VZCZCXRO6713
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #2474/01 3631440
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 291440Z DEC 06 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4975
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 1357
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1188
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 0672
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1087

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 002474 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR 
S/CRS 
SOUTHCOMALSO FOR POLAD 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR 
INR/IAA (BEN-YEHUDA) 
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM HA
SUBJECT: ELECTIONS UPDATE: 25 DAYS AFTER 
 
REF: PAP 2412 
 
PORT AU PR 00002474  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. This message is sensitive but unclassified -- protect 
accordingly. 
 
¶2. (U) Summary: The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has 
published 99 percent of all election results from the 
December 3 round.  Of the published results, candidates have 
contested 15 percent.  Following resolution of the 
contestations, some reruns are anticipated sometime in 
February.  The leading political parties, Lespwa and Fusion, 
are pleased with the elections but state that violence and 
voting irregularities were more widespread than in the 
earlier rounds.  Implementing the local government structure 
may prove problematic to the GoH and frustrating for the 
political parties.  Currently, a sufficient budget does not 
exist for the salaries of local and municipal government 
officials, much less their projects.  Likewise, no clear road 
map exists for the implementation of local governance.  End 
Summary. 
 
The Status of Election Results and Disputes 
 
 
¶3. (U) The CEP has published the election results for 1419 of 
the 1431 posts.  According to CEP Counselor and Acting 
Director General Francois Benoit, the CEP will post the 
results for one additional race December 29.  The remaining 
11 election results will not be published because of violence 
that disrupted the voting process or tabulation sheets that 
were not recovered.  Based on the previously posted results, 
there are 222 local contestations.  None have been 
adjudicated.  The number is expected to increase as the CEP 
publishes the remaining results.  The national contestation 
office (BCN) received four contestations for the deputy 
seats.  The office heard the cases on December 26 and 27 but 
has not yet made a determination on the validity of the 
disputed results. 
 
¶4. (U) Benoit told poloff on December 28 that rerun elections 
would take place in February for sixty polling stations that 
were disrupted by violence on election day as well as those 
that are approved by the contestation offices.  The CEP had 
not selected a date for the inauguration of local and 
municipal government officials. 
 
¶5. (U) The CEP announced the results for the Port-au-Prince 
mayor's race on the evening of December 20 after Canadian 
election observers shared their copies of the tabulation 
sheets with the CEP. (Note: Results for this race were 
delayed because the CEP did not receive all of the tabulation 
sheets (ref A).  End Note.)  The Union of Patriotic Citizens 
(RCP) cartel won.  Lespwa candidates and partisans did not 
take to the streets as threatened.  Fusion candidate Wilfrid 
Joseph, however, publicly claimed that his party agreed to 
give up the mayor's race in exchange for two Senate seats, a 
claim Fusion leadership denies.  The Fusion cartel won only 
four percent of the vote while RCP had 15 percent. 
 
Political Party Opinion 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) Fusion spokesman Micha Gaillard told poloffs on 
December 20 that his party accepts the elections on the 
whole.  However, the party intended to contest several races 
where gross fraud had been committed.  He stressed that 
Fusion would be a part of the democratic process and not 
protest the results outside of the contestation process. 
(Note: Gaillard phoned poloff on December 21 to discuss the 
actions of mayoral candidate Joseph.  Joseph threatened 
Fusion leaders at their headquarters with a gun, firing into 
the air.  Gaillard said that he regrets the behavior of 
Joseph and that the party would not support his claims of 
fraud in the Port-au-Prince race.  The party believes 
Joseph's accusations lack merit.  End Note.)   Gaillard also 
opined that there was more violence on election day than in 
the previous rounds.  He attributed the violence to armed 
partisans who felt free to disrupt the electoral process 
because those guilty of kidnapping and other serious crimes 
 
PORT AU PR 00002474  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
suffered no judicial consequences.  Preval's strategy of 
negotiation created "small criminals" willing to use violence 
to achieve their goals during the election and contestation 
periods. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Minister of Parliamentary Relations Joseph Jasmin, 
speaking for Lespwa, accepted the elections in general and 
saw no widespread fraud.  Lespwa candidates would respect the 
democratic process and file contestations where needed.  The 
party has lawyers in the ten departments to assist with the 
local disputes.  Jasmin laments that the structure is not 
sufficiently in place for local governance to take on their 
duties.  Lespwa, however, will assist their candidates with 
the governance process so that the party can build trust 
among the population and maintain its popularity. 
 
Implementing the Local Government: Financial Significance 
 
 
¶8. (U) 1996 legislation states that the Ministry of Interior 
(MOI) will allocate approximately 205 USD monthly to each 
county council (CASEC).  USD 155 should be used for the 
salaries of the three-member council and 50 USD for 
operational costs.  The county district councils (ASEC) 
receive no remuneration.  According to Preval's economic 
advisor, Gabriel Verret, the GoH allocated one million 
gourdes (approximately USD 25,000) for local governance in 
the current budget.  The remaining funds for CASEC and ASEC 
will come from the territorial fund of the MOI.  Verret 
admits, however, that the fund and the allocated budgetary 
funds are not sufficient for the local governing bodies. 
(Note: The territorial collective fund was established in 
1996 and draws upon taxes to create revenue.  Verret stated 
that the fund generates approximately USD 770,000 per month.) 
 Verret believes that an amended budget is likely.  Senator 
Kely Bastien, President of the senate finance committee, 
agrees although he claims the current budget is sufficient to 
cover local government salaries. 
 
¶9. (U) The director general of the MOI Harry Voltaire told 
poloff on December 28 that many of the metropolitan 
municipalities would have their own budget but the provincial 
municipalities would turn to the MOI for financing.  He 
stated that there would be a disparity in the municipal 
salaries because of the varying responsibilities of the mayor 
and deputy mayors.  He was currently working on a grid that 
would set the salaries and budgets for each municipality 
based on the size and responsibility of each municipality. 
Town delegates (delegue de ville) do not receive 
remuneration.  However, Voltaire was concerned not only that 
the town delegates did not have a salary but that they also 
lacked any legally defined responsibility.  According to 
Voltaire, the position was "the imagination of a previous 
CEP." 
 
¶10. (SBU) Comment:  There are few experts on local government 
financing or function in Haiti.  Many in the government are 
scrambling to determine how the local officials will be paid, 
where they will work, what resources they will control, and, 
in some cases, what they will do.  While having the elections 
moves Haiti closer to the decentralized governmental 
structure outlined in the 1987 Constitution, the GoH's larger 
democratic challenge will be to keep the local governing 
employees engaged and responding to the needs of their 
constituency.  End Comment. 
TIGHE