Haiti Report for January 12, 2006 – Part 2

The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY. It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization. This service is intended to create a better understanding of the situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide a variety of perspectives on the situation.

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IN THIS REPORT:
- Controversy Over Simeus Candidacy Leads to Firing of Supreme Court Justices
- Opinion Poll Marks Preval and Simeus as Most Popular Candidates
- UN Requests US Helicopters for Election Support
- Preval Launches Campaign in Jacmel
- Delaying the Elections, Again
- Presidential Candidate Dany Toussaint Arrested
- Latortue Says He Will Step Down on February 7
- Latortue Announces Creation of Electoral Commission

Controversy Over Simeus Candidacy Leads to Firing of Supreme Court Justices:
Haiti’s interim government fired all five Supreme Court justices on Friday, a day after the court unanimously ruled for the second time a Haitian-born U.S. millionaire could run for president. The justices were fired in an executive order signed by U.S.-backed interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and Justice Minister Henri Dorlean. The order did not give a reason for dismissing the justices, several of whom were appointed by ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The government, which immediately appointed five new justices, had criticized the court’s decision ordering election authorities to put candidate Dumarsais Simeus on the ballot for the Jan. 8 presidential election. Election officials appointed by the interim government had said Simeus was ineligible because he had obtained U.S. citizenship and Haitian law bars foreign nationals from running. Simeus, who runs a Texas food processing company, said he never renounced his Haitian citizenship and the Supreme Court ruled him eligible for the ballot. (Reuters, 12/9)

Two of the five retired judges were part of the five-judge panel that had unanimously ruled in favor of Simeus in their decision published on Thursday. “This is a purely arbitrary measure,” retired Supreme Court judge Michel Donatien told The Associated Press. Donatien said he had been working at the court until earlier Friday and had learned about his retirement via the media. He questioned the interim president’s right to retire judges since he was not elected to office. The first electoral poll in Haiti, published Friday, stated he was the Haitians’ second favorite choice for president, behind front-runner Rene Preval. The two polled far ahead of the other candidates. (AP, 12/9)

Judges across Haiti refused to hear cases on Tuesday to protest against the interim government’s firing of five Supreme Court justices after the court allowed a Haitian-American millionaire to run for president. Judges and public prosecutors from the Haitian National Association of Magistrates were participating in the five-day strike, which was called on Monday. It was not clear exactly how many were participating, but the group represents many of the country’s judges and prosecutors. In its order on Friday, the interim government named replacements for Justices Luc Fougere, Michel Donatien, Raoul Lyncee, Louis Alix Germain and Djacaman Charles.

“Not only is the decision arbitrary and unconstitutional, but it is made by an interim government which has no authority whatsoever to make such decisions,” Paul said. Three of the dismissed justices — Fougere, Donatien and Charles — were at their offices on Tuesday, ignoring the executive order. “We were appointed for 10 years and we stick to our mandate,” Donatien said. Fougere said the constitution did not allow the dismissal of justices “without our consent or in the absence of evidence of permanent physical or mental disability duly established.” (Reuters, 12/13)

Opinion Poll Marks Preval and Simeus as Most Popular Candidates:
An opinion poll conducted by two international polling firms has shown former president Rene Preval and Haitian-born US millionaire Dumarsais Simeus, who has been ousted from the Haitian presidential race, as the most favoured election candidates. The poll was conducted during the first half of November, by the CID group (Consultoria Inter-disciplinaria en Desarollo) and Gallup for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Out of the 1200 people surveyed, 32 per cent favoured Preval while 21 per cent wanted Simeus for President and former President Leslie Manigat had the support of five per cent. Only four per cent supported former Port-au-Prince Mayor, Evans Paul, former senator Serge Gilles, former rebel leader Guy Philippe and former World bank official and Ex-prime minister Marc Bazin, while industrialist Charles Henri Baker and former senator and ex-police Chief Dany Toussaint managed to garner two per cent support. (BBC 12/11)

UN Requests US Helicopters for Election Support:
The Pentagon is considering an urgent United Nations request for 10 U.S. helicopters to provide crucial logistical support during Haiti’s upcoming presidential and congressional elections, U.S. and U.N. officials say. The top U.N. envoy in Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdes, also has asked Washington to contribute an additional $16 million to help finance the vote, seen as critical to Haiti’s chances of breaking its cycle of political violence, poverty and chaos. Valdes made both requests during a Dec. 1-2 visit to Washington. International donors so far have provided $75 million for the elections, of which $31 million was supplied by Washington, according to a State Department official. The $16 million election deficit was largely caused by three months of unanticipated staffing brought on by delays. Valdes was asked to take a harder look at the budget to see if he could bring down that number, according to the State Department. (Knight Ridder, 12/12)

