VZCZCXRO0870
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #0378/01 0961840
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061840Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9825
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 000378 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/EX, WHA/CAR, INR/IAA 
STATE PASS AID FOR WHA/CAR 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM ASEC HA
SUBJECT: SENATE ELECTIONS:  MOVING ALONG 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  Preparations for the April 19 partial 
Senate elections appear to be largely on schedule.  Haiti's 
Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and MINUSTAH remain firm 
that they will take place April 19.  The CEP has assured the 
public that all preparations are on track and denies that 
delays in posting voter lists at polling stations might force 
postponement of the election date.  MINUSTAH representatives 
recently made similar assurances, and pledged it would work 
with the CEP and the Haitian National Police (HNP) to 
coordinate delivery of election materials and maintain 
security on Election Day.  MINUSTAH is shouldering the bulk 
of the organizational and logistical burden of these 
elections.  Despite MINUSTAH's and CEP's confidence that 
election operations are on schedule, many worry that voter 
turnout will be very low unless voter education efforts are 
accelerated.  End summary. 
 
CEP Points to Progress 
---------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) CEP President Verret told donors and CEP staff on 
March 24 that the elections timeline is on-track.  The CEP is 
confident elections will be held April 19.  Verret 
highlighted progress:  the arrival of voting kits, printing 
of the ballots with approved candidate party information and 
emblems, training and dispatching of communal electoral 
members (BECs), and efforts to retrofit a building in the 
SONAPI industrial area for a tabulation center (TVC).  He 
said that approximately 100 tons of voting kits (e.g., ballot 
boxes, voting booths, 4.2 million ballot papers) arrived by 
air the weekend of March 21-22.  The kits will be distributed 
to the 9,411 polling stations throughout the country by early 
April, according to CEP representatives.  CEP Spokesman 
Frantz Bernardin told the press April 1 that election 
preparations were 80 percent complete.  He said that 
recruitment of personnel to handle individual polling 
stations (bureau de vote) would begin soon. 
 
So Much to Do, So Little Time 
----------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) Verret told Poloff March 30 that the final national 
voter registry (electoral list) would be disaggregated into 
lists for each of Haiti's 9,411 polling stations by the first 
week of April.  He added that there was no danger that delays 
in getting these partial lists out to the regions would 
result in postponement of the election date. 
 
¶5. (U) At a March 26 meeting of the Elections Steering 
Committee (Table de Pilotage), CEP Information Manager 
Philippe Augustin said that out of ten departments, his 
office has developed nine regional voter registries, leaving 
only a few areas in the West Department, adjacent to 
Port-au-Prince, yet to be finalized -- Carrefour, Tabarre and 
Cite Soleil. 
 
MINUSTAH Pledge of Support 
-------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) MINUSTAH representatives assured the public on March 
26 that it is working alongside the CEP and the HNP to 
deliver election material to over 1,400 voting centers 
countrywide.  MINUSTAH will also provide military support to 
reinforce HNP security efforts on election day.  MINUSTAH 
Elections Chief Marc Plum said the election can take place on 
time ''if everyone does his or her job.''  Plum provided 
details of what the CEP and MINUSTAH had already 
accomplished, including appointing and training Communal 
Election Bureau members, and printing of the ballots. 
Activities underway included printing the voter lists and 
delivering them and the ballots to each of Haiti's of 9,411 
polling places; training election security officers; and 
training poll workers.  He explained that MINUSTAH is playing 
a major role in guiding the CEP on logistics and security 
planning.  It has dispatched vehicles to transport election 
materials to the regions and begun training security 
personnel who will be posted at polling stations on Election 
Day. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Plum told Poloffs on March 23 that finalizing and 
distributing the voting list for each polling station is the 
only real impediment -- within the purview of the CEP -- to 
holding elections on April 19.  He also worried that the 
national identification cards that are being printed by the 
National Office of Identification (ONI) with OAS support 
would not be distributed to voters in time.  (Note:  The ID 
cards are the only documents that will be accepted at the 
polling stations.  End note.)  Plum reasoned that even if a 
portion of the 600,000 new voters who turned 18 since the 
last national election were unable to obtain their ID cards, 
and even if turnout was low, the election would be acceptable 
by Haitian standards, and the international community should 
support them. 
 
Voter Turnout Concerns 
---------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) The exclusion of all Fanmi Lavalas would-be candidates 
has receded but not disappeared from public discussion. 
Several local organizations of Fanmi Lavalas in the capital 
have called on the public to stay home on election day and 
honor a ''closed door'' (porte ferme) in protest against the 
exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas candidates. Youri Latortue, 
President of the Senate Justice and Security Commission 
called on his colleagues March 19 to adopt a resolution to 
force the CEP to allow Fanmi Lavalas candidates to compete 
for seats on April 19.  Latortue said, ''it is abnormal that 
a majority party is excluded from the electoral process.'' 
 
¶9. (SBU) Several politicians, including Senate President Kely 
Bastien, said publicly that low voter turnout should be 
expected.  Former Senator Evelyne Cheron, whose two-year term 
ran out last May and who is running to regain her seat, told 
Poloff that she expects that many eligible voters will not 
turn out on Election Day.  They are more concerned, she said, 
about ''food on the table'' than with politics. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Although civic education programs are currently 
underway, including radio, television and newspaper 
advertisements pushing get-out-and-vote messages, CEP 
President Verret recently made an urgent appeal to donors to 
provide additional funding for targeted messages. Verret said 
he fears that without a accelerated media campaign, voter 
turnout will ndeed be low. He worried that low numbers at 
thepolls would damage the credibility of the CEP and 
embarrass President Preval, whom he said is ''firmly behind 
these elections.'' 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) As in past national elections since a least 2006, 
MINUSTAH is providing the vast majoity of the brain-power 
and transportation logistcs needed to bring about these 
elections.  Embass for now agrees with MINUSTAH that the 
foreseeabe delays and defects in election preparations are 
not show-stoppers, and that it is increasingly liely that 
the April 19 date will hold firm. 
SANDERSON