27084: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti blames new election delay on U.N., OAS (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Haiti's election officials
have put the blame for the latest postponement of national election on the
Organization of American States and the United Nations, accusing them of
failing to distribute voter cards and set up polling stations.
     Rosemond Pradel, secretary-general of the Provisional Electoral
Council, said the OAS had not lived up to a commitment to distribute voter
identification cards in time for a Jan. 8 election.
     OAS and U.N. officials rejected the accusations.
     Elections officials said on Friday they were delaying the vote but did
not announce a new date.
     "The OAS said voting card distribution would be completed by December
25th, but as of now not even half of the cards have been distributed," said
Pradel in a weekend interview. "That's grave, that's very grave."
     Haiti has been ruled by a U.S.-backed interim government since
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was pushed from office in February 2004. A
U.N. peacekeeping force comprised of 9,000 soldiers and police has provide
security for the troubled Caribbean country of 8.5 million people, which
has been plagued by gang and political violence.
     The transition government has struggled to organize a national
election, which was initially scheduled for November but has been delayed
several times by disorganization.
     Election officials said the OAS was responsible for voter registration
and for the distribution of voting cards, while the U.N. stabilization
mission in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, was in charge of placing voting
centers around the country and of logistics for the election.
     "We are fed up with those foreigners who sit there spending money and
not delivering," said Pradel. He said MINUSTAH refused to set up voting
centers in sufficient numbers to increase accessibility.
     He said the U.N. mission had offered assurances that Haitians would
not have to walk more than two hours to reach voting centers. "Now we
learned voters have to walk six, seven hours to reach a voting center in
some areas," he said.
     U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst rejected the allegations, saying
MINUSTAH had carried out its responsibilities, which did not include
deciding the location of voting stations.
     "Our mission was to verify that the voting centers the electoral
council had selected physically existed," Wimhurst said. "It had never been
our job to determine the location of voting centers."
     Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said the OAS had guaranteed the
voting cards would be distributed by Dec. 25.
     "December 25th has come and gone, the cards are not there and now they
said January 5th," Latortue said.
     The head of the OAS mission in Haiti, Denneth Modeste, also rejected
blame. OAS officials said they were ready to start distributing the cards
on Sept. 25, when the first ones arrived from printers in Mexico, but
election officials told them to hold off because polling stations had not
yet been chosen.
     Fewer than 2 million of 3.5 million registered voters have collected
their voting cards, according to election officials.
     "The cards are available in several hundred distribution centers
around the country, people just have to go and collect them," said Modeste.
He said his organization cannot be blamed if voters fail to collect the
cards.
     Election officials plan to complete preparations by Jan. 28 and
sources close to the council told Reuters the ballot could be set for Feb.
7. Latortue also suggested the same date.




 REUTERS