Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch is a blog that tracks multinational aid efforts in Haiti with an eye towards ensuring they are oriented towards the needs of the Haitian people, and that aid is not used to undermine Haitians' right to self-determination.
On Monday, Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced that the preliminary results of the October 25 presidential and legislative elections, expected to be announced today, would be delayed until Thursday. The delay has been attributed to the formation of a committee by the CEP to investigate allegations of fraud coming from political parties and local observer groups. The committee consists of five members of the electoral council. Of the 162 complaints received, the committee says 43 are being followed up on, though few are placing their trust in the process.
The elections were praised after there were only a few sporadic outbursts of violence, leading many in the international community to quickly conclude that there were few problems. Just as it had done in August, the Organization of American States (OAS) proclaimed the day after the vote that any problems “did not affect the overall course of the election.” After violence shut down nearly one out of every six voting centers in the August legislative elections, this was apparently the new standard by which to judge the elections.
At least a half-dozen leading presidential candidates have come out before results are even announced to denounce widespread fraud in favor of the government’s candidate, Jovenèl Moïse. The allegations have been wide ranging: replacement of ballot boxes with fakes distributed by ambulances, mass ballot box stuffing, and burning of ballots for opposition candidates. Little proof has been provided to back up these claims. But the most blatant example was there for everyone to see on election day, and was in fact anticipated by electoral officials and international observers.
In Haiti’s elections, political party monitors, called mandataires, are allowed inside voting areas in order to ensure the impartiality of electoral officials and to sign off on the count at the end of the day. In August’s first-round legislative election, these party monitors cried foul, as not enough accreditation passes were printed and only some were allowed in during the vote.
In response, the CEP flooded the parties with passes. In total, over 916,000 were distributed according to the organization’s president, Pierre Louis Opont. Unlike average voters, whose identification must be checked with the electoral list at the polling center where they are registered, monitors are allowed to vote wherever they are present. This became, in many ways, an election of mandataires.
International and local observers have estimated turnout at between 25 and 30 percent, meaning there were roughly 1.6 million voters. With over 900,000 accreditation passes for monitors, and thousands more for observation groups (whose members are subject to the same open voting rules), it means over 50 percent of votes could come from these groups.
All 54 candidates vying for the presidency received more than 13,700 passes, enough to be present at each voting booth in the country. Few, however, had the capacity or the money to actually use them. The result was that parties sold them to the highest bidder in the days leading up to the vote. Local observers said passes were going for as much as $30. By Sunday, they were going for as little as a few dollars.
The system for monitoring the vote had turned into a black market for vote buying, where those with the most money were most able to take advantage. And it was entirely predictable.
Recognizing the potential problem, there was an effort in the weeks before the vote to have the mandataires register with specific voting centers, allowing poll workers to better monitor and track their votes. It never happened. Instead, mandataires’ information was taken down on a blank sheet of paper by poll workers. Sometimes even this didn’t happen.
While monitors’ accreditation passes were supposed to be marked after voting and their fingers marked with indelible ink, local observers found that these measures were not always taken, “allowing certain representatives to vote several times.”
It wasn’t just through the black market that parties could use this to their advantage, however. There is also a problem stemming from the law regulating political party formation, which allows parties to form with as few as 20 members. This led to a proliferation of parties over the past couple of years culminating in 128 parties registering candidates for legislative, local and presidential elections.
Opposition parties and political observers estimate that at least a dozen parties are participating only as proxies for the government. Though any actor could benefit from these flaws, it’s only the larger parties with resources who truly could take advantage of them.
Now, all eyes are turned on the Central Tabulation Center, located in an industrial park in Haiti’s capital, where the 13,725 tally sheets from each voting booth across the country are being inputted into the system and checked for fraud. With more than 99 percent finalized, 489 have been quarantined for irregularities, 3.6 percent of the total. It is unclear, though, how many were fraudulent and how many simply suffered from clerical errors, rendering them void.
Local observers have called for transparency at the tabulation center and are requesting an audit be performed to determine the “degree and extent of the involvement of people who used political party representative or observer cards to vote.” Relatedly, the observers are requesting the CEP to investigate “The quantity and legality of the number of votes cast by voters whose names were not listed at the polling station where they voted.”
On Tuesday, eight presidential candidates backed up the calls from local human rights groups and asked the CEP to allow the formation of an independent committee to investigate these issues.
But actually doing this is no simple task. Each of the 13,725 voting booths in Haiti produces a tally sheet at the end of the day. These sheets are then brought to the central tabulation center where they are scanned into the computer system. Technicians can check and ensure that voters from the electoral list correspond with those who voted and can perform other checks for irregularities.
Checking for fraud in off-list voting is more complex. Because the names were written down on a blank sheet of paper, technicians would need to manually enter all of these, likely hundreds of thousands. These would then need to be cross-checked to ensure that monitors with the same ID were not voting at multiple locations. Even with this, it is likely that only a fraction of these voters were ever accounted for on election day by poll workers. With pressure to release the results as soon as possible, and with over 99 percent already entered into the system, it is unlikely that the hard work of actually accounting for all of these voters will ever be done.
With up to hundreds of thousands of voting passes for sale, it’s not hard to see how Haiti’s presidential election could be won by those with the fattest pockets.
On Monday, Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced that the preliminary results of the October 25 presidential and legislative elections, expected to be announced today, would be delayed until Thursday. The delay has been attributed to the formation of a committee by the CEP to investigate allegations of fraud coming from political parties and local observer groups. The committee consists of five members of the electoral council. Of the 162 complaints received, the committee says 43 are being followed up on, though few are placing their trust in the process.
The elections were praised after there were only a few sporadic outbursts of violence, leading many in the international community to quickly conclude that there were few problems. Just as it had done in August, the Organization of American States (OAS) proclaimed the day after the vote that any problems “did not affect the overall course of the election.” After violence shut down nearly one out of every six voting centers in the August legislative elections, this was apparently the new standard by which to judge the elections.
At least a half-dozen leading presidential candidates have come out before results are even announced to denounce widespread fraud in favor of the government’s candidate, Jovenèl Moïse. The allegations have been wide ranging: replacement of ballot boxes with fakes distributed by ambulances, mass ballot box stuffing, and burning of ballots for opposition candidates. Little proof has been provided to back up these claims. But the most blatant example was there for everyone to see on election day, and was in fact anticipated by electoral officials and international observers.
In Haiti’s elections, political party monitors, called mandataires, are allowed inside voting areas in order to ensure the impartiality of electoral officials and to sign off on the count at the end of the day. In August’s first-round legislative election, these party monitors cried foul, as not enough accreditation passes were printed and only some were allowed in during the vote.
In response, the CEP flooded the parties with passes. In total, over 916,000 were distributed according to the organization’s president, Pierre Louis Opont. Unlike average voters, whose identification must be checked with the electoral list at the polling center where they are registered, monitors are allowed to vote wherever they are present. This became, in many ways, an election of mandataires.
International and local observers have estimated turnout at between 25 and 30 percent, meaning there were roughly 1.6 million voters. With over 900,000 accreditation passes for monitors, and thousands more for observation groups (whose members are subject to the same open voting rules), it means over 50 percent of votes could come from these groups.
All 54 candidates vying for the presidency received more than 13,700 passes, enough to be present at each voting booth in the country. Few, however, had the capacity or the money to actually use them. The result was that parties sold them to the highest bidder in the days leading up to the vote. Local observers said passes were going for as much as $30. By Sunday, they were going for as little as a few dollars.
The system for monitoring the vote had turned into a black market for vote buying, where those with the most money were most able to take advantage. And it was entirely predictable.
Recognizing the potential problem, there was an effort in the weeks before the vote to have the mandataires register with specific voting centers, allowing poll workers to better monitor and track their votes. It never happened. Instead, mandataires’ information was taken down on a blank sheet of paper by poll workers. Sometimes even this didn’t happen.
While monitors’ accreditation passes were supposed to be marked after voting and their fingers marked with indelible ink, local observers found that these measures were not always taken, “allowing certain representatives to vote several times.”
It wasn’t just through the black market that parties could use this to their advantage, however. There is also a problem stemming from the law regulating political party formation, which allows parties to form with as few as 20 members. This led to a proliferation of parties over the past couple of years culminating in 128 parties registering candidates for legislative, local and presidential elections.
Opposition parties and political observers estimate that at least a dozen parties are participating only as proxies for the government. Though any actor could benefit from these flaws, it’s only the larger parties with resources who truly could take advantage of them.
Now, all eyes are turned on the Central Tabulation Center, located in an industrial park in Haiti’s capital, where the 13,725 tally sheets from each voting booth across the country are being inputted into the system and checked for fraud. With more than 99 percent finalized, 489 have been quarantined for irregularities, 3.6 percent of the total. It is unclear, though, how many were fraudulent and how many simply suffered from clerical errors, rendering them void.
Local observers have called for transparency at the tabulation center and are requesting an audit be performed to determine the “degree and extent of the involvement of people who used political party representative or observer cards to vote.” Relatedly, the observers are requesting the CEP to investigate “The quantity and legality of the number of votes cast by voters whose names were not listed at the polling station where they voted.”
On Tuesday, eight presidential candidates backed up the calls from local human rights groups and asked the CEP to allow the formation of an independent committee to investigate these issues.
But actually doing this is no simple task. Each of the 13,725 voting booths in Haiti produces a tally sheet at the end of the day. These sheets are then brought to the central tabulation center where they are scanned into the computer system. Technicians can check and ensure that voters from the electoral list correspond with those who voted and can perform other checks for irregularities.
Checking for fraud in off-list voting is more complex. Because the names were written down on a blank sheet of paper, technicians would need to manually enter all of these, likely hundreds of thousands. These would then need to be cross-checked to ensure that monitors with the same ID were not voting at multiple locations. Even with this, it is likely that only a fraction of these voters were ever accounted for on election day by poll workers. With pressure to release the results as soon as possible, and with over 99 percent already entered into the system, it is unlikely that the hard work of actually accounting for all of these voters will ever be done.
With up to hundreds of thousands of voting passes for sale, it’s not hard to see how Haiti’s presidential election could be won by those with the fattest pockets.
CEPR Research Associate Jake Johnston is in Haiti observing the electoral process. To keep up with the latest news from Sunday’s election, check out the Haiti Elections Blog. Johnston filed this story for VICE News today:
After violence and fraud marred legislative elections in August, voting was significantly smoother throughout the country as Haitians went to the polls to elect a new president on Sunday. A total of 142 mayoral positions were also up for grabs, and second round elections were held for deputy and senate seats where the vote had not been cancelled in August.
“Decisions were taken to increase the security,” which led to a decrease in violent incidents, said the head of the Organization of American States observation mission, Celso Amorim, expressing his satisfaction with the process thus far. Heavily armed, masked police officers were visible throughout the day in Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince and surrounding communities.
Of 119 races for deputy, 25 had to be re-run after voting centers were ransacked or votes were thrown out due to fraud in the chaotic August vote. In three of Haiti’s ten departments, final senate results were postponed pending the outcome of the electoral reruns. But on Sunday, only 8 centers were closed, according to the government.
Haiti has had no parliament since a political crisis sparked its dissolution last January, meaning the legislative vote is crucial. Haitians are also hoping the new president can bring an end to the poverty and chaos that has plagued the country.
Prime Minister Evans Paul took to the radio in the afternoon to congratulate the police on the improvements. Criticized for passivity during the last election, the police took an active roll in maintaining order in polling centers.
Around 15,000 officers and United Nations (UN) peacekeepers were on duty, reported the BBC. The UN said 224 arrests were made, including a candidate for the lower chamber of Deputies and two Haiti National Police officers. In Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city, an individual was arrested with 73 voter ID cards.
The head of the electoral council, Pierre Louis Opont, thanked the police for learning from August’s experience. “Today the police were up to the task,” he said. Opont called on political parties to remain calm and show patience while the votes were tallied.
Bruny Watson, a voter in the Cite-Soleil neighborhood, said he didn’t vote in August “because there was too much violence,” but he was determined to cast his ballot for president on Sunday. Turnout was a paltry 18 percent in the first-round election legislative election, but Amorim cited reports from observer teams throughout the country that indicated a significantly higher turnout this time around.