Preval Launches Campaign in Jacmel:
The former president and presidential candidate, René Préval, whose first public announcement has been long awaited – particularly by the media, at long last broke his silence in Jacmel on Tuesday. “I am a candidate who respects the Constitution, and President Aristide, like any other political exile, can return to the country when he wants to,” he declared, amongst other things, on the occasion of his visit to Jacmel where he officially launched his campaign. The presidential candidate for the Lespwa coalition invited those who criticise his government of 1996-2001 to stick to the rule of law. Asked about the continuing violence in Cité Soleil, Préval suggested that it was caused by exclusion, and that as long as this remains unchanged things wouldn’t get better in the country’s largest shanty-town. The former president denounced, without naming them, the sectors whose discourse had contributed to the violence in Cité Soleil. René Préval identified insecurity as the number one problem in the country, and promised to find a solution as soon as he takes office, “sensibly, by dialogue and by force if necessary”. (Haiti Press Network – translated from French by Charles Arthur, 12/13)

Delaying the Elections, Again:
The International Mission for Monitoring Haitian Elections (IMMHE) has been in Haiti since last August with a team of long-term observers in all regions of the country. The Chair of the IMMHE steering committee, Jean Pierre Kingsley, in Haiti for the last two days, has met many of the principal actors involved in the electoral process and wishes to inform the people of Haiti of the findings of the Mission to date. The main findings also reflect those of the Vice Chairman of the steering committee, Mr. Danville Walker, who has also visited Haiti recently. Mr. Jacques Bernard, appointed executive director of the CEP slightly more than two months ago, has demonstrated clear leadership in gathering the support of the primary actors, both national and international, in the management of the electoral process.

Both the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH) have joined their efforts to those of the CEP to ensure progress on the different milestones required to achieve successful elections. Notably, Mr. Bernard holds daily meetings with the CEP and the main international actors to assess the state of electoral preparations. Based on the information that was provided, 1,400,000 national Identification Cards have been distributed to electors, leaving some 2 million to be picked up. The OAS has recently deployed additional efforts to increase the rate of distribution by adding 840 persons to the 1,900 already at work in some 400 distribution centers. These cards are necessary for electors to know where to vote.

While the overwhelming majority of some 800 voting centers were identified in accordance with security criteria, a small number require change. Any modifications to the voting centers will need to be reflected in the cards to be distributed. It is late in the process to consider major changes in this area. In addition, the list of electors must also be made public so that electors may request changes that are required. At this time, 97% of the electoral staff – some 38,000 persons – has been recruited; they will be trained taking into account the date of the election. Electoral supplies have already been prepared and ballots printed.

In our view, it is necessary to delay the first round of the Presidential and legislative elections scheduled for January 8, 2006. A new date must be set in light of the tasks required to achieve credible elections. A minimum delay of three to four weeks is necessary for the first round, and the second round should also be delayed, taking into account the time required to deal with complaints and the Carnival period. Moreover, a detailed timeline highlighting the activities, dates and responsibilities must be established with the agreement of all actors. At this stage of the electoral process, the priority is for citizens to go and pick up their cards. All of the principal actors, the transitional government, the political parties, the CEP, the OAS, MINUSTAH, the media and Haitian civil society must focus on convincing citizens to do just that: go and pick up their cards. Thus it will be possible to achieve credible elections that are honest, transparent and therefore accepted as such by the people of Haiti as well as the international community (Businesswire, 12/30)

EDITORIAL, Haiti en Marche:
Certain informal opinion polls confirm the irresistible advance of Rene Préval, the presidential candidate of the Hope platform (Lespwa in Creole) that is dominated by electoral heavyweights of the Lavalas movement. There is a real panic reigning in certain sectors of the former opposition which overturned the Lavalas regime in February 2004, and sent president Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile. The elections planned for January 8 2006 have been postponed for the fourth time – officially for logistical reasons, but nobody can be unaware of the manoeuvres to try and block the path of the re-emergence of Lavalas. After all, the majority of members of the electoral commission come from opposition sectors. No new date has yet been advanced for the holding of the presidential and legislative elections that are impatiently awaited by the population, and probably also by the international players, because among the many challenges to be taken up that require a government elected with a clear and strong mandate is the fight against crime, which cannot be won without the active participation of the population. Currently one understands that there is a kidnapping in the capital every few seconds. (Haiti en Marche, 12/31)

Haiti’s election officials have put the blame for the latest postponement of national election on the Organization of American States and the United Nations, accusing them of failing to distribute voter cards and set up polling stations. Rosemond Pradel, secretary-general of the Provisional Electoral Council, said the OAS had not lived up to a commitment to distribute voter identification cards in time for a Jan. 8 election. OAS and U.N. officials rejected the accusations. U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst rejected the allegations, saying MINUSTAH had carried out its responsibilities, which did not include deciding the location of voting stations. “Our mission was to verify that the voting centers the electoral council had selected physically existed,” Wimhurst said. “It had never been our job to determine the location of voting centers.” Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said the OAS had guaranteed the voting cards would be distributed by Dec. 25. “December 25th has come and gone, the cards are not there and now they said January 5th,” Latortue said.

