27284: Craig (news) Nation still unprepared for elections, critics say (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From:  Dan Craig


World
Nation still unprepared for elections, critics say
By Reed Lindsay
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 17, 2006


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Haiti is limping toward elections in February after 
more than two months of delays and with critics charging the country still is 
not ready and that residents of some remote areas will have to walk for five 
hours to vote.
  Beleaguered U.N. officials responsible for organizing the vote -- which is 
expected to elect a former ally of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide -- 
counter that the complaints are exaggerated and that no one will have to walk 
more than four miles.
  The elections come two years after U.S. Marines whisked Mr. Aristide into 
exile in Africa amid an armed rebellion. Since then, the hemisphere's poorest 
country has grown even poorer while violence has ravaged Port-au-Prince despite 
the presence of 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers.
  Acting President Boniface Alexandre issued a decree on Jan. 7 setting the 
date for the first round of national elections as Feb. 7, with a second round 
scheduled for March 19 and local balloting planned for April 30.
  The electoral calendar has already been pushed back between two and four 
times -- depending on who is counting -- but U.N. and government officials say 
they are confident that the latest dates will stick.
  "Feb. 7 is not negotiable," said Jean Junior Joseph, spokesman for Prime 
Minister Gerard Latortue. "The elections will take place no matter what."
  The clear-cut favorite in the race is Rene Preval, president from 1996 to 
2001, who is despised by sectors of the elite but popular among the poor who 
saw him as an honest and efficient administrator.
  Mr. Preval is perceived to be an ally of Mr. Aristide, a former priest who 
campaigned as a champion of the disenfranchised, although the two have been 
estranged in recent years.
  The repeated postponement of the elections was a result mainly of delays in 
the distribution of voter-identification cards, which now have been provided to 
nearly 60 percent of the 3.5 million registered voters.
  But critics charge that the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) is so plagued 
by partisanship and incompetence that it may not be capable of holding free and 
fair elections.
  "We could be in for a fiasco on Feb. 7," said Patrick Fequiere, a member of 
the CEP who is highly critical of his colleagues. "I can understand the [U.N.] 
Security Council wanting to get these elections over with, but we're still not 
ready."
  Mr. Fequiere and others point to problems with the 804 voting centers 
designated by the U.N. peacekeeping mission. They say that many voters have 
been assigned to the wrong center and others must walk too far because there 
are not enough centers.
 A Dec. 27 report issued by Washington-based IFES, which is observing the 
elections with USAID funds, says the accessibility issue "threatens to 
disenfranchise thousands of voters."
  The report says some people will have to walk as many as five hours to vote. 
But Gerardo Le Chevallier, chief of elections for the United Nations, said, 
"The most people will have to walk is 6 kilometers" -- about 3.75 miles.
  "The fact that 2 million cards have been distributed, all 800 voting centers 
have been identified, we have all the electoral material, and we've recruited 
nearly 12,000 electoral voting-table workers means that we are ready to hold 
these elections," he said.
  Another CEP member, Rosemond Pradel, said: "The only thing that could stop 
the elections right now is violence."
  Port-au-Prince has suffered a surge in kidnappings that has alarmed Haiti's 
small-but-influential middle and upper classes. Violence also has worsened in 
the immense slum of Cite Soleil, where armed groups battle daily with U.N. 
peacekeepers.
  Prominent members of the Haitian elite have called for the peacekeepers to 
crack down on the armed groups in Cite Soleil. But U.N. and Haitian police 
officials say that while many kidnapping victims are brought to Cite Soleil, 
the masterminds live elsewhere and some may be found among the nearly three 
dozen presidential candidates.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060116-100036-2495r.htm