US congressional representatives John Conyers (D-MI), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL) were also in Haiti to observe the vote. The US has contributed $30 million to an electoral process that is expected to cost more than $70 million.
The three were among 61 members of congress to write to Secretary of State John Kerry to “send a clear message to the Haitian government underscoring the need to guarantee the security of voters.”
“What I saw today filled me with optimism about the future of Haiti,” Rep. Conyers told VICE News. The youth of Haiti had filled the polling booths, both as workers and voters, he said, adding that the majority “approached the process with seriousness and goodwill to support the democratic process.?”
Still, problems cropped up throughout the day. Many centers were late to open and in some areas Haitians were unable to find their names on voter lists. In some cases, there simply was nowhere to vote.
In Wharf Jeremie, one of the largest polling centers in August was simply gone, leaving residents unsure of where they were supposed to vote. Building 2004, another large voting center, was also non-existent on Sunday.
In Canaan, a sprawling hillside slum home to hundreds of thousands of people, including many of those displaced from the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti nearly six years ago, voters sometimes had to travel miles to the nearest voting center.
Once again, political party monitors were a source of tension and possible fraud. At 6am a long line had already formed outside the Horace Etheard voting center in the Solino neighborhood. In Haitian elections, political parties’ representatives, called mandataires, are allowed to monitor the vote inside polling centers. More than 100 were in line jockeying for position before the doors even opened.
One monitor was arrested at the Dumersais Estime voting center. Police caught him with two passes from two different political parties. Monitors were also witnessed exchanging passes outside centers, hoping to have multiple people vote with the same pass.
In another center, a monitor was kicked out after voting three times, according to poll workers. Some were not there to monitor at all. “They paid me to be a mandataire,” one monitor from the Fusion party commented, “but I’m voting Fanmi Lavalas today,” he said, while milling about outside a voting center.
Unlike in August when the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) failed to distribute enough accreditation passes to every party and allegations of favoritism were heard throughout the day, on Sunday, monitors from a plurality of parties were present and appeared to outnumber voters at many centers in the capital, occasionally overwhelming poll workers.
Because of the additional police forces expected to be present, many observers were optimistic that election day itself would be improved from August, yet pointed out that that is not the end of the process.
“It was better than August 9, but at the same time we must be very careful when it comes to the counting of votes and what happens at the tabulation center over the coming weeks,” said Pierre Esperance of the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNNDDH). RNDDH is part of a coalition of civil society groups that had more than 1,800 observers present throughout the country.
To read the rest of the article, click here.
CEPR Research Associate Jake Johnston is in Haiti observing the electoral process. To keep up with the latest news from Sunday’s election, check out the Haiti Elections Blog. Johnston filed this story for VICE News today:
After violence and fraud marred legislative elections in August, voting was significantly smoother throughout the country as Haitians went to the polls to elect a new president on Sunday. A total of 142 mayoral positions were also up for grabs, and second round elections were held for deputy and senate seats where the vote had not been cancelled in August.
“Decisions were taken to increase the security,” which led to a decrease in violent incidents, said the head of the Organization of American States observation mission, Celso Amorim, expressing his satisfaction with the process thus far. Heavily armed, masked police officers were visible throughout the day in Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince and surrounding communities.
Of 119 races for deputy, 25 had to be re-run after voting centers were ransacked or votes were thrown out due to fraud in the chaotic August vote. In three of Haiti’s ten departments, final senate results were postponed pending the outcome of the electoral reruns. But on Sunday, only 8 centers were closed, according to the government.
Haiti has had no parliament since a political crisis sparked its dissolution last January, meaning the legislative vote is crucial. Haitians are also hoping the new president can bring an end to the poverty and chaos that has plagued the country.
Prime Minister Evans Paul took to the radio in the afternoon to congratulate the police on the improvements. Criticized for passivity during the last election, the police took an active roll in maintaining order in polling centers.
Around 15,000 officers and United Nations (UN) peacekeepers were on duty, reported the BBC. The UN said 224 arrests were made, including a candidate for the lower chamber of Deputies and two Haiti National Police officers. In Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city, an individual was arrested with 73 voter ID cards.
The head of the electoral council, Pierre Louis Opont, thanked the police for learning from August’s experience. “Today the police were up to the task,” he said. Opont called on political parties to remain calm and show patience while the votes were tallied.
Bruny Watson, a voter in the Cite-Soleil neighborhood, said he didn’t vote in August “because there was too much violence,” but he was determined to cast his ballot for president on Sunday. Turnout was a paltry 18 percent in the first-round election legislative election, but Amorim cited reports from observer teams throughout the country that indicated a significantly higher turnout this time around.
US congressional representatives John Conyers (D-MI), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL) were also in Haiti to observe the vote. The US has contributed $30 million to an electoral process that is expected to cost more than $70 million.
The three were among 61 members of congress to write to Secretary of State John Kerry to “send a clear message to the Haitian government underscoring the need to guarantee the security of voters.”
“What I saw today filled me with optimism about the future of Haiti,” Rep. Conyers told VICE News. The youth of Haiti had filled the polling booths, both as workers and voters, he said, adding that the majority “approached the process with seriousness and goodwill to support the democratic process.?”
Still, problems cropped up throughout the day. Many centers were late to open and in some areas Haitians were unable to find their names on voter lists. In some cases, there simply was nowhere to vote.
In Wharf Jeremie, one of the largest polling centers in August was simply gone, leaving residents unsure of where they were supposed to vote. Building 2004, another large voting center, was also non-existent on Sunday.
In Canaan, a sprawling hillside slum home to hundreds of thousands of people, including many of those displaced from the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti nearly six years ago, voters sometimes had to travel miles to the nearest voting center.
Once again, political party monitors were a source of tension and possible fraud. At 6am a long line had already formed outside the Horace Etheard voting center in the Solino neighborhood. In Haitian elections, political parties’ representatives, called mandataires, are allowed to monitor the vote inside polling centers. More than 100 were in line jockeying for position before the doors even opened.
One monitor was arrested at the Dumersais Estime voting center. Police caught him with two passes from two different political parties. Monitors were also witnessed exchanging passes outside centers, hoping to have multiple people vote with the same pass.
In another center, a monitor was kicked out after voting three times, according to poll workers. Some were not there to monitor at all. “They paid me to be a mandataire,” one monitor from the Fusion party commented, “but I’m voting Fanmi Lavalas today,” he said, while milling about outside a voting center.
Unlike in August when the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) failed to distribute enough accreditation passes to every party and allegations of favoritism were heard throughout the day, on Sunday, monitors from a plurality of parties were present and appeared to outnumber voters at many centers in the capital, occasionally overwhelming poll workers.
Because of the additional police forces expected to be present, many observers were optimistic that election day itself would be improved from August, yet pointed out that that is not the end of the process.
“It was better than August 9, but at the same time we must be very careful when it comes to the counting of votes and what happens at the tabulation center over the coming weeks,” said Pierre Esperance of the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNNDDH). RNDDH is part of a coalition of civil society groups that had more than 1,800 observers present throughout the country.
To read the rest of the article, click here.
Date on which first round presidential, second round legislative and mayoral elections will be held: October 25, 2015
Number of candidates for president: 54
Number of registered political parties: 128
Number of candidates for local and mayoral races: 41,000
Year in which terms expired and mayors were replaced by political appointees: 2012
Earliest date on which preliminary results are expected: November 3, 2015
Date on which presidential run-off, legislative reruns and local races will be held: December 27, 2015
Date that first-round legislative elections were held: August 9, 2015
Number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, respectively that were up for grabs in the first-round: 119 and 20
Number of candidates who were elected in the first round in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, respectively: 8 and 2
Participation rate during the first-round: 18%
Participation in the West department, home to over 40% of registered voters: 9.8%
Percent of 13,725 voting booths where no votes were counted during first-round Senate elections due to irregularities: 24.3
Number of electoral districts where first-round deputy races must be held: 25
Number of candidates sanctioned for their role in electoral disturbances: 16
Of Haiti’s 10 departments, number that did not announce first-round Senate results due to irregularities: 3
Number of departments where President Martelly’s PHTK party was involved in electoral irregularities, according to the CEP: 6
Total electoral budget: $74 million
United States contribution to electoral budget: $30 million
Amount spent on electoral campaign by Presidential candidate Eric Jean Baptiste, who is not considered a front-runner: $5 million
Maximum amount a presidential candidate is allowed to spend on the campaign, according to Haiti’s electoral decree: $2 million
Number of polling centers across the country: 1,508
Number of polling booths: 13,725
Average number of polling stations per voting center: 9.1
Accreditation badges distributed to political party monitors: 13,725
Date on which terms expired for the entire chamber of deputy’s a third of the Senate: January 12, 2015
Total registered voters: 5,871,450
Number of poll workers in October 25 elections: 41,175
Number of police deployed for October 25 elections: 10,000
Number of U.N. troops and police present: 2,502
Number of OAS observers deployed on October 25: 125
Number of observers deployed by civil society groups RNDDH, CNO and CONHANE, on October 25: 1,800
Sources: Miami Herald, Le National, Provisional Electoral Council, Haiti:Relief and Reconstruction Watch, Haiti Elections Blog
Date on which first round presidential, second round legislative and mayoral elections will be held: October 25, 2015
Number of candidates for president: 54
Number of registered political parties: 128
Number of candidates for local and mayoral races: 41,000
Year in which terms expired and mayors were replaced by political appointees: 2012
Earliest date on which preliminary results are expected: November 3, 2015
Date on which presidential run-off, legislative reruns and local races will be held: December 27, 2015
Date that first-round legislative elections were held: August 9, 2015
Number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, respectively that were up for grabs in the first-round: 119 and 20
Number of candidates who were elected in the first round in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, respectively: 8 and 2
Participation rate during the first-round: 18%
Participation in the West department, home to over 40% of registered voters: 9.8%
Percent of 13,725 voting booths where no votes were counted during first-round Senate elections due to irregularities: 24.3
Number of electoral districts where first-round deputy races must be held: 25
Number of candidates sanctioned for their role in electoral disturbances: 16
Of Haiti’s 10 departments, number that did not announce first-round Senate results due to irregularities: 3
Number of departments where President Martelly’s PHTK party was involved in electoral irregularities, according to the CEP: 6
Total electoral budget: $74 million
United States contribution to electoral budget: $30 million
Amount spent on electoral campaign by Presidential candidate Eric Jean Baptiste, who is not considered a front-runner: $5 million
Maximum amount a presidential candidate is allowed to spend on the campaign, according to Haiti’s electoral decree: $2 million
Number of polling centers across the country: 1,508
Number of polling booths: 13,725
Average number of polling stations per voting center: 9.1
Accreditation badges distributed to political party monitors: 13,725
Date on which terms expired for the entire chamber of deputy’s a third of the Senate: January 12, 2015
Total registered voters: 5,871,450
Number of poll workers in October 25 elections: 41,175
Number of police deployed for October 25 elections: 10,000
Number of U.N. troops and police present: 2,502
Number of OAS observers deployed on October 25: 125
Number of observers deployed by civil society groups RNDDH, CNO and CONHANE, on October 25: 1,800
Sources: Miami Herald, Le National, Provisional Electoral Council, Haiti:Relief and Reconstruction Watch, Haiti Elections Blog
Recently released e-mails from Hillary Clinton’s private server reveal new details of how U.S. officials worked closely with the Haitian private sector as they forced Haitian authorities to change the results of the first round presidential elections in late 2010. The e-mails documenting these “behind the doors actions” were made public as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
Preliminary results from the deeply flawed 2010 presidential and legislative elections were announced on December 7, 2010, showing René Préval’s hand-picked successor Jude Célestin and university professor Mirlande Manigat advancing to a second-round runoff. The same day, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti released a statement questioning the legitimacy of the announced results.
Behind the scenes, key actors were already pushing for Célestin to withdraw from the race, according to the e-mails. Just a day after preliminary results were announced, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten wrote to Cheryl Mills, Tom Adams and Daniel Restrepo, all key State Department Haiti staff. “Boulos + private sector have told RP [René Préval] that Célestin should withdraw + they would support RP staying til 7 Feb.” “This is big,” the ambassador added.
