26997: Hermantin(news) More time needed for credible elections (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Sun Sentinel


HAITI

More time needed for credible elections



By Mark L. Schneider

December 22, 2005



Before they would take me out to watch people registering to vote in Haiti's 
largest shantytown, my United Nations escorts insisted that I put on a 
bulletproof vest and helmet and climb into an armored personnel carrier.

As we rumbled through the pothole-filled streets of Cite Soleil, I thought all 
the security seemed a little melodramatic. "Do we really need this?" I asked 
the Brazilian peacekeepers who were taking me around. I had traveled through 
the same poverty-stricken neighborhoods a dozen years earlier without any 
thought of armed escorts. "Only if you don't want to be kidnapped," was the 
response.

With an average of two kidnappings a day, they said, it was not safe to travel 
unprotected. A few minutes later, the staccato sounds of gunfire brought home 
the reality that too many people in Haiti still use guns to settle political 
disputes.

Haiti is on the verge of holding its first elections since President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced to flee into African exile in 2004. But the 
country is not ready. After putting the elections off twice, the transitional 
prime minister, Gerard Latortue, recently announced that the first round of 
presidential and parliamentary elections would be held two days after 
Christmas, and the second round a month later so that a new government could 
take office on Feb. 7, as required by Haiti's Constitution. But the new 
schedule had not even been confirmed by the provisional elections council 
before a new date of Jan. 8 was announced.

Why are the elections being repeatedly delayed? The problems begin with all the 
guns in circulation and with the clear threat to candidates who may campaign in 
the wrong towns or neighborhoods.

In many rural areas, ex-members of Haiti's dissolved military and other rebels 
who helped force Aristide out remain forces of intimidation. In the urban 
areas, the gangs that backed Aristide are at least as much of the problem.

After Aristide fled, the U.N. authorized a largely U.S., French and Canadian 
multinational force to restore order, which quickly ended any rebel ideas of 
marching into Port-au-Prince to take power. Unfortunately, the multinational 
force turned over security to U.N. peacekeepers without having disarmed or 
demobilized any of those groups.

That initial failure has been at the core of the inability to end the violence 
from political and organized criminal elements over the last 18 months. Only 
two weeks ago in Cite Militaire, another Port-au-Prince neighborhood, the U.N. 
peacekeeping force found itself in an eight-hour gun battle before it subdued 
assailants. Until the U.N. acts aggressively to demobilize the gangs and to 
clean out killers within the Haitian National Police, politics in Haiti will be 
severely hindered.

And whatever government takes office next will have less chance to succeed. 
When I saw U.N. peacekeepers deployed around the headquarters of the newly 
appointed police chief, Mario Andresol, and was told that he could not be sure 
of the loyalty of his own officers, it was clear that security for the average 
Haitian remains a distant goal.

But security is only one of the critical pieces that must be in place before 
elections can go forward. Haiti's election committee and the government barely 
managed to agree on the presidential candidates. Haiti's voters need time to 
learn who the candidates are and what they stand for.

Right now, not many voters know where they will vote, much less whom they will 
vote for. The 809 voting centers have only just been identified, and most of 
the 40,000 election workers still need to be hired and trained.

When they do vote, the 3.5 million Haitians who have registered may not have 
the computerized identity cards they were promised because of the election 
committee's tardy actions and because of delays in production and delivery in a 
country where roads are often not maintained or are nonexistent. Without cards, 
voters can only hope they are not hassled at the voting booth.

For the election to be credible -- and many of Haiti's elections have not been 
-- independent, neutral international observers are essential. The U.S., the 
European Union, Japan and Canada, which are funding the election, should be 
urging the transitional government to put off the first round until late 
January, the second round until late February (including local elections) and 
the inauguration of a new president and parliament to early March. At least 
give Haiti a decent chance for a credible election.

Mark Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group, wrote 
this for the Los Angeles Times, 202 W. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.


Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel