26999: Wharram (news) OAS denies claims it's delaying Haiti electoral process (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

 Last updated: Saturday, December 24, 2005, 3:34 AM EST

The Jamaica Observer
OAS denies claims it's delaying Haiti electoral process
AP
Saturday, December 24, 2005

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - The Organisation of American States denied
claims Friday that it was delaying Haiti's national elections.

Election officials said delays in distributing 3.5 million voter
identification cards - handled by the OAS - was a major concern and could
lead to a fourth postponement of the elections.

The OAS said the cards would be ready before the Jan 8 vote.

"Ninety per cent of the cards are already in the electoral centres, waiting
for people to pick them up," said Louise Brunet, OAS spokeswoman. "Our
problem is that most voters have stopped coming to the centres."

The polls were to be the first since former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide
was toppled in a bloody rebellion nearly two years ago.

OAS Ambassador to Haiti Denneth Modeste said Haitians weren't coming to pick
up their cards because they don't believe elections will take place as
scheduled.
"It's a tendency here to rush to the distributions at the last minute," he
said.

Several members of the nine-member Provisional Electoral Council, which is
in charge of organising the elections, said they feared the vote might be
postponed.

They blamed the OAS and the UN - which are organising most of the election
security and logistics - for the delays.

"Everything was done too late, and the reality is that only 200,000 of the
3.5 million cards have reached the voters, with only two weeks left," said
Pierre Richard Duchemin, a council member.

The OAS and the UN have said they're ready for the Jan 8 elections.

"The Provisional Electoral Council should be the leading agency inciting
people to collect their cards, instead of spreading doubts," Modeste said.