Progress made towards upcoming polls in Haiti
by Vario Sérant
Caribbean Net News Haiti Correspondent
Friday, September 9, 2005
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti: The Haitian Provisional Electoral Council has
achieved two major steps on the way to the upcoming elections.
The council published last Sunday the definitive electoral schedule and a list of political parties allowed to campaign.
According to the calendar, the presidential and legislative polling will take place in two rounds, on November 20 and January 3. The municipal and local election will be held on December 11.
Nearly half of the potential voters,
2,700,000, has been registered so far.
The electoral campaign will be officially opened on October 8. However, many political parties and candidates have been campaigning for many weeks in the countryside.
More than thirty political figures and candidates plan to run for presidency. The group of ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide, who lives in exile in South Africa, has chosen father Gerard Jean Juste as
their presidential candidate. The latter has been in custody since July 21 for his alleged responsibility in the abduction and slaughter of a prominent journalist, Jacques Roche, in mid-July.
A few months ago, many sectors were skeptical about the elections set
for the end of the year, due to a rising wave of violence and kidnapping in Port-au-Prince. In many volatile areas of the Haitian capital, the security situation has improved, subsequently to raids of Haitian and UN security forces and actions of the people who were victimized by gunmen.
But things are still not totally clear. The head of the UN mission in Haiti admitted, in a statement to a Chilean daily September 3,
that Cite Soleil, the biggest slum area of Port-au-Prince, remains a challenge for the blue helmets. Gangs continue to create terror there, said Juan Gabriel Valdes. At the same time, he emphasizes that the UN security forces have globally achieved their goal by preventing the country from dropping in a civil war.
Despite of this apparent lull, some remain skeptical
over the fact that provisional government and the UN mission have not truly resolved the disarmament issue.
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