections pose a much larger problem for the GoH. The complex decentralized system has never been completed so no one is exactly sure how it will function. The logistics of the elections themselves are complex and squeezing everything into the CEP's four month timeframe will take a Herculean effort. Even if all of these positions do get filled, there is not enough money in the GoH budget to pay the incumbents' salaries. Post will report septel on the decentralization process. SANDERSON