“Boulos” here refers to Reginald Boulos, one of the largest industrialists in Haiti and a member of the Private Sector Economic Forum. Importantly, Boulos also suggested they would support Préval staying in office through February 7, but with the election delayed due to the earthquake, a new president would not be able to take office by then. Many had advocated for Préval’s early departure, and during a meeting of international officials on election day, Préval was even threatened with being forced out of the country.
The e-mail also shows that Merten was in close contact with Michel Martelly’s campaign. Protests had already broken out across Port-au-Prince and in other cities throughout Haiti, with protesters alleging that their preferred candidate, Michel Martelly, should be in the runoff. Merten writes that he had personally contacted Martelly’s “camp” and told them that he needs to “get on radio telling people to not pillage. Peaceful demo OK: pillage is not.” Documents obtained through a separate FOIA request have shown that a key group behind the protests later received support from USAID and went on to play a role in the formation of Martelly’s political party, Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale.
The following day, as per Merten’s suggestion in the e-mail, the U.S. Embassy released another statement calling for calm and urging political actors to “work through Haiti’s electoral contestation process to address any electoral concerns.” As the e-mail reveals, however, efforts were underway to remove Célestin from the race before any contestation process could even begin.
Cheryl Mills’ response to Merten’s email is redacted, as is Merten’s response to that, save for one word: “Understand.”
The Haitian government eventually requested that a mission from the Organization of American States (OAS) come to Haiti to analyze the results. The mission, despite not conducting a recount or any statistical test, recommended replacing Célestin in the runoff with Michel Martelly. Pressure began building on the Haitian government to accept the recommendations. Government officials had their U.S. visas revoked and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice even went so far as to threaten to cut aid, even though the country was still recovering from the devastating earthquake earlier in the year. Mills forwarded to Rice an AFP article on the threat with a comment: “I want to make sure we are synched up over the next several sensitive days on Haiti.”
Eventually, Hillary Clinton traveled to Haiti in late January 2011 to apply further pressure on the government. The day before the trip, there was an ongoing discussion among State Department staff about potential backlash against the international community and the U.S. Mills forwarded Clinton an e-mail from Laura (the last name has been redacted, but it is likely Laura Graham, an official with the Clinton Foundation) with the message: “Let’s discuss this on plane.”
“Laura”, in a long, typo-filled note, warns that the international community and U.S. are “taking hits and looking like villan [sic].” “I think you need to consider a message and outreach strategy to ensure that different elements of haitian [sic] society (church leaders, business, etc) buy into the mms [Michel Martelly] solution and are out their [sic] on radio messaging why its [sic] good,” Laura adds. Clinton responds to Mills: “Bill talked to me about this and is quite worried about what I do and say tomorrow.”
“As we all are,” Mills responds, passing along talking points for the following day’s Haiti trip:
We are also here with a simple message with respect to the elections: the voices of the people of Haiti must be heard. The votes of the people of Haiti must be counted fairly. And the outcome of this process must reflect the true will of the Haitian people. That is the only interest of the United States. We will stand in solidarity with all those pursuing these goals, and we will stand against those who seek to undermine them.
Regardless of concerns over a backlash, Clinton was successful in getting Célestin to withdraw from the race. “We tried to resist and did, until the visit of Hillary Clinton. That was when Préval understood he had no way out and accepted” it, the prime minister at the time, Jean-Max Bellerive, told me in an interview earlier this year. After a second-round contest with exceptionally low turnout, Martelly was named the winner over Manigat.
Boulos was quick to follow up after Clinton’s visit. In a long e-mail to Mills one day after the visit, Boulos asked that his thanks be passed on to the then secretary of state.
Boulos cites the private sector’s “behind the doors actions” as having “played a major role” in getting the elections “back on track” by getting Préval to “request the OAS mission, by publicly denouncing the results of the 1st round, and as late as yesterday morning (3 hours meeting with Preval) by convincing him to drop the idea of annulment of the elections.” Boulos boasted: “Everyone in the diplomatic circles and among the Haitian political leaders will confirm the role played by the Private Sector Economic Forum over the past 6 months.”
Boulos also requested that the U.S. continue its support for him and for other Haitian business elites. “We need your support to continue to build a strong and ethical private sector,” he wrote. Boulos’ commitment to building an ethical private sector is questionable, to say the least. During the 1991-1994 coup d’État, Boulos ran a USAID-funded clinic in Cité Soleil which was accused of collaborating with FRAPH, a paramilitary death squad responsible for many killings in the slum. More recently, in January 2006, following the 2004 coup against Haiti’s democratically elected government, Boulos was among a group of Haitian elites who lobbied the U.S. embassy to pressure U.N. troops to conduct assaults on Cité Soleil, and “for more ammunition for the police” to do likewise, which the U.S. charge d’affaires noted would “inevitably cause unintended civilian casualties.” A State Department cable notes: “Boulos began reading off a specific list of needed ammunition …” (The charge, Timothy Carney, green lighted the request, as WikiLeaked cables reveal, and as we discuss in the new book, “The WikiLeaks Files.”)
Fast forward nearly five years and Haiti once again finds itself embroiled in an electoral controversy, with the U.S., Boulos and the Private Sector Economic Forum again playing leading roles. After violence and fraud-marred first-round legislative races were held in August, the electoral council (CEP) and Haitian government have come under increasing scrutiny. Once again, protests have taken place, calling for the resignation of the CEP and in some cases the outright annulment of the elections.
Rather than cast doubt on the results, the U.S. has supported the process. Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Pamela White called the elections, “not perfect, but acceptable.” “It’s 2010 all over again, but instead of against Preval, it’s for Martelly,” a leader of the Vérite political platform, Préval’s new party, told me in August. On October 6, Secretary of State John Kerry travelled to Haiti to discuss the elections with Martelly. He was joined by the State Department’s new Haiti Special Coordinator, Kenneth Merten, who assumed the post on August 17.
For their part, the Private Sector Economic Forum and Reginald Boulos have also provided support to the process. Boulos was part of a presidential advisory commission in late 2014 that recommended jettisoning Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and forming a consensus government to take Haiti forward to the current elections. As part of the agreement to form a new government, the Private Sector Economic Forum was also made responsible for nominating one of the nine members to the electoral council. Pierre Louis Opont was put forward as its representative. Opont was the director general of the CEP in 2010 and acknowledged in an interview earlier this year that the U.S. State Department and OAS observers manipulated the results of that election. He is the president of the current CEP.
In February, Prime Minister Evans Paul (himself part of the presidential advisory commission) met with the Private Sector Economic Forum in order to establish a public-private partnership to create a “climate conducive to free, fair and democratic elections.”
While trust in the electoral process and the institution responsible for guiding it has eroded since the August 9 vote, Boulos and the Private Sector Economic Forum have come out publicly in support of the CEP. In an interview with Le Nouvelliste, Boulos stated that it was “one of the best CEPs we have had.” “The CEP is not perfect but it is a CEP that has done its best, perhaps, that has made many mistakes and has acknowledged its mistakes,” Boulos told the paper. “I heard the president of the CEP say that the Council will make corrections. We should trust that he will make corrections.” “The process is advancing, the presidential campaign is on the right track,” declared Gregory Brandt, the president of the business grouping, in the same article. Brandt told the paper that he had a meeting with Opont “next week.”
First-round presidential elections as well as the second-round of the legislative elections will be held October 25.
Recently released e-mails from Hillary Clinton’s private server reveal new details of how U.S. officials worked closely with the Haitian private sector as they forced Haitian authorities to change the results of the first round presidential elections in late 2010. The e-mails documenting these “behind the doors actions” were made public as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
Preliminary results from the deeply flawed 2010 presidential and legislative elections were announced on December 7, 2010, showing René Préval’s hand-picked successor Jude Célestin and university professor Mirlande Manigat advancing to a second-round runoff. The same day, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti released a statement questioning the legitimacy of the announced results.
Behind the scenes, key actors were already pushing for Célestin to withdraw from the race, according to the e-mails. Just a day after preliminary results were announced, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten wrote to Cheryl Mills, Tom Adams and Daniel Restrepo, all key State Department Haiti staff. “Boulos + private sector have told RP [René Préval] that Célestin should withdraw + they would support RP staying til 7 Feb.” “This is big,” the ambassador added.
“Boulos” here refers to Reginald Boulos, one of the largest industrialists in Haiti and a member of the Private Sector Economic Forum. Importantly, Boulos also suggested they would support Préval staying in office through February 7, but with the election delayed due to the earthquake, a new president would not be able to take office by then. Many had advocated for Préval’s early departure, and during a meeting of international officials on election day, Préval was even threatened with being forced out of the country.
The e-mail also shows that Merten was in close contact with Michel Martelly’s campaign. Protests had already broken out across Port-au-Prince and in other cities throughout Haiti, with protesters alleging that their preferred candidate, Michel Martelly, should be in the runoff. Merten writes that he had personally contacted Martelly’s “camp” and told them that he needs to “get on radio telling people to not pillage. Peaceful demo OK: pillage is not.” Documents obtained through a separate FOIA request have shown that a key group behind the protests later received support from USAID and went on to play a role in the formation of Martelly’s political party, Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale.
The following day, as per Merten’s suggestion in the e-mail, the U.S. Embassy released another statement calling for calm and urging political actors to “work through Haiti’s electoral contestation process to address any electoral concerns.” As the e-mail reveals, however, efforts were underway to remove Célestin from the race before any contestation process could even begin.
Cheryl Mills’ response to Merten’s email is redacted, as is Merten’s response to that, save for one word: “Understand.”
The Haitian government eventually requested that a mission from the Organization of American States (OAS) come to Haiti to analyze the results. The mission, despite not conducting a recount or any statistical test, recommended replacing Célestin in the runoff with Michel Martelly. Pressure began building on the Haitian government to accept the recommendations. Government officials had their U.S. visas revoked and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice even went so far as to threaten to cut aid, even though the country was still recovering from the devastating earthquake earlier in the year. Mills forwarded to Rice an AFP article on the threat with a comment: “I want to make sure we are synched up over the next several sensitive days on Haiti.”
Eventually, Hillary Clinton traveled to Haiti in late January 2011 to apply further pressure on the government. The day before the trip, there was an ongoing discussion among State Department staff about potential backlash against the international community and the U.S. Mills forwarded Clinton an e-mail from Laura (the last name has been redacted, but it is likely Laura Graham, an official with the Clinton Foundation) with the message: “Let’s discuss this on plane.”
“Laura”, in a long, typo-filled note, warns that the international community and U.S. are “taking hits and looking like villan [sic].” “I think you need to consider a message and outreach strategy to ensure that different elements of haitian [sic] society (church leaders, business, etc) buy into the mms [Michel Martelly] solution and are out their [sic] on radio messaging why its [sic] good,” Laura adds. Clinton responds to Mills: “Bill talked to me about this and is quite worried about what I do and say tomorrow.”
“As we all are,” Mills responds, passing along talking points for the following day’s Haiti trip:
We are also here with a simple message with respect to the elections: the voices of the people of Haiti must be heard. The votes of the people of Haiti must be counted fairly. And the outcome of this process must reflect the true will of the Haitian people. That is the only interest of the United States. We will stand in solidarity with all those pursuing these goals, and we will stand against those who seek to undermine them.
Regardless of concerns over a backlash, Clinton was successful in getting Célestin to withdraw from the race. “We tried to resist and did, until the visit of Hillary Clinton. That was when Préval understood he had no way out and accepted” it, the prime minister at the time, Jean-Max Bellerive, told me in an interview earlier this year. After a second-round contest with exceptionally low turnout, Martelly was named the winner over Manigat.
Boulos was quick to follow up after Clinton’s visit. In a long e-mail to Mills one day after the visit, Boulos asked that his thanks be passed on to the then secretary of state.
