VZCZCXRO1684
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #0802/01 1202007
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 302007Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5960
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 1514
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1335
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 0790
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1202

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT AU PRINCE 000802 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR 
S/CRS 
SOUTHCOM ALSO 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: ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 
 
REF: PORT AU PRINCE 653 
 
PORT AU PR 00000802  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (U)  Summary:  Haitians went to the polls for yet another 
election on April 29.  Electors cast votes for the one 
outstanding seat in the Chamber of Deputies in the commune of 
La Chapelle in the Artibonite department in a heated, though 
not exceedingly violent, atmosphere.  Voting center workers 
reported problems with voter lists, a few attempts by people 
to vote multiple times, and attempts by bystanders to 
influence the voting.  Poll workers allowed some voters not 
found on any voter lists to vote as long as they presented 
their National Identification Card (CIN) issued by the 
Provisional Electoral Council (CEP).  Haitian National Police 
(HNP) and UNPOL stationed at the voting centers reported 
disruptions from party militants who attempted to intimidate 
competing party loyalists.  Overall, HNP and MINUSTAH 
presence was strong and the day ended successfully, with 
ballots arriving intact at the tally center.  End summary. 
 
CEP Declares Victory 
----------- 
 
¶2.  (U)  Poloffs traveled to the commune of La Chapelle in 
the Artibonite department to observe the April 29 
supplemental elections.  (Note:  The CEP declared all 
December 3 elections in La Chapelle invalid due to violence 
and destruction of ballots.  This included the one 
outstanding race for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies.  End 
note.)  The CEP reported on the evening of April 29 that 
turnout was approximately 10 percent in urban areas and 30 
percent in rural areas.  Turnout was lowest in the West 
Department, at approximately 10 percent.  All voting centers 
opened on time with all of their sensitive materials, with 
the exception of Ile de la Tortue (North West), where the 
ballots arrived late and voting centers opened an hour late. 
The CEP decided to allow the centers to remain open for an 
extra hour to compensate for the late opening.  Acting CEP 
Director General Francois Benoit stated in a press conference 
that the CEP successfully instituted a ''system of command 
and control'' over these elections.  Benoit stated that the 
CEP hopes to have results within three days, followed by the 
normal period of contestations.  He predicted the final 
results will be ready by the end of May. 
 
 
Deputy Race: Fusion vs. LAAA 
----------- 
 
¶3. (U)  The April 29 election marked the fourth attempt to 
elect a deputy from the La Chapelle commune.  Candidate 
Hermano Exinord (Fusion) and P. Alix Macajoux (Artibonite in 
Action/LAAA) faced off in an animated election full of 
impassioned partisans on both sides.  Fusion partisans came 
out in force on election day to challenge LAAA's stronghold 
on the region.  The Fusion candidate, Exinord, told poloffs 
that ''It's hard to be a candidate here because LAAA is 
heavily armed and violent.''  Fusion Senator Edmonde Supplice 
Beauzile (Central Plateau) spent the day in La Chapelle, in 
her words not as a senator but as the secretary general of 
Fusion.  She reported that in Haut Martineau she witnessed a 
man claiming to be a civilian MINUSTAH employee beating 
another man ''until his nose bled.''  HNP in Haut Martineau 
did not report the incident described by the senator, but did 
describe the senator's arrival at the voting center as a 
large disturbance.  They said that a pickup truck carrying 
six men arrived with her, and drove into the surrounding 
hills and began blocking people from coming to vote.  The 
populace subdued the men and brought them to the voting 
center, where HNP took them into custody.  The policemen and 
UNPOL on the scene reported that the men in the pickup were 
Fusion partisans, and that they were from the capital, 
specifically Cite Soleil and Bel Air.  Radio Metropole later 
reported that one of Senator Beauzile's security guards was 
arrested in the Artibonite. 
 
