#1529: SICRAD/CIP on the electoral process (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

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


Electoral Update
------------------------------------------------------------------------

HAÏTI-CORRESPONDANCE serie 2 / No 44 / December
20, 1999E-bdo d'actualite haitienne et de
perspective democratique et populaire

The Provisional Electoral Council will take until January
to publish a final list of the candidates registered for the
March 19, 2000 elections. Meanwhile, press reports
indicate a large number registered. The new U.S.
special coordinator for Haiti, Donald Steinberg, finds
this an encouraging sign. He sees the number of
candidates as evidence of the Haitians' will to
make democratic progress.


After the upcoming publication of the final
candidates' list the CEP will closely follow the
electoral schedule for voter registration, one
member of the council said. This phase begins
on January 10, 2000. At the same time the tally
sheets are being prepared for the printer. A
Haitian consortium of Deschamps, Le Natal
and the Imprimerie des Antilles has put in a bid.
The CEP is waiting to see if financing from
the European Union materializes, said CEP
president Léon Manus.

All of the international activity around the
elections of next March does not reassure
certain local organizations. Leaders of the
peasant organization "Tet Kole Ti Peyizan"
called it contrary to national interests that the
ballots were printed by a Canadian firm,
financed by the Agenct for International
Development through the International
Foundations for Electoral Systems (IFES).
It announced that it would not participate
in the elections because popular interests
were not represented.

Members of the CEP were also worried
about the networks of electoral observation,
according to council member Carlo Dupiton.
He was worried that under the cover of
observation some political secotrs sought to
influence the voters.

In any case the Organization of American
States said it would have 102 observers in
Haiti for the elections, with forty arriving in
Port-au-Prince on January 10. They will stay
until publication of the returns.

The spokesman of the CEP, Gérin Alexandre,
has been in prison since December 14 for fraud
and embezzlement. fraud and diversion of funds.
The charges date from three years ago under the
preceding CEP. The CEP will find a replacement.