Boulos cites the private sector’s “behind the doors actions” as having “played a major role” in getting the elections “back on track” by getting Préval to “request the OAS mission, by publicly denouncing the results of the 1st round, and as late as yesterday morning (3 hours meeting with Preval) by convincing him to drop the idea of annulment of the elections.” Boulos boasted: “Everyone in the diplomatic circles and among the Haitian political leaders will confirm the role played by the Private Sector Economic Forum over the past 6 months.”
Boulos also requested that the U.S. continue its support for him and for other Haitian business elites. “We need your support to continue to build a strong and ethical private sector,” he wrote. Boulos’ commitment to building an ethical private sector is questionable, to say the least. During the 1991-1994 coup d’État, Boulos ran a USAID-funded clinic in Cité Soleil which was accused of collaborating with FRAPH, a paramilitary death squad responsible for many killings in the slum. More recently, in January 2006, following the 2004 coup against Haiti’s democratically elected government, Boulos was among a group of Haitian elites who lobbied the U.S. embassy to pressure U.N. troops to conduct assaults on Cité Soleil, and “for more ammunition for the police” to do likewise, which the U.S. charge d’affaires noted would “inevitably cause unintended civilian casualties.” A State Department cable notes: “Boulos began reading off a specific list of needed ammunition …” (The charge, Timothy Carney, green lighted the request, as WikiLeaked cables reveal, and as we discuss in the new book, “The WikiLeaks Files.”)
Fast forward nearly five years and Haiti once again finds itself embroiled in an electoral controversy, with the U.S., Boulos and the Private Sector Economic Forum again playing leading roles. After violence and fraud-marred first-round legislative races were held in August, the electoral council (CEP) and Haitian government have come under increasing scrutiny. Once again, protests have taken place, calling for the resignation of the CEP and in some cases the outright annulment of the elections.
Rather than cast doubt on the results, the U.S. has supported the process. Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Pamela White called the elections, “not perfect, but acceptable.” “It’s 2010 all over again, but instead of against Preval, it’s for Martelly,” a leader of the Vérite political platform, Préval’s new party, told me in August. On October 6, Secretary of State John Kerry travelled to Haiti to discuss the elections with Martelly. He was joined by the State Department’s new Haiti Special Coordinator, Kenneth Merten, who assumed the post on August 17.
For their part, the Private Sector Economic Forum and Reginald Boulos have also provided support to the process. Boulos was part of a presidential advisory commission in late 2014 that recommended jettisoning Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and forming a consensus government to take Haiti forward to the current elections. As part of the agreement to form a new government, the Private Sector Economic Forum was also made responsible for nominating one of the nine members to the electoral council. Pierre Louis Opont was put forward as its representative. Opont was the director general of the CEP in 2010 and acknowledged in an interview earlier this year that the U.S. State Department and OAS observers manipulated the results of that election. He is the president of the current CEP.
In February, Prime Minister Evans Paul (himself part of the presidential advisory commission) met with the Private Sector Economic Forum in order to establish a public-private partnership to create a “climate conducive to free, fair and democratic elections.”
While trust in the electoral process and the institution responsible for guiding it has eroded since the August 9 vote, Boulos and the Private Sector Economic Forum have come out publicly in support of the CEP. In an interview with Le Nouvelliste, Boulos stated that it was “one of the best CEPs we have had.” “The CEP is not perfect but it is a CEP that has done its best, perhaps, that has made many mistakes and has acknowledged its mistakes,” Boulos told the paper. “I heard the president of the CEP say that the Council will make corrections. We should trust that he will make corrections.” “The process is advancing, the presidential campaign is on the right track,” declared Gregory Brandt, the president of the business grouping, in the same article. Brandt told the paper that he had a meeting with Opont “next week.”
First-round presidential elections as well as the second-round of the legislative elections will be held October 25.
The following is cross-posted from the Haiti Elections Blog, which was created to help promote the free access to information and accountability within the electoral process. The blog is co-managed by several non-governmental organizations who work with and within Haiti.
On Friday October 2, Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) member Nehemy Joseph submitted resignation letters (images below) to both President Martelly and his colleagues at the CEP, in a fresh blow to Haiti’s electoral process. Dogged by criticisms over the fraud and violence-plagued legislative elections on August 9, the CEP has suffered from a crisis of confidence as many political parties and civil society groups continue to demand the resignation of its president, Pierre Louis Opont and other changes before presidential elections October 25.
Joseph told president Martelly that he was “not comfortable” staying at the CEP any longer. In his letter to the CEP, Joseph cited his unsuccessful attempts to persuade his colleagues to correct what he perceived as errors and the public criticism of the institution as reasons for his departure. Joseph also singled out the United Nations Development Program’s control over the electoral budget as a factor impeding the work of the CEP.
“Today, I am increasingly convinced that completing my mandate would involve me in illegality. (I feel that my credibility will end up melting away like an ice block if I do not leave.) Indeed, the various unsuccessful efforts I made to persuade some of my colleagues to reconsider certain decisions made in error are, among others, factors that have deepened my concerns … It is natural to make mistakes, but to persevere in error even while recognizing it as such can prove to be pathological,” Joseph wrote. Nevertheless, Joseph concluded by stating that he hopes the electoral process will continue smoothly.
Political insiders had expected the announcement for at least a few days. Joseph is “someone not willing to go down in a sinking boat at whatever the cost,” one political adviser close to president Martelly said, requesting anonymity. The adviser expected the election to proceed as scheduled, though acknowledged he was less sure than prior to the resignation. The decision raises the prospect of other councilors following Joseph out the door, which could put the continuation of the electoral process in jeopardy.
The CEP and the Martelly government insist that elections will go ahead as planned. “This will not affect the work of the CEP,” fellow council member Ricardo Augustin told the Haitian press in response to Joseph’s resignation. Jean Renel Sanon, a representative of the National Palace said that the government would be in communication with the Peasant/Vodou sector, which had nominated Joseph to the post, to find a replacement as soon as possible. The electoral decree passed in March stipulates that the CEP can continue to function so long as a quorum of 5 members is achieved.
A grouping of opposition political parties, politicians and movements, which are advocating for a cancellation of what they call the “electoral farce” of August 9, applauded Joseph’s resignation. Some members of the grouping also demanded an investigation into allegations of corruption within the CEP, especially as it concerns the announcement of final results from first-round election.
Weeks after the electoral schedule had called for final results to be announced, the CEP posted them online on Sunday, September 27. Rather than lead to greater clarity however, the final results only added to the confusion. In two departments, the Artibonite and Ouest, it was announced that Senators had won in the first round despite many areas needing to re-run first round elections because of irregularities on election day. In contrast, in the other departments, the CEP did not publish Senate results pending the outcome of reruns. In Washington D.C. for an event in Congress, CEP member Yolette Mengual defended the final results and said the decisions on Senators winning in the first round was a court decision and not that of the CEP. Mengual was a member of the electoral court which ruled on the Senate race in the Artibonite.
Joseph’s resignation comes just days after evidence of internal rifts in the CEP surfaced. While in public the CEP has maintained a united front, an anonymous CEP official told Le Nouvelliste that there were in fact two main camps in the electoral council, one of which generally sides with those close to the government. He told the newspaper that he was considering submitting his resignation, due to the harm the CEP’s decisions were having on his public reputation. “I stayed because of the issues. I did not want to play into the hands of those who want a transitional government. But the way things function with council members clearly serving those in power and other interests, it is hard to guarantee credible elections and credible results,” the CEP member told Le Nouvelliste.
Several of the CEP’s decisions did not respect the law or have sufficient evidence to be made, such as the exclusion of presidential candidate Jacky Lumarque and Senatorial candidate Arnel Belizaire, the anonymous council member said. Regarding the announced final results, he explained to the paper, “yes, there was influence-peddling, bargaining.”
Members of the business sector have come out in support of the embattled electoral institution, including the influential Private Sector Economic Forum, whose representative, Pierre Louis Opont, is the president of the CEP. Reginald Boulos, a doctor and businessman from one of Haiti’s wealthiest families, defended the CEP in an interview with Le Nouvelliste, claiming it was “one of the best CEPs we have had.” “The CEP is not perfect but it is a CEP that has done its best, perhaps, that has made many mistakes and has acknowledged its mistakes,” Boulos told the paper. “I heard the president of the CEP say that the Council will make corrections. We should trust that he will make corrections.” Boulos was the head of the presidential advisory commission which led to the resignation of former Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe in late 2014 and later the formation of the current CEP.
In addition to the violence that significantly disrupted the vote on August 9, electoral councilors themselves have faced physical attacks. Just last week Vijonet Demero, another CEP member, had his house attacked by gunmen, though no injuries were reported. A month before the election, Wilkenson Bazile, an employee of the CEP who had been working with the human rights sector representative, Jacceus Joseph, was shot and killed.
Joseph resignation letter to the CEP (first three) and to president Martelly (last two):
The following is cross-posted from the Haiti Elections Blog, which was created to help promote the free access to information and accountability within the electoral process. The blog is co-managed by several non-governmental organizations who work with and within Haiti.
On Friday October 2, Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) member Nehemy Joseph submitted resignation letters (images below) to both President Martelly and his colleagues at the CEP, in a fresh blow to Haiti’s electoral process. Dogged by criticisms over the fraud and violence-plagued legislative elections on August 9, the CEP has suffered from a crisis of confidence as many political parties and civil society groups continue to demand the resignation of its president, Pierre Louis Opont and other changes before presidential elections October 25.
Joseph told president Martelly that he was “not comfortable” staying at the CEP any longer. In his letter to the CEP, Joseph cited his unsuccessful attempts to persuade his colleagues to correct what he perceived as errors and the public criticism of the institution as reasons for his departure. Joseph also singled out the United Nations Development Program’s control over the electoral budget as a factor impeding the work of the CEP.
“Today, I am increasingly convinced that completing my mandate would involve me in illegality. (I feel that my credibility will end up melting away like an ice block if I do not leave.) Indeed, the various unsuccessful efforts I made to persuade some of my colleagues to reconsider certain decisions made in error are, among others, factors that have deepened my concerns … It is natural to make mistakes, but to persevere in error even while recognizing it as such can prove to be pathological,” Joseph wrote. Nevertheless, Joseph concluded by stating that he hopes the electoral process will continue smoothly.
Political insiders had expected the announcement for at least a few days. Joseph is “someone not willing to go down in a sinking boat at whatever the cost,” one political adviser close to president Martelly said, requesting anonymity. The adviser expected the election to proceed as scheduled, though acknowledged he was less sure than prior to the resignation. The decision raises the prospect of other councilors following Joseph out the door, which could put the continuation of the electoral process in jeopardy.
The CEP and the Martelly government insist that elections will go ahead as planned. “This will not affect the work of the CEP,” fellow council member Ricardo Augustin told the Haitian press in response to Joseph’s resignation. Jean Renel Sanon, a representative of the National Palace said that the government would be in communication with the Peasant/Vodou sector, which had nominated Joseph to the post, to find a replacement as soon as possible. The electoral decree passed in March stipulates that the CEP can continue to function so long as a quorum of 5 members is achieved.
A grouping of opposition political parties, politicians and movements, which are advocating for a cancellation of what they call the “electoral farce” of August 9, applauded Joseph’s resignation. Some members of the grouping also demanded an investigation into allegations of corruption within the CEP, especially as it concerns the announcement of final results from first-round election.
Weeks after the electoral schedule had called for final results to be announced, the CEP posted them online on Sunday, September 27. Rather than lead to greater clarity however, the final results only added to the confusion. In two departments, the Artibonite and Ouest, it was announced that Senators had won in the first round despite many areas needing to re-run first round elections because of irregularities on election day. In contrast, in the other departments, the CEP did not publish Senate results pending the outcome of reruns. In Washington D.C. for an event in Congress, CEP member Yolette Mengual defended the final results and said the decisions on Senators winning in the first round was a court decision and not that of the CEP. Mengual was a member of the electoral court which ruled on the Senate race in the Artibonite.
Joseph’s resignation comes just days after evidence of internal rifts in the CEP surfaced. While in public the CEP has maintained a united front, an anonymous CEP official told Le Nouvelliste that there were in fact two main camps in the electoral council, one of which generally sides with those close to the government. He told the newspaper that he was considering submitting his resignation, due to the harm the CEP’s decisions were having on his public reputation. “I stayed because of the issues. I did not want to play into the hands of those who want a transitional government. But the way things function with council members clearly serving those in power and other interests, it is hard to guarantee credible elections and credible results,” the CEP member told Le Nouvelliste.
