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#2784: Haiti again sets new election dates (REUTERS) (fwd)
From:nozier@tradewind.net
WIRE:03/08/2000 19:31:00 ET
Haiti again sets new election dates
PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) - Haiti,struggling to build democratic
Institutions five years after a U.S. Invasion that aimed to restore
political order, set a fresh election date Wednesday after postponing
the polls three times in the past four months. The Provisional
Electoral Committee (CEP) said in a statement that the legislative and
municipal elections, the first elections in three years in the
Caribbean nation, will be held April 9, with a run-off May 21.
The new date was set after the CEP postponed the elections, which had
been due to take place March 19 and April 30, last Friday after
widespread problems with the voter registration process, in order to
give the country's more than 4 million voters a chance to
register. At least 30 percent of voters have not been able to register,
according to the Organization of American States (OAS) Electoral
Observation Mission in Haiti. The elections in Haiti, the poorest
nation in the Americas and struggling to shake off a history of
dictatorships, had already been postponed twice previously. The
process of organizing the vote has been marred by frequent protests,
sparked by insufficient voter registration offices and a lack of
materials to make the voter identity cards. "The goal of these
demonstrations is to create a climate of chaos and to discredit the
CEP by making others believe in its inability to manage the
situation,"the CEP statement said of the recent protests. Election
officials said they had underestimated the current voter population
using a figure from the government statistics office and ordered
materials for an estimated 4.2 million eligible voters, but Haiti's
population had grown. Film and laminated materials to make voter cards
quickly ran out due to waste, theft, fraud and arson. "Many voters
... unfortunately went around to different voter bureaus in their town
or in neighboring regions to make duplicate voter cards," the
statement said. Haiti has been trying to shake the legacy of decades of
dictatorship since 20,000 U.S.-led troops ousted a military regime in
1994 and restored then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, its first
freely elected president, to power. When Aristide's term ended in 1996
he handed power to his protege, President Rene Preval. His term has
been scarred by a government crisis since the 1997 legislative
election, which were annulled because of widespread fraud. Preval has
been ruling by decree since dissolving parliament in January 1999.
The elections now being organized were originally due to take place on
Nov. 28, 1999, then postponed to Dec. 19. Before last Friday's
postponement, election officials had vowed elections would definitely
be held March 19. The elections are to fill 10,000 empty elected posts
nationwide, including two-thirds of the Senate and the entire Chamber
of Deputies which make up Haiti's parliament. Some 29,000 candidates
are running.
"The (OAS) Mission considers that these elections must be held as soon
as possible," said an OAS press statement Wednesday, adding that the
Mission considered elections could be organized by April 9. Haiti's
next parliament should begin functioning June 12, as mandated by the
Constitution, said the CEP statement which was signed by the electoral
body's president, Leon Manus, and its secretary general,Irma Rateau.
"The Provisional Electoral Council solemnly states that this decision
come to after much consideration is irreversible. We must, for the good
of the nation end this political crisis which has lasted too long," the
statement said.