Development: On 3 August the local press cited Nicole Siméon, the spokesperson for Haiti’s provisional electoral council (CEP), as saying that efforts were under way to reduce the estimated US$55m electoral budget for staging the 9 October re-run of presidential and partial legislative elections.
Significance: Siméon’s remarks follow a meeting held on 1 August between Prime Minister Enex Jean Charles and the finance, justice, and planning ministers, as well as electoral councillors in which they discussed the electoral budget. These discussions point to the continued uncertainty as to how these elections are to be funded after the US government announced the previous month that it would not provide any more financing for them. This was widely considered indicative of the US’s displeasure with the CEP’s June decision to scrap the results of the 25 October 2015 first-round presidential election due to widespread allegations of fraud.
- Since the US announced its decision not to stump up any more cash to fund elections in Haiti this year, the Haitian government has reiterated that it will cover the cost of restaging the vote from other sources albeit without providing any details.
- The European Union also opposes the decision to scrap last year’s presidential electoral result and to restage the vote, and it has pulled its electoral observer mission for the 9 October vote, describing the restaging of the elections as “unjustified”. However, on 3 August the Miami Herald reported that the Organization of American States (OAS) would still observe the 9 October election.
- On 2 August the OAS – which has sent three electoral observer missions to Haiti since June 2015 – released its report on the 2015 electoral process which appeared to accept the decision to restage the presidential election. The 15-page OAS report acknowledged “significant organizational shortcomings in the 25 October election, including poorly trained polling station staff, inadequate conditions for ensuring ballot secrecy, and problems with the use of the indelible ink to identify individuals who had already voted. In addition, there was evidence of vote buying and voter substitution, as well as excessive numbers of political party representatives who were authorized to vote at polling places other than those where they were registered”.
Looking Ahead: In its report, the OAS lists a series of recommendations aimed at reforming the electoral process. In the immediate term, the OAS calls on the CEP to make changes ahead of polling day which include better regulation and conduct of the role of political party representatives (known as ‘mandataires’) so their votes can be separated; better training and power for electoral staff in order that they can provide better instructions to voters and help them better identify irregularities; and the employment of a different type of indelible ink for future elections.