Several of the CEP’s decisions did not respect the law or have sufficient evidence to be made, such as the exclusion of presidential candidate Jacky Lumarque and Senatorial candidate Arnel Belizaire, the anonymous council member said. Regarding the announced final results, he explained to the paper, “yes, there was influence-peddling, bargaining.”
Members of the business sector have come out in support of the embattled electoral institution, including the influential Private Sector Economic Forum, whose representative, Pierre Louis Opont, is the president of the CEP. Reginald Boulos, a doctor and businessman from one of Haiti’s wealthiest families, defended the CEP in an interview with Le Nouvelliste, claiming it was “one of the best CEPs we have had.” “The CEP is not perfect but it is a CEP that has done its best, perhaps, that has made many mistakes and has acknowledged its mistakes,” Boulos told the paper. “I heard the president of the CEP say that the Council will make corrections. We should trust that he will make corrections.” Boulos was the head of the presidential advisory commission which led to the resignation of former Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe in late 2014 and later the formation of the current CEP.
In addition to the violence that significantly disrupted the vote on August 9, electoral councilors themselves have faced physical attacks. Just last week Vijonet Demero, another CEP member, had his house attacked by gunmen, though no injuries were reported. A month before the election, Wilkenson Bazile, an employee of the CEP who had been working with the human rights sector representative, Jacceus Joseph, was shot and killed.
Joseph resignation letter to the CEP (first three) and to president Martelly (last two):
The following is cross-posted from the Haiti Elections Blog, which was created to help promote the free access to information and accountability within the electoral process. The blog is co-managed by several non-governmental organizations who work with and within Haiti.
Haitian Prime Minister Evans Paul is in Washington D.C. to participate in a panel at the Congressional Black Caucus’ (CBC) Annual Legislative Conference. According to a press release from the Prime Minister’s office, Paul will also meet with Luis Almagro of the Organization of American States and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The CBC panel will take place today (9/17) at 4:30 PM. Also speaking at the panel will be Pierre Louis Opont of the CEP, Brian Concannon from the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, Melinda Miles of Haiti SOIL as well as many others. More details can be found here.
The OAS as well as the Core Group issued statements this week expressing support for the electoral process and the holding of presidential elections on October 25. Gerardo de Icaza, the Director of the Department for Electoral Cooperation and Observation at the OAS traveled to Haiti on September 14 and, according to the release, “will hold high-level meetings with the electoral authority and political actors in Port-au-Prince in support of the holding of the upcoming elections.” The head of the OAS electoral observation mission, Celso Amorim, will make a preliminary visit to Haiti on September 21. The Core Group urged all actors to ensure a successful electoral cycle and “took note” of the CEP’s commitments to address problems from the first round.
The National Front, a grouping of various political parties, has continued its mobilization against the August 9 election. The group is calling for the resignation of the head of the CEP, Pierre Louis Opont and says the elections are not possible without a credible CEP. The group sent a letter to various civil society groupings which had designated members of the CEP urging them to have their representatives resign.
The CEP has called another meeting for Friday, September 18 with political party representatives to discuss the preparations for the scheduled October 25 election. A press release from the electoral council states that change to the electoral schedule will be up for discussion. After the previous meeting between parties and the CEP last Friday, various possibilities emerged, including postponing the second round legislative elections until December 27.
The U.N. Independent Expert on Human Rights in Haiti, Gustavo Gallón, called for the CEP to clearly explain their rationale for removing Vérité’s presidential candidate, Jacky Lumarque from the race. “For the case of Jacky Lumarque, the CEP could either make public the arguments on which it relies to exclude him from the process, or re-enter his name on the list of presidential candidates for the next elections,” Gallón said. Last week Vérité announced its withdrawal from the electoral process unless significant changes to the CEP were made.
SOFA (Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn, Solidarity of Haitian Women) issued an official statement strongly condemning election-related violence and the low-level of female political representation. In violation of the mandatory 30% female representation quota set by the Constitution and the Electoral Decree, only 23 women out of 232 senate candidates (9.9%) and 129 women out of 1621 depute candidates (8%) were able to register for August 9 elections. SOFA’s report calls on the CEP to take all measures necessary to reach the quota, including addressing the economic discrepancies facing female candidates, adopting an education campaign to encourage women to become candidates, and addressing sexism in the mostly male parliament.
The following is cross-posted from the Haiti Elections Blog, which was created to help promote the free access to information and accountability within the electoral process. The blog is co-managed by several non-governmental organizations who work with and within Haiti.
Haitian Prime Minister Evans Paul is in Washington D.C. to participate in a panel at the Congressional Black Caucus’ (CBC) Annual Legislative Conference. According to a press release from the Prime Minister’s office, Paul will also meet with Luis Almagro of the Organization of American States and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The CBC panel will take place today (9/17) at 4:30 PM. Also speaking at the panel will be Pierre Louis Opont of the CEP, Brian Concannon from the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, Melinda Miles of Haiti SOIL as well as many others. More details can be found here.
The OAS as well as the Core Group issued statements this week expressing support for the electoral process and the holding of presidential elections on October 25. Gerardo de Icaza, the Director of the Department for Electoral Cooperation and Observation at the OAS traveled to Haiti on September 14 and, according to the release, “will hold high-level meetings with the electoral authority and political actors in Port-au-Prince in support of the holding of the upcoming elections.” The head of the OAS electoral observation mission, Celso Amorim, will make a preliminary visit to Haiti on September 21. The Core Group urged all actors to ensure a successful electoral cycle and “took note” of the CEP’s commitments to address problems from the first round.
The National Front, a grouping of various political parties, has continued its mobilization against the August 9 election. The group is calling for the resignation of the head of the CEP, Pierre Louis Opont and says the elections are not possible without a credible CEP. The group sent a letter to various civil society groupings which had designated members of the CEP urging them to have their representatives resign.
The CEP has called another meeting for Friday, September 18 with political party representatives to discuss the preparations for the scheduled October 25 election. A press release from the electoral council states that change to the electoral schedule will be up for discussion. After the previous meeting between parties and the CEP last Friday, various possibilities emerged, including postponing the second round legislative elections until December 27.
The U.N. Independent Expert on Human Rights in Haiti, Gustavo Gallón, called for the CEP to clearly explain their rationale for removing Vérité’s presidential candidate, Jacky Lumarque from the race. “For the case of Jacky Lumarque, the CEP could either make public the arguments on which it relies to exclude him from the process, or re-enter his name on the list of presidential candidates for the next elections,” Gallón said. Last week Vérité announced its withdrawal from the electoral process unless significant changes to the CEP were made.
SOFA (Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn, Solidarity of Haitian Women) issued an official statement strongly condemning election-related violence and the low-level of female political representation. In violation of the mandatory 30% female representation quota set by the Constitution and the Electoral Decree, only 23 women out of 232 senate candidates (9.9%) and 129 women out of 1621 depute candidates (8%) were able to register for August 9 elections. SOFA’s report calls on the CEP to take all measures necessary to reach the quota, including addressing the economic discrepancies facing female candidates, adopting an education campaign to encourage women to become candidates, and addressing sexism in the mostly male parliament.
Haiti’s internationally backed electoral process was thrown further into disarray yesterday as a leading political party announced its withdrawal from the electoral process. In a press statement, the Vérité platform, closely associated with former president René Préval, said it was pulling out of the elections because it was the primary victim of the August 9 “electoral mess,” and called for a “good” electoral council in order to “run a good election.”
Haiti’s August 9 election was characterized by extremely low voter turnout, with just 18 percent of registered voters going to the polls. Additionally, nearly one-quarter of all votes were never counted due to violence on election day, problems transporting ballots and other issues. In 25 of the 119 races for deputy, elections will need to be re-run due to the scale of irregularities. Over the last month, an increasingly large cadre of candidates has taken to the streets, leading protests against the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and a government who they claim has rigged the process.
Also yesterday, INITE, Préval’s former political movement, called on its representative, Ariel Henry to leave the “consensus” government that has run the country since the terms of parliament expired in January. To “remain part of a government that has undertaken and continues this electoral coup of August 9, would be contrary to our principles, our democratic ideals,” the party stated in its letter to President Martelly.
Preliminary results released last month showed Vérité candidates advancing to the second round in 30 of the 85 races that were counted and where no candidate won in the first round, second only to President Martelly’s PHTK. Vérité has mulled the decision to withdraw for some time, as the party’s presidential candidate, Jacky Lumarque, was excluded from participating after originally being accepted. The CEP, after announcing the final list of candidates, kicked Lumarque out of the race because he had been named to a presidential commission under former president Préval and therefore needed a discharge document. Despite a ruling from Haiti’s highest court in favor of Lumarque, the CEP has maintained the exclusion and Vérité has led regular protests for his reentry into the race.
While Vérité has consistently denounced flaws in the electoral process, it has been accused by opposition groups of being close to the governing party and being one of the main benefactors of the recent election. And it’s true; there may never have been an election without the support of Préval.
At least as early as November 2014, senior United States diplomats began to meet with the former president and others deemed to be in the more “moderate” opposition. At the time, with delayed elections still not scheduled and terms of sitting parliamentarians expiring in January, Haiti was engulfed by a growing protest movement calling for the departure of President Martelly and the holding of elections. There needed to be a compromise that would move Haiti toward elections and remove the instability from the streets; Préval, whom the U.S. described as “Haiti’s indispensable man” in a 2009 diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, was the one to do it.
In a State Department cable ahead of a trip to Haiti by State Department counselor Tom Shannon – dated October 29, 2014 and released through a Freedom of Information Act request – U.S. Ambassador Pamela White wrote that Shannon’s “meetings with key players will be a chance to convey continued U.S. support for dialogue in order to achieve consensus and hold elections as soon as it is technically feasible.” White continues, “If consultations are to bear any fruit the moderate opposition and the Executive will need to urgently engage in dialogue with a defined and agreed upon agenda. We will continue to urge all parties to engage constructively between now and January.”
Martelly would eventually name a presidential advisory commission to recommend a way out of the crisis and toward elections. The commission’s report called for Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe’s resignation, the removal of a judicial official, the formation of a new electoral council, and a consensus government. On December 10, Ambassador White wrote that the actions “address many of the political opposition’s most pressing concerns.” The commission was led by industrialist Reginald Boulos and also included Evans Paul, since named Prime Minister.
A source with knowledge of the discussions said that it was Paul himself who suggested the advisory commission during a mid-November meeting with the so-called “moderate opposition,” which also included Ambassador White. A little over a month later, Martelly would nominate Evans Paul to be prime minister. Boulos, a leader in the Private Sector Economic Forum, is seen as the key force behind Pierre Louis Opont’s ascension to the head of the CEP.
No deal was ever reached to extend the terms of parliament or ratify Evans Paul as prime minister. But, with no functioning parliament after January 12, Evans Paul became de facto prime minister. On the day that parliamentarians’ terms expired, Paul met with Préval to try to build a consensus around his new government. The focus was on bringing the “moderate” opposition into the fold, as the U.S. had suggested – namely INITE and another party, Fusion.
One week later, the government announced a new cabinet. While many officials were hold-overs from previous Martelly governments, there were a few new faces, including representatives of both Fusion and INITE. Importantly, INITE was given the post of minister of the interior, which oversees local municipalities, seen as key for upcoming local and legislative elections.
While many in the opposition were not satisfied by the new government’s formation, an electoral timetable was announced the following month and the street protests eventually receded from the headlines.
But now, with two elections still scheduled this year, the political consensus which moved the process forward has fallen apart. Fusion’s three cabinet members resigned in early August in protest after Martelly made lewd and degrading remarks to a woman at a campaign rally in late July. Earlier in the day yesterday, before Vérité or INITE’s statements had been made public, the government announced a cabinet shift, naming replacements for the three Fusion members and moving Ariel Henry, INITE’s lone representative, from minister of the interior to minister of social affairs. Hours later Henry was instructed to resign. The new minister of the interior, Ardouin Zéphirin, was previously the departmental delegate to the North department, a position appointed by the executive. The North is the home department of PHTK presidential candidate Jovenel Moïse.
