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26311: Craig (news) Haiti elections key to rejoining Caricom (fwd)
From: Dan Craig <sak-pase@bimini.ws>
Haiti elections key to rejoining Caricom
By Bert Wilkinson
The Associated Press
Posted September 23 2005
GEORGETOWN, Guyana · Haiti likely won't be welcomed back into the 15-nation
Caribbean Community unless the country holds free and fair elections later this
year, the bloc's secretary general said Thursday.
Edwin Carrington said several Caribbean leaders conveyed that message to
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin during a meeting on the sidelines of last
week's U.N. General Assembly.
Martin, whose government has sent about 100 peacekeepers to help stabilize
Haiti, had voiced concern that the regional bloc known as Caricom may have
isolated the violence-torn country for too long since a February 2004 revolt
toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Carrington said. But the leaders
insisted that restoring ties could happen only if Haiti takes steps to ensure
Nov. 20 presidential and legislative elections are legitimate, including
improving voter registration and making the Electoral Council more efficient,
Carrington said.
"Without an acceptable election, relations with Caricom would be difficult,"
Carrington said Caribbean leaders told Martin during the meeting. The leaders
added that Haiti's Electoral Council "does not seem to be getting its act
together," Carrington said, without elaborating.
The Caribbean Community suspended Haiti shortly after the revolt that ousted
Aristide, the country's first democratically elected leader. The bloc has
refused to recognize Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government, saying it was
unconstitutionally installed.
Haiti's elections have been postponed several times because of logistical snags
and crippling violence blamed on well-armed street gangs bent on destabilizing
the country. Voter registration has reached 2.3 million, or about half of those
eligible.
Carrington said Martin told the leaders he "felt that Caricom might have stayed
out of the Haiti situation ... for too long."
The meeting was attended by Interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue,
Guyana President Bharrat Jagedo, Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, St.
Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and St. Kitts Prime Minister Denzil
Douglas, Carrington said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-ahaiti23sep23,0,2840178.story