VZCZCXRO3331
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #0327/01 0521326
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 211326Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5366
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 1415
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1238
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 0713
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1127

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 000327 
 
SIPDIS 
 
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: ELECTION RESULTS: TWO MONTHS LATER... 
 
REF: A. 06 PAUP 2246 
     ¶B. 06 PAUP 2317 
 
PORT AU PR 00000327  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  Two months after the December 3 elections, 
the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has not certified any 
local or municipal election results.  The CEP has certified 
results of the re-run legislative races, and parliament has 
sworn in those lawmakers, leaving both houses short one 
member due to a death in the senate and the invalidation of 
one deputy race.  The CEP indicates that it will re-run at 
least 70 local races and has announced these will take place 
on March 11, but no informed observer believes the CEP can 
meet that date.  Since the resignation of former CEP Director 
General Bernard on December 14, the CEP is again missing 
deadlines and appears unable to take decisions.  Concerns and 
rumors are growing that the executive will have to step in to 
finalize local election results.  End Summary. 
 
Challenges and Reruns 
---------- 
 
¶2. (U) Acting Director General (and board member) of the CEP 
Francois Benoit told Poloff on February 8 that the CEP plans 
to re-run 70 of the elections originally held on December 3. 
The CEP did not certify results in 65 races due to 
election-day violence or administrative flaws.  Additionally, 
the CEP's National Contestation Office (BCN) ruled in favor 
of candidates challenging the results in five other races, 
finding significant fraud or irregularities.  The re-run 
elections will include one deputy race, ten municipalities 
(mayor and deputy mayors), five town delegates (delegue de 
ville), 29 county district councils (ASEC) and 25 county 
councils (CASEC). (Ref A details the convoluted structure of 
local government in Haiti and the jurisdictional authority of 
the offices listed above.) 
 
¶3. (U) The BCN received 104 challenges to the December 3 
election results and has ruled on 58 (including the five 
accepted challenges).  Twenty eight cases await final ruling 
from the BCN; candidates did not pursue their challenges in 
the remaining 24 cases.  Benoit told Poloff that he expected 
the CEP to rule on outstanding challenges by the end of 
February.  Additional rulings in favor of appealing 
candidates would raise the number of elections the CEP must 
repeat. 
 
Results and Rerun Timeline 
---------- 
 
¶4. (U) The executive announced an inauguration for all local 
and municipal officials on  February 12, but did not meet 
that date.  Benoit had told Poloff during their February 8 
conversation that the CEP had certified the results for the 
municipalities not subject to challenge and would send them 
to the executive the following day for ratification and 
publication in the government's official register.  The CEP 
did not send the results to the executive, and Benoit 
subsequently told Poloff on February 14 that the CEP was 
holding those results pending a meeting with the Prime 
Minister and resolution of a dispute regarding how mayors 
would be inaugurated.  Benoit maintained that the results for 
the town delegates were &forthcoming,8 but stated that the 
CEP would not certify ASEC and CASEC results pending the 
completion of ASEC and CASEC posts requiring re-run 
elections, because all ASEC and CASEC members must elect 
interdepartmental councils within eight days of certification 
of the results. 
 
¶5. (U) Benoit told Poloff, and the CEP subsequently publicly 
announced, that elections needing to be re-run will occur on 
March 11.  The CEP has already negotiated the price of new 
ballots with the printer and started discussing election 
security with MINUSTAH.  The budget for the remaining 
elections is estimated at USD 1.3 million.  Benoit states 
that the UNDP has a sufficient balance from previous rounds 
to fund a fourth round without seeking new pledges from 
donors. 
 
Parliament: Almost Complete 
---------- 
 
PORT AU PR 00000327  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶6. (U) Parliament swore in the three newly elected senators 
from the Northeast Department on February 5 and ten new 
deputies on February 12.  Both the senate and the chamber of 
deputies remain one member short of their full complement of 
30 and 99 members, respectively.  The CEP invalidated the 
deputy race in the LaChapelle district of the Artibonite 
Department after a local mob stole the tally sheets with the 
results during their transport to the tabulation center in 
Port-au-Prince (ref B).  Senator Noel Emmanuel Limage's 
(Lespwa-Artibonite) death in a car on January 23 accounts for 
the senate vacancy.  Haiti's constitution calls for a special 
election within 30 days to fill a senate vacancy, but the CEP 
is making no preparations.  Senate sources indicate the seat 
will remain vacant until the next scheduled senate races (for 
one third of the senate's seats) in November. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Comment:  It is hard to tell whether the work of the 
CEP has slowed to a crawl or ground to a halt.  As feared 
after the resignation of former Director General Jacques 
Bernard on December 14, the CEP has reverted to the 
dysfunctional performance it demonstrated during the 18 
months before his appointment.  Despite Benoit's reassurances 
that thus and such decisions and actions are forthcoming, the 
CEP continues to miss deadlines, and no informed observer of 
the CEP believes it can hold rerun elections on March 11.  As 
rumors abound in Haiti, the word is spreading among 
international experts and some government officials that 
Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime will dissolve the 
CEP and have the interior ministry finish the work of 
certifying the local elections, organizing the elections of 
the interdepartmental councils, and ultimately overseeing the 
selection of a permanent electoral council.  While the 
executive would have to turn some legal and constitutional 
cartwheels to effect that action, we would not anticipate a 
serious controversy as most Haitians would be happy enough to 
be done with this demonstrably incompetent CEP.  However, we 
wonder whether the interior ministry or any other part of the 
executive could muster the necessary initiative to take on a 
project as messy as finalizing the local elections and seeing 
through the subsequent indirect elections.  Thus, the end of 
the local elections remains very much up in the air, and 
looming in the near future, as mentioned above, are the 
scheduled general elections in November for the senate.  End 
Comment. 
SANDERSON