With Vérité’s announcement to withdraw from the electoral process, and INITE and Fusion’s departure from the government, it appears that the “consensus” government and the political alliances that moved Haiti toward the current electoral process have been broken.
Haiti’s internationally backed electoral process was thrown further into disarray yesterday as a leading political party announced its withdrawal from the electoral process. In a press statement, the Vérité platform, closely associated with former president René Préval, said it was pulling out of the elections because it was the primary victim of the August 9 “electoral mess,” and called for a “good” electoral council in order to “run a good election.”
Haiti’s August 9 election was characterized by extremely low voter turnout, with just 18 percent of registered voters going to the polls. Additionally, nearly one-quarter of all votes were never counted due to violence on election day, problems transporting ballots and other issues. In 25 of the 119 races for deputy, elections will need to be re-run due to the scale of irregularities. Over the last month, an increasingly large cadre of candidates has taken to the streets, leading protests against the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and a government who they claim has rigged the process.
Also yesterday, INITE, Préval’s former political movement, called on its representative, Ariel Henry to leave the “consensus” government that has run the country since the terms of parliament expired in January. To “remain part of a government that has undertaken and continues this electoral coup of August 9, would be contrary to our principles, our democratic ideals,” the party stated in its letter to President Martelly.
Preliminary results released last month showed Vérité candidates advancing to the second round in 30 of the 85 races that were counted and where no candidate won in the first round, second only to President Martelly’s PHTK. Vérité has mulled the decision to withdraw for some time, as the party’s presidential candidate, Jacky Lumarque, was excluded from participating after originally being accepted. The CEP, after announcing the final list of candidates, kicked Lumarque out of the race because he had been named to a presidential commission under former president Préval and therefore needed a discharge document. Despite a ruling from Haiti’s highest court in favor of Lumarque, the CEP has maintained the exclusion and Vérité has led regular protests for his reentry into the race.
While Vérité has consistently denounced flaws in the electoral process, it has been accused by opposition groups of being close to the governing party and being one of the main benefactors of the recent election. And it’s true; there may never have been an election without the support of Préval.
At least as early as November 2014, senior United States diplomats began to meet with the former president and others deemed to be in the more “moderate” opposition. At the time, with delayed elections still not scheduled and terms of sitting parliamentarians expiring in January, Haiti was engulfed by a growing protest movement calling for the departure of President Martelly and the holding of elections. There needed to be a compromise that would move Haiti toward elections and remove the instability from the streets; Préval, whom the U.S. described as “Haiti’s indispensable man” in a 2009 diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, was the one to do it.
In a State Department cable ahead of a trip to Haiti by State Department counselor Tom Shannon – dated October 29, 2014 and released through a Freedom of Information Act request – U.S. Ambassador Pamela White wrote that Shannon’s “meetings with key players will be a chance to convey continued U.S. support for dialogue in order to achieve consensus and hold elections as soon as it is technically feasible.” White continues, “If consultations are to bear any fruit the moderate opposition and the Executive will need to urgently engage in dialogue with a defined and agreed upon agenda. We will continue to urge all parties to engage constructively between now and January.”
Martelly would eventually name a presidential advisory commission to recommend a way out of the crisis and toward elections. The commission’s report called for Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe’s resignation, the removal of a judicial official, the formation of a new electoral council, and a consensus government. On December 10, Ambassador White wrote that the actions “address many of the political opposition’s most pressing concerns.” The commission was led by industrialist Reginald Boulos and also included Evans Paul, since named Prime Minister.
A source with knowledge of the discussions said that it was Paul himself who suggested the advisory commission during a mid-November meeting with the so-called “moderate opposition,” which also included Ambassador White. A little over a month later, Martelly would nominate Evans Paul to be prime minister. Boulos, a leader in the Private Sector Economic Forum, is seen as the key force behind Pierre Louis Opont’s ascension to the head of the CEP.
No deal was ever reached to extend the terms of parliament or ratify Evans Paul as prime minister. But, with no functioning parliament after January 12, Evans Paul became de facto prime minister. On the day that parliamentarians’ terms expired, Paul met with Préval to try to build a consensus around his new government. The focus was on bringing the “moderate” opposition into the fold, as the U.S. had suggested – namely INITE and another party, Fusion.
One week later, the government announced a new cabinet. While many officials were hold-overs from previous Martelly governments, there were a few new faces, including representatives of both Fusion and INITE. Importantly, INITE was given the post of minister of the interior, which oversees local municipalities, seen as key for upcoming local and legislative elections.
While many in the opposition were not satisfied by the new government’s formation, an electoral timetable was announced the following month and the street protests eventually receded from the headlines.
But now, with two elections still scheduled this year, the political consensus which moved the process forward has fallen apart. Fusion’s three cabinet members resigned in early August in protest after Martelly made lewd and degrading remarks to a woman at a campaign rally in late July. Earlier in the day yesterday, before Vérité or INITE’s statements had been made public, the government announced a cabinet shift, naming replacements for the three Fusion members and moving Ariel Henry, INITE’s lone representative, from minister of the interior to minister of social affairs. Hours later Henry was instructed to resign. The new minister of the interior, Ardouin Zéphirin, was previously the departmental delegate to the North department, a position appointed by the executive. The North is the home department of PHTK presidential candidate Jovenel Moïse.
With Vérité’s announcement to withdraw from the electoral process, and INITE and Fusion’s departure from the government, it appears that the “consensus” government and the political alliances that moved Haiti toward the current electoral process have been broken.
A local Haitian observation group has released a detailed report from election day, calling into question the legitimacy of the vote in many areas throughout Haiti. The group, made up of RNDDH, CNO and CONHANE, had observers present in 48 percent of voting centers throughout the country. The observers state that in more than 60 percent of polling centers where they were present there was massive fraud or attempted fraud, serious irregularities, intimidation and violent or aggressive acts.
The report continues:
The executive authorities, officials of the electoral body as well as many political parties and candidates each share a part of the blame for what can be considered an electoral fiasco.
In effect, after having spent four (4) years in power without holding elections that the people were calling for, after having spent four (4) years procrastinating and trying to place the blame on other actors involved in the elections, the executive authorities produced these electoral contests where the political parties of the ruling power, namely PHTK and Réseau National Bouclier Haîtien, have been identified as being, on the day of the election, the most aggressive in the perpetration of fraud and the use of electoral violence as a means to success.
The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has announced that elections will be re-run in 25 areas where the number of tally sheets counted was below 70 percent. The Senate election in the Artibonite will also be re-run in October. The local observers, however have questioned the transparency of this decision:
The CEP has not provided any information about the handling, at the level of the Tabulation Center, of the numerous irregularities related to ballot-box stuffing and vote fraud reported during the election of August 9 2015.
Moreover, the decision of the CEP to validate results from a Voting Center based on the relatively low threshold of 70% of tally sheets risks causing serious prejudice to candidates who were the target of violence by their opponents.
Although the CEP never produced a full list of voting centers that were closed or where significant problems ensued, the local observer report lists 104 voting centers where “massive fraud” and violence took place and where the voting was stopped, at least temporarily. Although Haiti’s electoral law specifically states that the suspension of the vote is not, in and of itself, grounds to annul an election, the closures, coupled with reports of fraud and violence certainly raises the question of whether results from these voting centers should be counted at all.
An analysis of the 104 voting centers where massive fraud and violence took place showed that in many cases the CEP never received any tally sheets from the centers. However, many voting centers that are listed by RNDDH produced tally sheets which were eventually accepted and counted by the CEP. If those additional tally sheets were excluded from the final results, many different races, at both the deputy and senate level would fall below the CEP’s 70 percent threshold.
To demonstrate how sensitive the CEP’s threshold is to small changes in the number of tally sheets accepted and counted, the breakdown below shows the impact of excluding tally sheets from voting centers listed in the local observer report.
Note: PVs are tally sheets produced from each Bureau du Vote (BV). Totals PVs is the total number of PVs if each BV in a given area had produced a tally sheet.
As can be seen, by removing tally sheets from voting centers listed by the RNDDH-led local observer group, four additional departments would need to re-run Senate elections: the Nord, Centre, Grand Anse and Ouest.
Half of PHTK’s eight Senate candidates advancing to the second round come from these departments and all four of Bouclier’s do as well. Verite would lose three of its seven Senate candidates. Both Bouclier and PHTK were warned by the CEP for their involvement in electoral violence in three of the four departments where Senate elections would no longer stand. Verite was singled out for its role in electoral violence in the Nord and Ouest departments, both areas where the party advanced Senate candidates.
The exclusion of additional tally sheets by the CEP would also impact the results of a number of races for Deputy, as can be seen below.
In addition to the 25 areas where the CEP has already announced elections will be re-run, the removal of tally sheets from the RNDDH list of voting centers puts 13 additional areas under the CEP’s 70 percent threshold.
In Port-au-Prince’s second district, the only polling center which appeared on the local observer report list and had tally sheets counted by the CEP was the Canape-Vert Market. According to the results released by the CEP, 16 of the 32 tally sheets from the market were never received, but the other 16 were counted. Simply by removing those additional 16 sheets, the district falls below the 70 percent threshold.
It is important to keep in mind as well that the local observers state that their list is only partial and based on their own observations. It’s likely that many more voting centers throughout the country experienced similar problems and tally sheets were still counted.
Certainly it may be the case that not all the voting centers listed experienced irregularities that require all the votes to be discarded, however the analysis above clearly shows the arbitrary nature of the CEP’s low threshold and the need for further transparency from the organization in terms of how it is determining which votes count and which are discarded.
A local Haitian observation group has released a detailed report from election day, calling into question the legitimacy of the vote in many areas throughout Haiti. The group, made up of RNDDH, CNO and CONHANE, had observers present in 48 percent of voting centers throughout the country. The observers state that in more than 60 percent of polling centers where they were present there was massive fraud or attempted fraud, serious irregularities, intimidation and violent or aggressive acts.
The report continues:
The executive authorities, officials of the electoral body as well as many political parties and candidates each share a part of the blame for what can be considered an electoral fiasco.
In effect, after having spent four (4) years in power without holding elections that the people were calling for, after having spent four (4) years procrastinating and trying to place the blame on other actors involved in the elections, the executive authorities produced these electoral contests where the political parties of the ruling power, namely PHTK and Réseau National Bouclier Haîtien, have been identified as being, on the day of the election, the most aggressive in the perpetration of fraud and the use of electoral violence as a means to success.
The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has announced that elections will be re-run in 25 areas where the number of tally sheets counted was below 70 percent. The Senate election in the Artibonite will also be re-run in October. The local observers, however have questioned the transparency of this decision:
The CEP has not provided any information about the handling, at the level of the Tabulation Center, of the numerous irregularities related to ballot-box stuffing and vote fraud reported during the election of August 9 2015.
Moreover, the decision of the CEP to validate results from a Voting Center based on the relatively low threshold of 70% of tally sheets risks causing serious prejudice to candidates who were the target of violence by their opponents.
Although the CEP never produced a full list of voting centers that were closed or where significant problems ensued, the local observer report lists 104 voting centers where “massive fraud” and violence took place and where the voting was stopped, at least temporarily. Although Haiti’s electoral law specifically states that the suspension of the vote is not, in and of itself, grounds to annul an election, the closures, coupled with reports of fraud and violence certainly raises the question of whether results from these voting centers should be counted at all.
An analysis of the 104 voting centers where massive fraud and violence took place showed that in many cases the CEP never received any tally sheets from the centers. However, many voting centers that are listed by RNDDH produced tally sheets which were eventually accepted and counted by the CEP. If those additional tally sheets were excluded from the final results, many different races, at both the deputy and senate level would fall below the CEP’s 70 percent threshold.
To demonstrate how sensitive the CEP’s threshold is to small changes in the number of tally sheets accepted and counted, the breakdown below shows the impact of excluding tally sheets from voting centers listed in the local observer report.
