8510: Convergence, churches, civil society meet to prepare for talks , on CEP (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <maxblanchet@worldnet.att.net>

Haiti: Convergence, churches, civil society meet to prepare for talks on CEP
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 29, 2001



Text of report by Haitian Metropole radio on 29 June

A meeting took place last night between the Democratic Convergence,
representatives of the churches, the OAS representatives and civil society
to prepare an outline for the discussions that will take place this weekend.
According to the Convergence's Micha Gaillard, this political coalition is
insisting on guarantees before the formation of a credible and independent
CEP [Provisional Electoral Council]. Gaillard pointed out that the churches
and civil society had said that they had not officially designated any
representatives to the CEP. Gaillard explains:

[Gaillard - recording] We met simply to discuss the issues that should be
part of the outline for talks. It was mainly about the method that should be
used to form the CEP. It is clear that when the de facto communications
minister said they are waiting for the Convergence to send a name, he made a
mistake. First, we must finalize the agreed method that we should use to
decide it. Second, there must be a political environment and administrative
security. Third, the mandate and, lastly, the modality of the nominations.
We also talked about how the electoral apparatus should operate. Finally,
the last element that is going to be part of the negotiations this weekend
is the other elements that should be part of the global political agreement.
This was exploratory work and we think that if each sector makes an effort
to do what is necessary, we can complete everything within a reasonable
time.

[Unidentified correspondent] In your conversation with civil society and the
churches, did they say that they have already chosen their representatives
to the CEP?

[Gaillard] We formally asked that question by saying: Every day, we hear on
the radio that the de facto communications minister said this and that. Are
we really going to discuss the method or is it just a matter of names? They
said clearly said that this was not the case. We shall first discuss the
method and agree on that. The Catholic Church has not submitted any name for
that CEP.

Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 29 Jun 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC