SENATE ELECTIONS: MOVING ALONG

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 000378 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/EX, WHA/CAR, INR/IAA STATE PASS AID FOR WHA/CAR SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM ASEC HA SUBJECT: SENATE ELECTIONS: MOVING ALONG ¶1. (SBU) Summary. Preparations for the April 19 partial Senate elections appear to be largely on schedule. Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and MINUSTAH remain firm that they will take place April 19. The CEP has assured the public that all preparations are on track and denies that delays in posting voter lists at polling stations might force postponement of the election date. MINUSTAH representatives recently made similar assurances, and pledged it would work with the CEP and the Haitian National Police (HNP) to coordinate delivery of election materials and maintain security on Election Day. MINUSTAH is shouldering the bulk of the organizational and logistical burden of these elections. Despite MINUSTAH's and CEP's confidence that election operations are on schedule, many worry that voter turnout will be very low unless voter education efforts are accelerated. End summary. CEP Points to Progress -------------- ¶2. (U) CEP President Verret told donors and CEP staff on March 24 that the elections timeline is on-track. The CEP is confident elections will be held April 19. Verret highlighted progress: the arrival of voting kits, printing of the ballots with approved candidate party information and emblems, training and dispatching of communal electoral members (BECs),and efforts to retrofit a building in the SONAPI industrial area for a tabulation center (TVC). He said that approximately 100 tons of voting kits (e.g., ballot boxes, voting booths, 4.2 million ballot papers) arrived by air the weekend of March 21-22. The kits will be distributed to the 9,411 polling stations throughout the country by early April, according to CEP representatives. CEP Spokesman Frantz Bernardin told the press April 1 that election preparations were 80 percent complete. He said that recruitment of personnel to handle individual polling stations (bureau de vote) would begin soon. So Much to Do, So Little Time -------------- ¶4. (U) Verret told Poloff March 30 that the final national voter registry (electoral list) would be disaggregated into lists for each of Haiti's 9,411 polling stations by the first week of April. He added that there was no danger that delays in getting these partial lists out to the regions would result in postponement of the election date. ¶5. (U) At a March 26 meeting of the Elections Steering Committee (Table de Pilotage),CEP Information Manager Philippe Augustin said that out of ten departments, his office has developed nine regional voter registries, leaving only a few areas in the West Department, adjacent to Port-au-Prince, yet to be finalized -- Carrefour, Tabarre and Cite Soleil. MINUSTAH Pledge of Support -------------- ¶6. (SBU) MINUSTAH representatives assured the public on March 26 that it is working alongside the CEP and the HNP to deliver election material to over 1,400 voting centers countrywide. MINUSTAH will also provide military support to reinforce HNP security efforts on election day. MINUSTAH Elections Chief Marc Plum said the election can take place on time ''if everyone does his or her job.'' Plum provided details of what the CEP and MINUSTAH had already accomplished, including appointing and training Communal Election Bureau members, and printing of the ballots. Activities underway included printing the voter lists and delivering them and the ballots to each of Haiti's of 9,411 polling places; training election security officers; and training poll workers. He explained that MINUSTAH is playing a major role in guiding the CEP on logistics and security planning. It has dispatched vehicles to transport election materials to the regions and begun training security personnel who will be posted at polling stations on Election Day. ¶7. (SBU) Plum told Poloffs on March 23 that finalizing and distributing the voting list for each polling station is the only real impediment -- within the purview of the CEP -- to holding elections on April 19. He also worried that the national identification cards that are being printed by the National Office of Identification (ONI) with OAS support would not be distributed to voters in time. (Note: The ID cards are the only documents that will be accepted at the polling stations. End note.) Plum reasoned that even if a portion of the 600,000 new voters who turned 18 since the last national election were unable to obtain their ID cards, and even if turnout was low, the election would be acceptable by Haitian standards, and the international community should support them. Voter Turnout Concerns -------------- ¶8. (U) The exclusion of all Fanmi Lavalas would-be candidates has receded but not disappeared from public discussion. Several local organizations of Fanmi Lavalas in the capital have called on the public to stay home on election day and honor a ''closed door'' (porte ferme) in protest against the exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas candidates. Youri Latortue, President of the Senate Justice and Security Commission called on his colleagues March 19 to adopt a resolution to force the CEP to allow Fanmi Lavalas candidates to compete for seats on April 19. Latortue said, ''it is abnormal that a majority party is excluded from the electoral process.'' ¶9. (SBU) Several politicians, including Senate President Kely Bastien, said publicly that low voter turnout should be expected. Former Senator Evelyne Cheron, whose two-year term ran out last May and who is running to regain her seat, told Poloff that she expects that many eligible voters will not turn out on Election Day. They are more concerned, she said, about ''food on the table'' than with politics. ¶10. (SBU) Although civic education programs are currently underway, including radio, television and newspaper advertisements pushing get-out-and-vote messages, CEP President Verret recently made an urgent appeal to donors to provide additional funding for targeted messages. Verret said he fears that without a accelerated media campaign, voter turnout will ndeed be low. He worried that low numbers at thepolls would damage the credibility of the CEP and embarrass President Preval, whom he said is ''firmly behind these elections.'' Comment -------------- ¶11. (SBU) As in past national elections since a least 2006, MINUSTAH is providing the vast majoity of the brain-power and transportation logistcs needed to bring about these elections. Embass for now agrees with MINUSTAH that the foreseeabe delays and defects in election preparations are not show-stoppers, and that it is increasingly liely that the April 19 date will hold firm. SANDERSON