wfn.org | Team will not observe Haiti's second round of elections

["Frank Imhoff" <franki@elca.org>]

International ecumenical team will not observe Haiti's second round
of elections

PORTE-AU-PRINCE, Haiti/GENEVA, 6 July 2000 (LWI) - A team of
international ecumenical election observers that monitored Haiti's
poll last May will not observe the second round of voting now
scheduled for Sunday, July 9.

Members of the ecumenical team, which is jointly sponsored by the
World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF), announced that they will not continue with the electoral
observation in the second round, after having noted irregularities
and tension in the voting process during local and legislative
elections on 21 May 2000. However, the 13-member team drawn from
France, Germany and Switzerland said they want to "keep the door
open" if the situation changes.

The international community, Haiti's own religious groups, and civil
society have widely condemned, and described as unfair, the May
election results in the Caribbean country, of which the declared
winner was the party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In a declaration on June 24, seventeen organizations including the
Federation of Protestant Churches in Haiti, the Roman Catholic
Bishops' Conference, the National Chamber of Commerce and the
Industrialists' Association stated that they could not endorse
results that corresponded neither to electoral law nor to generally
accepted norms. The political parties of the opposition have declared
that they will not participate in the second round of elections.
France, the USA and the Organization of American States (OAS) also
strongly criticized the election process and questioned the validity
of the results of the first round of the balloting.

It is not yet clear whether the Electoral Mission of the OAS, under
which the WCC/LWF team was observing the Haitian process, will stay
in the country during the second round of elections.

The full text of the statement by the ecumenical observers on the May
21 election process follows:

STATEMENT BY THE ECUMENICAL OBSERVERS

A group of 13 observers came from Switzerland, France, Germany and
the United States to monitor the Haiti elections.

Their presence expresses the concern of the worldwide fellowship of
Christian churches for the people of Haiti and its solidarity with
them at the important stage that this vote represents for the
building of democracy.

For practical reasons, these observers were deployed in association
with the monitoring mission of the Organization of American States
(OAS) in the Departments of West, Artibonite, Center, South, North
East and Grand' Anse. Cooperation with the OAS regional
representatives was good. The present statement, however, involves
only the thirteen ecumenical observers signing it.

We admired the obvious determination of Haitian voters to take part
in the poll in spite of its complexity and in spite of the material
and technical difficulties, which made strict application of
electoral law practically impossible.

We also noted the presence in the polling stations of many national
observers and mandated representatives of different parties. We would
emphasize the responsible approach and civic sense of the staff in
the majority of the polling stations observed, despite their
often-inadequate training. Their commitment allowed voting to proceed
satisfactorily in these polling places.

In a number of polling stations, however, we did witness certain
irregularities: pressurizing, intimidation, and failure to guarantee
the secrecy of the ballot. Vote counting took place in particularly
difficult conditions (length of time, lack of lighting, cramped
space, fatigue of polling station staff, departure or exclusion of
mandated representatives), and irregularities were noted, especially
concerning the official reports (incomplete, not signed or not
written on the spot).

We did not observe the transporting of the results to the District
Electoral Offices, nor in most cases, the compiling of results, which
was not generally completed within the legal time limit of 48 hours.

As from this stage when the results were being compiled, observation
was made very difficult by the state of disorder reigning in most of
the District Electoral Offices visited by us.

Starting on the day following the election, we observed deterioration
in the climate in a number of places, with a marked increase in
tensions (candidates arrested, street demonstrations, acts of
violence, police interventions).

The Provisional Electoral Council, the Haitian authorities, political
parties, civil society, all the actors in this electoral process and
the representatives of the international community have a duty to act
in their respective fields of competence to ensure that all the rules
of democracy are guaranteed. The will of all the electors must be
respected.

Port-au-Prince, 27 May 2000

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/