Caribbean & Central America - July 2015 (ISSN 1741-4458)

Last month Haiti’s provisional electoral council (CEP) published its final list of candidates approved to take part in the 25 October first round of presidential elections. In May it posted its final list of approved legislative candidates for two-thirds of the 30-member senate and the newly expanded 118-member lower chamber ahead of elections scheduled for 9 August. With civil society groups raising concerns about some of the legislative candidates included, the exclusion of high-profile figures like former prime minister, Laurent Lamothe (2012-2014), who was hoping to make a presidential bid on the ticket of President Michel Martelly’s former party Platfòm Peyizan (formerly Repons Peyizan) has also proven controversial, laying the CEP open to accusations of political manoeuvring.

The final list of legislative candidates gives Verité, the new party launched by former president René Préval (2006-2011) and former prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive (2009-2011), the most candidates (115 in total) while President Martelly’s new party, Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale (PHTK), has 110. Notably, Fanmi Lavalas (FL), the party of the populist former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991; 1994-1996; 2001-2004), which has been barred from taking part in recent elections, was left with a total of 99 legislative candidates.

The approved list of legislative candidates prompted criticism from Haiti’s leading human rights group, Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humain (RNDDH), which pointed out criminal accusations surrounding some of the approved candidates. In a 2 June press release, the RNDDH noted that four senate candidates and 31 deputy candidates are accused of various crimes, ranging from murder and kidnapping to rape and drug trafficking. Those accused of murder include senate candidate, Emmanuel Tinord (Konvansyon Inité Demokratik), and lower chamber candidates, M’zou Naya Belange (Platfom Peyizan) and Henry Sauveur (Adrena). RNDDH also points out that two lower chamber candidates had been deported from the US “because of their involvement in wrongdoing” – Adelin Jules (Plateforme Jistis) who was deported in 2012 for aggression and assault with a dangerous weapon and Lorigene Jean Baptiste (Union Des Patriotes Pour l’Avancement National), deported the same year for corruption and obstruction of justice.

Presidential contest takes shape

The CEP’s final decisions regarding presidential candidacies, announced on 11 June, also made headlines. This, after the national bureau of electoral disputes (BCEN) rejected Lamothe’s candidacy on the grounds that he had failed to provide a key document – known as a décharge – confirming that he did not misuse public funds while in office. Only the national parliament can grant a décharge, which is based on the findings of the superior court of auditors and administrative disputes (CSCCA). However, parliament has been paralysed since the start of the year after the terms of 10 senators expired, making this impossible.

After the CEP announced its preliminary decision on 5 June regarding Lamothe, the latter complained that 90% of presidential candidacies with no décharge were accepted. In response to the CEP’s final decision, Lamothe accused the electoral authorities of “violat[ing] the electoral decree and the amended constitution of the country”.

Those candidates who have been given the all clear include: Maryse Narcisse, a close Aristide ally who is running for FL; Charles Henry Baker (Respè), a prominent industrialist who ran in the 2006 and 2010 presidential elections, taking less than 3% of the vote in 2010; as well as Jude Célestin (Ligue Alternative pour le Progrès et l’Emancipation Haïtienne), the former head of the state-owned construction company, Centre National des Équipements (CNE), who ran in the 2010 contest for Préval’s Inité party before being controversially excluded from the second round.

• Lamothe and Martelly

At the time the international media reported that Martelly and Lamothe (previously considered one of the President’s closest allies) fell out in May 2014 over the arrest of a suspected drug trafficker and kidnapper, Woodly Ethéart, who has close ties to Martelly’s family. In an interview with local daily Le Nouvelliste on 15 June President Martelly denied any problems with Lamothe, stating that the former prime minister was aware that he would not be the PHTK presidential candidate; Martelly’s party is fielding a relative unknown, mechanical engineer Jovenel Moïse. In the interview Martelly said that he had told Lamothe and First Lady Sophie Martelly (whose bid for the senate the CEP rejected on technical grounds) that they could not run because of fears that the other political parties would boycott the elections in response.