Note: PVs are tally sheets produced from each Bureau du Vote (BV). Totals PVs is the total number of PVs if each BV in a given area had produced a tally sheet.
As can be seen, by removing tally sheets from voting centers listed by the RNDDH-led local observer group, four additional departments would need to re-run Senate elections: the Nord, Centre, Grand Anse and Ouest.
Half of PHTK’s eight Senate candidates advancing to the second round come from these departments and all four of Bouclier’s do as well. Verite would lose three of its seven Senate candidates. Both Bouclier and PHTK were warned by the CEP for their involvement in electoral violence in three of the four departments where Senate elections would no longer stand. Verite was singled out for its role in electoral violence in the Nord and Ouest departments, both areas where the party advanced Senate candidates.
The exclusion of additional tally sheets by the CEP would also impact the results of a number of races for Deputy, as can be seen below.
In addition to the 25 areas where the CEP has already announced elections will be re-run, the removal of tally sheets from the RNDDH list of voting centers puts 13 additional areas under the CEP’s 70 percent threshold.
In Port-au-Prince’s second district, the only polling center which appeared on the local observer report list and had tally sheets counted by the CEP was the Canape-Vert Market. According to the results released by the CEP, 16 of the 32 tally sheets from the market were never received, but the other 16 were counted. Simply by removing those additional 16 sheets, the district falls below the 70 percent threshold.
It is important to keep in mind as well that the local observers state that their list is only partial and based on their own observations. It’s likely that many more voting centers throughout the country experienced similar problems and tally sheets were still counted.
Certainly it may be the case that not all the voting centers listed experienced irregularities that require all the votes to be discarded, however the analysis above clearly shows the arbitrary nature of the CEP’s low threshold and the need for further transparency from the organization in terms of how it is determining which votes count and which are discarded.
The following is cross-posted from the Haiti Elections Blog, which was created to help promote the free access to information and accountability within the electoral process. The blog is co-managed by several non-governmental organizations who work with and within Haiti.
On August 24, the CEP issued a warning to political parties that further acts of disorder would not be tolerated by the electoral council. In a communiqué, the CEP “deplored” the fact that candidates and their sympathizers had “disrupted” the voting on August 9, “ransacking Voting Centers and stealing voting materials.” If a party’s candidates, members or supporters commit similar acts again, that party’s candidates will be excluded from the race in the affected constituency (“circonscription”), the CEP warned.
The CEP identified 8 of 10 departments where such incidents occurred and identified the parties guilty of election-day disruptions in each department. Only in Nippes and the Nord-Est were no parties warned for involvement.
Of the 16 parties named by the CEP, PHTK and Bouclier were the ones most often singled out for blame. President Martelly’s PHTK was reprimanded for perturbing the vote in 6 different departments on August 9, while Bouclier – a party widely perceived to be an ally of PHTK – was cited in 4.
Disturbingly, what the CEP’s communiqué seems to show is that causing trouble goes hand-in-hand with electoral success.
President Martelly’s PHTK leads all parties with 25 first-place Deputy candidates going into the second round. Of those 25 leading candidates, 17 come from departments where PHTK engaged in electoral abuses, according to the CEP’s communiqué. Similarly, 9 of Verité’s 14 Deputy candidates leading after the first round are from departments where the party caused disorder.
For PHTK’s Senate candidates, 4 out of 8 going to the second round come from departments where the party’s behaviour was criticized by the CEP. The same goes for a majority (7 of 11) of the second-round Senate candidates for the next two leading parties, Verité (4 of 7) and Bouclier (3 of 4).
In the absence of action taken to exclude the offenders, candidates from political parties issued warnings by the CEP will dominate the second round of the legislative elections in many departments. This is the case even when the 25 constituencies that the CEP has said will have their elections rerun are excluded from the analysis.
For the Artibonite, Nord, Centre, Ouest and Sud departments, 3 of 4 first-round Deputy winners and 34 of 47 first-place candidates heading to the second round come from parties cited by the CEP for causing disorder on election day. The outlook for the Senate races, where each department is electing two representatives, is much the same for these departments. In the Artibonite, Nord, Centre, Ouest and Sud, candidates from reprimanded parties hold the top two places (and are thus favourites going into the second round) for 8 of 10 Senate seats up for grabs, and make up 14 of 20 Senate candidates overall going to the second round. Only in the Artibonite, however, will the Senate race be redone.
The CEP, by issuing its warning, may have inadvertently demonstrated that the flaws of the August 9 elections go far beyond the 25 constituencies slated to be rerun. Whether the offending parties get more than just a slap on the wrist remains to be seen.
Major parties cited by CEP communiqué (department)
PHTK (Artibonite, Centre, Nord, Ouest, Nord-Ouest, Sud)
Bouclier (Artibonite, Grand’Anse, Nord, Ouest)
Verité (Nord, Ouest, Sud)
KID (Artibonite, Centre, Sud)
Candidates from parties responsible for election-day violence and disorder, selected departments
1st place Deputy
Artibonite: 3 of 6
Centre: 5 of 7
Nord: 7 of 8
Ouest: 9 of 14
Sud: 10 of 12
1st or 2nd place Senate (going to second round)
Artibonite: 2 of 2 (3 of 4)
Centre: 2 of 2 (3 of 4)
Nord: 2 of 2 (4 of 4)
Ouest: 1 of 2 (2 of 4)
Sud: 1 of 2 (2 of 4)
The following is cross-posted from the Haiti Elections Blog, which was created to help promote the free access to information and accountability within the electoral process. The blog is co-managed by several non-governmental organizations who work with and within Haiti.
On August 24, the CEP issued a warning to political parties that further acts of disorder would not be tolerated by the electoral council. In a communiqué, the CEP “deplored” the fact that candidates and their sympathizers had “disrupted” the voting on August 9, “ransacking Voting Centers and stealing voting materials.” If a party’s candidates, members or supporters commit similar acts again, that party’s candidates will be excluded from the race in the affected constituency (“circonscription”), the CEP warned.
The CEP identified 8 of 10 departments where such incidents occurred and identified the parties guilty of election-day disruptions in each department. Only in Nippes and the Nord-Est were no parties warned for involvement.
Of the 16 parties named by the CEP, PHTK and Bouclier were the ones most often singled out for blame. President Martelly’s PHTK was reprimanded for perturbing the vote in 6 different departments on August 9, while Bouclier – a party widely perceived to be an ally of PHTK – was cited in 4.
Disturbingly, what the CEP’s communiqué seems to show is that causing trouble goes hand-in-hand with electoral success.
President Martelly’s PHTK leads all parties with 25 first-place Deputy candidates going into the second round. Of those 25 leading candidates, 17 come from departments where PHTK engaged in electoral abuses, according to the CEP’s communiqué. Similarly, 9 of Verité’s 14 Deputy candidates leading after the first round are from departments where the party caused disorder.
For PHTK’s Senate candidates, 4 out of 8 going to the second round come from departments where the party’s behaviour was criticized by the CEP. The same goes for a majority (7 of 11) of the second-round Senate candidates for the next two leading parties, Verité (4 of 7) and Bouclier (3 of 4).
In the absence of action taken to exclude the offenders, candidates from political parties issued warnings by the CEP will dominate the second round of the legislative elections in many departments. This is the case even when the 25 constituencies that the CEP has said will have their elections rerun are excluded from the analysis.
For the Artibonite, Nord, Centre, Ouest and Sud departments, 3 of 4 first-round Deputy winners and 34 of 47 first-place candidates heading to the second round come from parties cited by the CEP for causing disorder on election day. The outlook for the Senate races, where each department is electing two representatives, is much the same for these departments. In the Artibonite, Nord, Centre, Ouest and Sud, candidates from reprimanded parties hold the top two places (and are thus favourites going into the second round) for 8 of 10 Senate seats up for grabs, and make up 14 of 20 Senate candidates overall going to the second round. Only in the Artibonite, however, will the Senate race be redone.
The CEP, by issuing its warning, may have inadvertently demonstrated that the flaws of the August 9 elections go far beyond the 25 constituencies slated to be rerun. Whether the offending parties get more than just a slap on the wrist remains to be seen.
Major parties cited by CEP communiqué (department)
PHTK (Artibonite, Centre, Nord, Ouest, Nord-Ouest, Sud)
Bouclier (Artibonite, Grand’Anse, Nord, Ouest)
Verité (Nord, Ouest, Sud)
KID (Artibonite, Centre, Sud)
Candidates from parties responsible for election-day violence and disorder, selected departments
1st place Deputy
Artibonite: 3 of 6
Centre: 5 of 7
Nord: 7 of 8
Ouest: 9 of 14
Sud: 10 of 12
1st or 2nd place Senate (going to second round)
Artibonite: 2 of 2 (3 of 4)
Centre: 2 of 2 (3 of 4)
Nord: 2 of 2 (4 of 4)
Ouest: 1 of 2 (2 of 4)
Sud: 1 of 2 (2 of 4)
*This post has been edited for accuracy.
After not showing up to its own scheduled press conference on Wednesday, Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced on Thursday that they would be re-running the first round legislative elections in 25 towns throughout the country. The CEP also announced participation rates at the national level and for each of the 10 departments during the press conference. However, no results were announced, instead, the CEP directed people to its website where results were supposed to be posted. The website was down until around 4 AM Friday morning when official results were finally made available.
Leaked results had been reported by Haitian radio and on social media throughout the day Thursday and ended up matching exactly those later released by the CEP. In a country where most get their news from the radio, the CEP’s posting of results online likely excluded many from obtaining them.
What follows is a breakdown of the results; which parties and candidates will be moving on to a second round, key figures of voter participation and irregularities and what information is still missing.
Participation
Reports from election day indicated extremely low voter participation throughout the country and that was backed up by the posted results. Still, many have raised questions about the numbers released, and there are significant questions that remain unanswered. According to the CEP, the national participation rate was 18 percent, with the lowest participation observed in the West department, at just under 10 percent.
While the announced participation matches the results from the Deputy race, the number of votes counted is 50 percent higher for the Senate. This is to be expected, given that Haitians were choosing two senators from each department and could vote twice. None the less, it appears as though only about half actually chose to do so.
The extremely low turnout in the West department is also noteworthy. It is Haiti’s largest department, with 41 percent of registered voters. It is also one of the areas most impacted by electoral violence and the closure of voting centers. This could play a bigger role in the presidential election; a public opinion survey released early this year noted that the West department was where president Martelly had the lowest approval ratings – more than 15 percent lower than in any other department. With low turnout and a messy electoral process in the first round, will potential voters stay away from the polls all together in October?
Did the CEP Set the Bar Too Low?
At its press conference on Thursday night, the CEP announced that the threshold for having the vote count and not be re-run in October was if 70 percent of tally sheets (PVs) were counted. Based on this figure, the CEP announced that 25 towns would have to re-run elections. The figure below provides those towns, and what percent of tally sheets were counted in each case.
One other town was below the 70 percent threshold, but was not on the list provided by the CEP of elections to be re-held: CERCA-CARVAJAL/QUARTIER DE LOS PALIS. In that area, the PHTK candidate will advance with 76.67 of the vote, though only 66.7 percent of tally sheets were counted. This could be because, according to the electoral law, the vote will only be annulled if the results were impacted; perhaps the CEP determined that the PHTK candidate would win no matter what, but if that is the case, they have not provided an explanation themselves.
The 70 percent threshold also applies to the Senate election, however only one department, the Artibonite, fell below that mark. The figures for all departments can be seen below.
Again, there are differences between the races for Senate and Deputy, but in both cases, the results reveal massive irregularities and disenfranchisement. Looking at the Senate numbers, at the national level, 24.3 percent of tally sheets were never counted; they never made it to the tabulation center to be counted, they were discarded due to fraud or they were discarded for technical reasons. The number is slightly lower for Deputy, but remains worryingly high at 22.7 percent. The CEP has posted all 13,725 tally sheets online, and a more complete breakdown of the reasons for such a low number being counted is forthcoming (though not, apparently, from the CEP).
