16534: This Week in Haiti 21:22 8/13/2003 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                      August 13 - 19, 2003
                         Vol. 21, No. 22

FORMULA FOR ELECTIONS:
OAS RESOLUTION OR CONSTITUTION?

Haiti's political crisis has reached a critical juncture. The
Haitian government must decide in the next few weeks whether it
will hold elections this year or risk having the terms of
Parliamentarians expire on January 12, 2004 with no elected
replacements.

The mandate of all 83 deputies and a third of the 27 senators
ends the second Monday of next January. Elections could
realistically be held no later than late November or early
December, allowing time for tabulation and run-offs.

Haiti's last major legislative elections, held on May 21, 2000,
were swept by the Lavalas Family party (FL). Fifteen opposition
groups immediately cried foul and formed themselves into the
Democratic Convergence front with the blessing and support of
Washington,. The Organization of American States (OAS) was
brought in to "mediate" between the Haitian government and the
Convergence. It brokered an "Initial Agreement," which defined
how the next Provisional Electoral Commission (CEP), charged with
organizing legislative and local elections in 2003, would be
formed.

In 2002, the OAS also passed Resolutions 806 and 822, which call
on Haitian authorities to arrest pro-government popular
organization leaders and to allow the deployment of foreign
"peace-keepers" to supervise elections (see Ha‹ti ProgrŠs, Vol.
20, No. 26, 9/11/2002).

The "Initial Accord" proposed that the 9-member CEP have one
representative each from the Convergence, the FL, non-Convergence
opposition parties, the judicial branch, and five "civil society"
sectors: the Episcopal Church, the Protestant church, the
Catholic Church, the private sector, and the human rights sector.
Only the Convergence and other opposition parties have not chosen
their representatives while the five "Civil Society" sectors
refuse to have their nominees sworn in until Resolution 822 is
implemented to their satisfaction.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide published the names of the seven
named representatives in a Feb. 7, 2003 decree, proposing that
the Convergence and other parties add their nominees at a later
date. Despite constant government concessions, the Convergence
and its allies have continued to call for the "zero option," code
for Aristide's resignation or overthrow, and foreign
intervention.

Faced with such intransigence and with time running out, Lavalas
authorities must now decide whether to wait for the opposition
and "civil society" sectors to have a change of heart or to forge
ahead with the formation of a CEP which does not include
recalcitrants.

Addressing members of the National Census Office on Aug. 7 at the
National Palace, Aristide again genuflected before Resolution 822
and pleaded for a deal to be struck so that elections can be held
before Dec. 2003. "There have to be elections," he said. "That is
why, while we are working to organize elections with an electoral
commission which issues from the negotiations based on
Resolutions 806 and 822, we ask the present CEP to do all within
the limits of the law to prepare the ground for the consensus
commission. The Haitian government has a moral obligation to
organize these elections so as to avoid an institutional void."

Disy C‚sar, a member of Aristide's private cabinet, said that
"consultations are underway with the concerned sectors of civil
society to put in place the [consensus] CEP" by having "the
delegates who have been nominated sworn in." However, recent
declarations from these "civil society" groups, which have always
been close to the Convergence, offer no grounds for optimism.

On Aug. 7, a representative of the Protestant Federation of
Haiti, speaking at the inauguration of a Convergence party's new
locale, called for Aristide's resignation and the holding of
general elections in 2004 if the government is unable to
completely implement resolutions 806 and 822. In short, the "zero
option."

Micha Gaillard, a spokesman for Konakom, the party in question,
saluted the Protestant Federation for its "courage" and called on
other "civil society" sectors to explicitly adopt the position.

Meanwhile, Rosny Desroches, a long-time Washington ally and head
of the Civil Society Initiative (ISC), called for the deployment
of an "international contingent" to assure security as a
condition for any elections. "Today, we've had enough of
political, economic and social crisis," Desroches said. "I think
that Haitian society and democrats in this country, whether they
are from the political class or other sectors of national life,
must come together to undertake serious and intelligent
negotiations with the International Community so as to find truly
the means to give the Haitian people sufficient security to
organize honest and credible elections."

Such positions were reinforced by David Lee, the head of the
Special OAS Mission in Haiti, who obliquely warned the government
not to proceed with elections because OAS "resolutions 822 and
1959 [adopted Jun. 10, 2003 in Santiago, Chile] call for the
government to take a certain number of measures to encourage the
creation of a climate of trust."

However, Ben Dupuy, secretary general of the National Popular
Party (PPN), urged the government to move ahead with elections in
accordance with the 1987 Constitution and to avoid an
institutional interruption. "The opposition would like to have
the parliament expire next January so they can call the
government de facto and a dictatorship," he said.

He also announced his party's readiness to take part in the
polling. "One can see that there are really only two major
parties in Haiti: the Lavalas Family and the National Popular
Party," Dupuy said. "We have demonstrated our strength and held
marches in the past year with thousands of PPN militants. The
Convergence can't assemble ten people under a street lamp, so
they have no interest in participating in elections."

Dupuy ridiculed the notion that there was not enough security in
Haiti to hold elections. "Take a country like Colombia where
they've had civil war for 40 years, groups like the FARC with
12,000 armed combatants, drug cartels, and people being killed
like flies," he said. "They hold elections there in conditions
much worse than Haiti."

The government's choice comes down to respecting the Constitution
or Resolution 822. Article 139 of the Constitution stipulates
that the the president "shall negotiate and sign all
international treaties, conventions and agreements and submit
them to the National Assembly for ratification." But Resolution
822 has never been ratified by the Parliament and thus has no
constitutional force.

"We know some will say that the U.S. will not recognize election
which they don't authorize and control," Dupuy said. "But so
what? The U.S. didn't recognize our independence for 60 years
after we won it with blood in 1804."

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Please credit Haiti Progres.

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