Port-au-Prince/Brussels, 27 October 2010: Haitian authorities and the international community need to ensure that the first post-quake elections meet acceptable standards of credibility and produce the legitimate government needed to carry through massive institutional and infrastructure reconstruction.
"Haiti: The Stakes of the Post-Quake Elections", the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the daunting elections scheduled for 28 November. These rank among the most important in the nation's history, as the resulting government will be responsible for managing the recovery. But the obstacles that have regularly plagued Haitian elections have been seriously exacerbated by the January earthquake and in the past few days by a cholera outbreak.
"Election organisation was a daunting task even before the earthquake killed several hundred thousand people, destroyed infrastructure and affected a third of the population", says Bernice Robertson, Crisis Group's Senior Analyst for Haiti. "Three quarters of the population lived in poverty; most urban earners depended on the informal economy; illiteracy stood at 50 per cent, while civic education was spotty, and the inequalities of the elite-dominated society were the most glaring in the hemisphere".
Adding to these chronic problems are the makeshift status of the body charged with organising the process - the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) - a weak, fragmented party system and the frequency of elections in a country with weak institutional and physical infrastructure. The 1,300 temporary settlements that sprang up after the earthquake still hold 1.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), who are frustrated with their worsening conditions in an ongoing hurricane season and deeply sceptical that the elections will bring positive change to their lives.
The Haitian authorities must ensure that eligible voters are duly registered, provided identity cards and informed where they are to vote. Civic education must be intensified to encourage turnout and inform the electorate on voting procedures and on making informed choices. Training of poll workers needs to be enhanced and supervision strengthened to ensure adherence to voting procedures and reduce irregularities. To guarantee transparency, party agents need assured access to the voting and tabulation process.
The government and international partners should accelerate deployment of observers in far larger numbers than now envisaged. United Nations peacekeepers (MINUSTAH) and Haitian police must ensure security - both before and after elections - particularly in the camps, which are being victimised by rising crime.
Beyond the elections, the new government will face urgent tasks, such as resettling the IDPs. It must also seek political consensus on amending the constitution in the shortest term possible so as to reduce the frequency, and thus cost, of elections. It should commit to an institutional reform plan that includes passage of legislation to improve the functioning and financing of political parties and ensures non-partisan appointments to a modernised elections management body.
"The newly-elected authorities will confront numerous challenges", says Mark Schneider, Crisis Group Senior Vice President, "and it is essential that the international community give them the financial and other support needed to attend quickly to the most urgent, from resettlement to security and strengthening the rule of law. Nine months after the worst disaster ever in the Western Hemisphere, Haitians are losing hope that their leaders and international partners have the political will and capacity to help them improve their dire socio-economic situation".
Read the full Crisis Group report on the website: http://www.crisisgroup.org
Photo: Wikipedia, Haiti Earthquake