As can be seen in the above figure, if the CEP’s 70 percent threshold had been raised to 80 percent, Senatorial elections would need to be re-run in six of Haiti’s ten departments. Only the Sud, Nord Ouest, Nord Est and Nippes department had more than 80 percent counted. Was the threshold determined by a statistical analysis? Or was it determined after the fact to ensure a minimum disruption to the electoral process? The CEP has yet to provide any further explanation.
This also comes into play in the election for Deputy; an additional 17 towns are below 80 percent of tally sheets being counted. Local observers and press reported significant problems on election day in a number of towns that fall just above the 70% threshold, for example Jeremie (71.9 percent). A more complete analysis on this point is available here. In only two towns throughout the country were 100 percent of tally sheets counted.
In the deeply flawed 2010 election, the number of tally sheets that were discarded due to irregularities or were never transported to the tabulation center was around 12 percent. The current election, where around twice as many votes were simply never counted, makes the 2010 election look good in comparison and that should be a concern for everyone involved. The 2010 election was held the same year as a massive earthquake struck Haiti, displacing well over a million and killing hundreds of thousands. Additionally, a nationwide cholera outbreak hit the country just one month before the election. And yet, turnout was higher and there were fewer votes lost due to violence and irregularities.
Senate Results
For the Senatorial election, things are relatively straightforward. As mentioned previously, the Senate election in the Artibonite will be re-run. In the other nine departments, there were no winners in the first round, meaning that the top four finishers will advance to October’s run-off election. The breakdown by party can be seen below.
The three parties that will advance the most candidates to the second round are PHTK, Verite and Bouclier (seen as very close to the government). But broken down by department, many of these parties have two candidates advancing in certain departments and in some cases those who finished in third or fourth place are far behind the leading candidates. Below is a breakdown of those parties advancing in the Senate elections, broken down by department and percent of the vote obtained.
As can be seen, no Senate candidate received more than 28.08 percent of the vote in the first round, according to the results released by the CEP. PHTK leads the way with seven candidates finishing in the top two of the voting. Verite is next with three.
A full breakdown of Senate candidates advancing is available here.
Deputy Results
With 119 seats up for grabs and over 1,600 candidates running, the deputy results present a more confusing landscape. As mentioned previously, in 25 towns these elections will be re-held as part of the October 25 vote. In the 94 races that will stand (pending complaints registered by political parties), only nine of them saw a winner emerge in the first round. A new aspect to Haiti’s 2015 electoral law is that candidates no longer need to obtain more than 50 percent to win in the first round, candidates also advance if they have a 25 percent lead over their nearest competitor.
Again, it is PHTK that has the most candidates winning outright in the first round, with four. Only three candidates received more than 50 percent, with the remaining five candidates advancing because of the size of their lead over the second place finisher. In some cases, the difference was just a few votes. In Pestel, for example, Ronald Etienne (CONSORTIUM) advanced with a 25.21 percentage point lead. Yet in Pestel, only 70.7 percent of tally sheets were actually counted (more on this in the next section). In Mirebalais, Abel Descollines should advance because his next two closest competitors have been excluded due to their alleged role in electoral violence and he has a 25 percentage point lead over the next closest remaining candidate. *An additional name has been added since this was first posted; Nickel Pierre from the Nippes department. The second place candidate has been excluded for his alleged role in electoral violence, making Pierre a first round winner.
The remaining Deputy races will all be headed to a run-off in October. The parties with candidates advancing can be seen in the chart below. These numbers differ slightly from what was released by the CEP, because the CEP has also excluded 16 candidates for their alleged role in electoral violence. Four of those individuals made it to the second round, but for this analysis were removed and replaced by the third place finisher. As mentioned previously, in one case the exclusions will likely allow the PHTK candidate in Mirebalais to win the election in the first round, despite having only received 38.7 percent of the vote. *An additional case has been found, see paragraph above.
A full breakdown, by location and with candidates’ names, is available here.
What Comes Next
With preliminary results released, but only online and with no larger analysis done by the CEP, it will take time for political parties to sift through all of the information and react. There is now a 72 hour period where candidates can contest the election results and it is expected that many will do so. According to the electoral calendar, final results will be released on September 8.
The CEP has also left the door open to excluding more candidates if information about their involvement in electoral violence is found. This means additional candidates on the lists here could still be excluded from participating in a second round.
The chaotic nature of election day and the lack of technical preparation from the CEP have led many to question its legitimacy and capability to continue the electoral process. The press conference on Thursday, where no questions were taken, no results were given, and little information was shared did not help this dynamic. Hopefully the many questions raised by the release of these results (and the manner in which they were released) will be addressed by the CEP in the coming days and weeks.
*This post has been edited for accuracy.
After not showing up to its own scheduled press conference on Wednesday, Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced on Thursday that they would be re-running the first round legislative elections in 25 towns throughout the country. The CEP also announced participation rates at the national level and for each of the 10 departments during the press conference. However, no results were announced, instead, the CEP directed people to its website where results were supposed to be posted. The website was down until around 4 AM Friday morning when official results were finally made available.
Leaked results had been reported by Haitian radio and on social media throughout the day Thursday and ended up matching exactly those later released by the CEP. In a country where most get their news from the radio, the CEP’s posting of results online likely excluded many from obtaining them.
What follows is a breakdown of the results; which parties and candidates will be moving on to a second round, key figures of voter participation and irregularities and what information is still missing.
Participation
Reports from election day indicated extremely low voter participation throughout the country and that was backed up by the posted results. Still, many have raised questions about the numbers released, and there are significant questions that remain unanswered. According to the CEP, the national participation rate was 18 percent, with the lowest participation observed in the West department, at just under 10 percent.
While the announced participation matches the results from the Deputy race, the number of votes counted is 50 percent higher for the Senate. This is to be expected, given that Haitians were choosing two senators from each department and could vote twice. None the less, it appears as though only about half actually chose to do so.
The extremely low turnout in the West department is also noteworthy. It is Haiti’s largest department, with 41 percent of registered voters. It is also one of the areas most impacted by electoral violence and the closure of voting centers. This could play a bigger role in the presidential election; a public opinion survey released early this year noted that the West department was where president Martelly had the lowest approval ratings – more than 15 percent lower than in any other department. With low turnout and a messy electoral process in the first round, will potential voters stay away from the polls all together in October?
Did the CEP Set the Bar Too Low?
At its press conference on Thursday night, the CEP announced that the threshold for having the vote count and not be re-run in October was if 70 percent of tally sheets (PVs) were counted. Based on this figure, the CEP announced that 25 towns would have to re-run elections. The figure below provides those towns, and what percent of tally sheets were counted in each case.
One other town was below the 70 percent threshold, but was not on the list provided by the CEP of elections to be re-held: CERCA-CARVAJAL/QUARTIER DE LOS PALIS. In that area, the PHTK candidate will advance with 76.67 of the vote, though only 66.7 percent of tally sheets were counted. This could be because, according to the electoral law, the vote will only be annulled if the results were impacted; perhaps the CEP determined that the PHTK candidate would win no matter what, but if that is the case, they have not provided an explanation themselves.
The 70 percent threshold also applies to the Senate election, however only one department, the Artibonite, fell below that mark. The figures for all departments can be seen below.
Again, there are differences between the races for Senate and Deputy, but in both cases, the results reveal massive irregularities and disenfranchisement. Looking at the Senate numbers, at the national level, 24.3 percent of tally sheets were never counted; they never made it to the tabulation center to be counted, they were discarded due to fraud or they were discarded for technical reasons. The number is slightly lower for Deputy, but remains worryingly high at 22.7 percent. The CEP has posted all 13,725 tally sheets online, and a more complete breakdown of the reasons for such a low number being counted is forthcoming (though not, apparently, from the CEP).
As can be seen in the above figure, if the CEP’s 70 percent threshold had been raised to 80 percent, Senatorial elections would need to be re-run in six of Haiti’s ten departments. Only the Sud, Nord Ouest, Nord Est and Nippes department had more than 80 percent counted. Was the threshold determined by a statistical analysis? Or was it determined after the fact to ensure a minimum disruption to the electoral process? The CEP has yet to provide any further explanation.
This also comes into play in the election for Deputy; an additional 17 towns are below 80 percent of tally sheets being counted. Local observers and press reported significant problems on election day in a number of towns that fall just above the 70% threshold, for example Jeremie (71.9 percent). A more complete analysis on this point is available here. In only two towns throughout the country were 100 percent of tally sheets counted.
In the deeply flawed 2010 election, the number of tally sheets that were discarded due to irregularities or were never transported to the tabulation center was around 12 percent. The current election, where around twice as many votes were simply never counted, makes the 2010 election look good in comparison and that should be a concern for everyone involved. The 2010 election was held the same year as a massive earthquake struck Haiti, displacing well over a million and killing hundreds of thousands. Additionally, a nationwide cholera outbreak hit the country just one month before the election. And yet, turnout was higher and there were fewer votes lost due to violence and irregularities.
Senate Results
For the Senatorial election, things are relatively straightforward. As mentioned previously, the Senate election in the Artibonite will be re-run. In the other nine departments, there were no winners in the first round, meaning that the top four finishers will advance to October’s run-off election. The breakdown by party can be seen below.
The three parties that will advance the most candidates to the second round are PHTK, Verite and Bouclier (seen as very close to the government). But broken down by department, many of these parties have two candidates advancing in certain departments and in some cases those who finished in third or fourth place are far behind the leading candidates. Below is a breakdown of those parties advancing in the Senate elections, broken down by department and percent of the vote obtained.
As can be seen, no Senate candidate received more than 28.08 percent of the vote in the first round, according to the results released by the CEP. PHTK leads the way with seven candidates finishing in the top two of the voting. Verite is next with three.
A full breakdown of Senate candidates advancing is available here.
Deputy Results
With 119 seats up for grabs and over 1,600 candidates running, the deputy results present a more confusing landscape. As mentioned previously, in 25 towns these elections will be re-held as part of the October 25 vote. In the 94 races that will stand (pending complaints registered by political parties), only nine of them saw a winner emerge in the first round. A new aspect to Haiti’s 2015 electoral law is that candidates no longer need to obtain more than 50 percent to win in the first round, candidates also advance if they have a 25 percent lead over their nearest competitor.
Again, it is PHTK that has the most candidates winning outright in the first round, with four. Only three candidates received more than 50 percent, with the remaining five candidates advancing because of the size of their lead over the second place finisher. In some cases, the difference was just a few votes. In Pestel, for example, Ronald Etienne (CONSORTIUM) advanced with a 25.21 percentage point lead. Yet in Pestel, only 70.7 percent of tally sheets were actually counted (more on this in the next section). In Mirebalais, Abel Descollines should advance because his next two closest competitors have been excluded due to their alleged role in electoral violence and he has a 25 percentage point lead over the next closest remaining candidate. *An additional name has been added since this was first posted; Nickel Pierre from the Nippes department. The second place candidate has been excluded for his alleged role in electoral violence, making Pierre a first round winner.
The remaining Deputy races will all be headed to a run-off in October. The parties with candidates advancing can be seen in the chart below. These numbers differ slightly from what was released by the CEP, because the CEP has also excluded 16 candidates for their alleged role in electoral violence. Four of those individuals made it to the second round, but for this analysis were removed and replaced by the third place finisher. As mentioned previously, in one case the exclusions will likely allow the PHTK candidate in Mirebalais to win the election in the first round, despite having only received 38.7 percent of the vote. *An additional case has been found, see paragraph above.
A full breakdown, by location and with candidates’ names, is available here.
What Comes Next
With preliminary results released, but only online and with no larger analysis done by the CEP, it will take time for political parties to sift through all of the information and react. There is now a 72 hour period where candidates can contest the election results and it is expected that many will do so. According to the electoral calendar, final results will be released on September 8.
The CEP has also left the door open to excluding more candidates if information about their involvement in electoral violence is found. This means additional candidates on the lists here could still be excluded from participating in a second round.
The chaotic nature of election day and the lack of technical preparation from the CEP have led many to question its legitimacy and capability to continue the electoral process. The press conference on Thursday, where no questions were taken, no results were given, and little information was shared did not help this dynamic. Hopefully the many questions raised by the release of these results (and the manner in which they were released) will be addressed by the CEP in the coming days and weeks.
