US embassy cable - 05PORTAUPRINCE1609

UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 001609 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KDEM, KPAO, HA, Elections 
SUBJECT: Haiti elections update - June 9 
 
Ref: A) PAP 1537, B) Tokyo 3020, C) Oslo 868, 
 
     D) Ottawa 1734, E) USEU TBD 
 
Registration process moves forward 
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1.  27 registration centers are now open, 39 more will open 
"within the next few days," and another 140 or so are being 
refurbished by UNOPS in order to be opened by June 15, 
according to UN and OAS officials.  These last include a 
registration center in Delmas and one in Petionville (both 
in the capital) and several others in the provinces that are 
also slated to be communal-level election offices (BECs) 
after registration.  One registration center was opened in 
the Prime Minister's office on June 6, and the PM registered 
before he departed for New York. 
 
2.  The most recent unofficial estimate from the OAS is that 
nearly 120,000 voters have been registered. 
 
Elections calendar 
--------------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) The electoral calendar has still not been 
finalized by the CEP and submitted to the government (ref 
A).  Privately, some officials tell us this is not hampering 
the registration effort, and that holding off on publishing 
the electoral calendar might be useful if a consensus is 
reached to change the election dates by a few weeks. 
 
Budget 
------ 
 
4. (U) MINUSTAH elections chief LeChevallier told us that 
Spain had pledged to provide 300,000 Euros (approx. 
$369,000) to the OAS to support its registration efforts, 
and that France (through its Embassy here) had pledged the 
same amount for the post-election "consolidation" of the CEP 
(reorganizing it for post-election tasks).  We shared with 
LeChevallier Norwegian and Japanese promises of support 
(refs B and C).  LeChevallier said he would be meeting with 
Japanese assistance officials this week to follow up on 
their interest in funding the three specific projects noted 
in ref B.  Regarding EU funding (ref E), LeChevallier said 
the CEP had provided a letter to the EU representative here 
pledging that it would implement the steps outlined in 
Canadian expert Ron Gould's recent assessment mission. 
This, he hoped, would be sufficient to allow the EU to 
release its promised additional tranche of 8 million Euros 
(approx. $9.79 million).  (Our thanks to colleagues in Oslo, 
Tokyo, Ottawa, and Brussels for timely reporting!) 
 
Legal framework still in development 
------------------------------------ 
 
5. The decree establishing the legal basis for the voter 
registration card as an identity card remains stalled at the 
Justice Ministry.  According to CEP member Duchemin, MOJ 
Gousse insists that the institutional responsibility for 
overseeing the ID card process, once the elections are past, 
be established within the MOJ, not within the CEP as the 
decree currently states.  This issue will need to be 
resolved before the decree is published. 
 
6. The Prime Minister's office circulated earlier this month 
a "memo" outlining a possible program of financial support 
to political parties.  LeChevallier told us MINUSTAH has 
suggested that the program needs stronger oversight controls 
and transparency, and that ultimately this must also be 
issued as an IGOH decree with the force of law. 
 
Another Presidential candidate 
------------------------------ 
7. (U) Rigaud Duplan, former head of the Haitian Bar 
Association, announced his candidacy for President June 5 in 
Jacmel.  Duplan, who served as lawyer to former General 
Prosper Avril and to former Senator Dany Toussaint, was one 
of the lawyers who represented the ex-FADH in negotiations 
last fall with the IGOH.  He is strongly pro-Army and threw 
his hat in the ring as the head of a new, independent 
organization called "Justice, Peace, and National 
Development."