¶4. (U)  UNPOL in Haut Martineau reported that LAAA candidate 
Macajoux came to the center, cast his vote and left quickly 
without pausing to campaign.  Deputy Astrel Gustinvil (LAAA) 
came to the Haut Martineau voting center, according to 
Senator Beauzile and HNP on the scene, but he did not create 
 
PORT AU PR 00000802  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
any disorder.  (Note:  Deputy Gustinvil represents the 
neighboring commune, Petite-Riviere de l'Artibonite.  End 
note.)  One official Fusion party representative at the 
National School of Bossous reported that LAAA partisans had 
arrived on the scene, threw rocks at a Fusion elector and 
broke the windshield of a car carrying Fusion militants. 
Poloff witnessed that one Fusion voter was indeed bleeding, 
but did not witness the incident.  At the National School of 
Bossous, two men in police uniforms arrived and began 
shooting in the air to deter voters.  HNP arrested the men 
and determined that one was a real police officer who was not 
on duty that day, and the other was an impostor.  HNP, 
bystanders, and poll workers all reported to Poloffs that the 
men were LAAA militants trying to scare away Fusion voters. 
 
Irregular Voting Center Procedures 
----------- 
 
¶5. (U)  Poloffs witnessed one elector attempting to vote 
twice, and poll workers reported a few other incidents of 
double-voting, including one person who tried to vote in two 
different rooms and another who gave their CIN to someone 
else to use.  Voting center staff immediately kicked out the 
offenders.  In two separate voting centers Bossous National 
School and La Chapelle National School), electors were 
allowed to vote using their CIN even if their names were not 
on the list.  In both instances, the CEP-ordained manager of 
the centers made the decision to allow the votes.  As is 
normal procedure, voting lists were posted outside of each 
room or ''bureau,'' but the lists outside often did not match 
the lists inside the bureau which the workers used to check 
off electors as they came through.  Both outside and inside 
the voting centers, militants from the various political 
parties attempted to pressure electors into voting for their 
candidates, according to national observers.  In other parts 
of Haiti, one president of a communal electoral office 
(French acronym ''BEC,'' of which there are several in each 
voting center) was fired, and another arrested for 
contributing to election fraud. 
 
Ballots Arrive Safely in Gonaives 
----------- 
 
¶6. (U)  All ballots from La Chapelle arrived safely at the 
tally center at the MINUSTAH base in Gonaives on the evening 
of the election, divisionary commissar for the area Godson 
Orelus reported to Poloff on April 30.  Commissar Orelus 
stated that he deployed all of his forces to assure that the 
problems of December 3 were not repeated.  (Note:  On 
December 3, citizens stole ballot boxes from the Haut 
Martineau voting center and burned them in the streets.  End 
note.)  According to Orelus, MINUSTAH safely transported the 
ballots to neighboring Verettes by 10:30 p.m., where they 
picked up more packets and departed for Gonaives, arriving at 
the MINUSTAH base around midnight.  They did not encounter 
any improvised roadblocks along the way, nor did any citizens 
attempt to steal any sensitive materials.  Orelus credited 
this to the large number of HNP he dispatched to patrol the 
area. 
 
18 Arrested Across the Country 
----------- 
 
¶7. (U) According to the CEP, the HNP arrested 18 people 
across the country in election-related incidents.  In 
addition to the arrests noted in paras 3 and 4, four men were 
arrested in La Chapelle for illegally bringing firearms into 
the voting center and then attempting to stuff ballot boxes. 
 
¶8. (U) Comment:  In La Chapelle, poloffs witnessed Haitian 
elections at their most contentious.  The level of violence 
and fraud is not necessarily representative of all of Haiti, 
as demonstrated by the peaceful December 3 elections in the 
West Department.  Poloffs were especially alarmed that voting 
center workers (and their supervisors) could not keep 
straight whether people not listed on the voter rolls should 
be allowed to vote or not.  Fortunately, despite large crowds 
of excited political party militants at each voting center, 
HNP and MINUSTAH presence limited violent incidents.  Four 
elections in a little more than a year was clearly more than 
 
PORT AU PR 00000802  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
desirable: electors, poll workers, HNP and MINUSTAH all 
expressed their frustration with running the deputy election 
for the fourth time.  As much as Haitians may want to 
celebrate the end of elections, the next elections cycle is 
on the horizon with national elections for the Senate due in 
November 2007 (reftel). 
SANDERSON