The head of the OAS mission in Haiti, Denneth Modeste, also rejected blame. OAS officials said they were ready to start distributing the cards on Sept. 25, when the first ones arrived from printers in Mexico, but election officials told them to hold off because polling stations had not yet been chosen. Fewer than 2 million of 3.5 million registered voters have collected their voting cards, according to election officials. “The cards are available in several hundred distribution centers around the country, people just have to go and collect them,” said Modeste. He said his organization cannot be blamed if voters fail to collect the cards. (Reuters, 1/4)

The UN Security Council has called on Haiti’s interim government to hold elections by 7 February. It made the announcement after holding an emergency session to debate the continuing postponement of elections. When a fourth delay was confirmed last week, Haitian officials accused the UN and the Organization of American States (OAS) of failing to play their part in preparing the election. Both the UN and the OAS deny that they have failed in their task. The Security Council called on Haiti to “expeditiously announce new and definitive dates for the elections, the first round to be held within weeks, but no later than February 7, 2006". Reading a statement, the current council president, Tanzania’s UN envoy Augustine Mahiga, said the elections should take place in accordance “with international democratic standards, and other conditions conducive to the widest possible participation”. (BBC, 1/7)

Haiti’s electoral authorities set a new date for an oft-delayed presidential election on Sunday, saying that the first round of the chaos-bedeviled ballot will take place Feb. 7, as the United Nations has demanded. “For us this schedule is official and final. We discussed it with the government, which has no objection,” Rosemond Pradel, secretary general of the Provisional Electoral Council, told Reuters in a telephone interview on
Sunday. (Reuters, 1/8)

Presidential Candidate Dany Toussaint Arrested:
A Haitian presidential candidate who was a suspect in the 2000 slaying of a prominent journalist was arrested Monday for allegedly carrying unregistered weapons in his car, authorities said. Dany Toussaint, a former army major and senator running for president on a pledge to restore order to chaotic Haiti, was arrested at a checkpoint by United Nations peacekeepers as he drove in a northern town in the impoverished country, U.N. officials and the country’s police chief said. Toussaint, 48, was detained after peacekeepers found the unregistered weapons in his car, Police Chief Mario Andresol told The Associated Press. “This is purely a police operation, there is no political undertone,” Andresol said. Toussaint was riding in a car with three other men and the peacekeepers found two unregistered weapons in the vehicle, said David Wimhurst, the spokesman for the U.N. mission that was called to Haiti after a rebellion forced the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. (AP, 1/2)

Dany Toussaint, a former officer in the Haitian Armed Forces who is also a candidate for president, was arrested this Monday in the North of Haiti. The official reason given for his arrest was possession of illegal weapons.

The former Lavalas Senator who later joined the anti-Aristide GNB campaign in February 2004 was arrested by Chilean UN soldiers who questioned him before transferring him to the Cap-Haitien police station where he was held in isolation until late in the evening.

Mr. Toussaint was released from detention following the intervention of his attorney.

In Port-au-Prince, many observers have seen a connection between his arrest and an article published on December 23rd in the Miami Herald in which three candidates running in the Haitian elections, including Mr. Toussaint, were accused of involvement in illegal drug trafficking.

The three candidates vigorously denied these accusations. Prince Pierre Sonson, a senior official from the party of the former Senator, for his part accused “sectors seeking to cause trouble for Haitians who refuse to fall in line” to support the thinking behind the neo-colonial plan for Haiti.

Mr. Sonson also remarked that “if Dany Toussaint really were a drug trafficker, they would have already shackled him hand and foot and then locked him up behind bars in the United States”.

An individual in Cap-Haitien close to the former Senator said that his arrest is “surprising because as a candidate for office he has a right to carry weapons to protect himself”. (AHP, 1/2)

Latortue Says He Will Step Down on February 7:
Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue told AFP Thursday he will step down on Feb. 7, despite the country’s elections being postponed. “I stand by my decision and my pledge to step down on Feb. 7, along with the government,” said Latortue, a former exile from Boca Raton. He said he would attend to the country’s minor day-to-day affairs until a newly elected government takes over. But he stressed that, “from Feb. 7, I will not undertake any new initiatives or make any decisions that involve the state, and I will not approve any laws.” “No matter when elections are held, I will step down on February 7, 2006. I hope the transition period will be as short as possible,” he added. (AFP, 1/5)

Latortue Announces Creation of Electoral Commission:
Haiti’s interim president on Wednesday announced the creation of a commission to oversee elections that have been repeatedly postponed because of organizational problems in the troubled country. Boniface Alexandre said the 11-member commission will monitor the country’s Provisional Electoral Council as it prepares for the elections. The commission, including representatives of the business sector, labor unions and nonprofit and religious groups, will also act as an observer to help ensure the elections are fair. “This demonstrates the will of the transitional government to ensure neutral elections,” Boniface said in a speech to Haitian officials and diplomats. “We want all candidates to have an equal chance in this race,” Alexandre said. Haiti’s elections are scheduled for Feb. 7 _ followed by a March 19 runoff if needed _ to replace the interim government imposed after Aristide. (AP, 1/12)

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