UN official confirms Haitian vote date

UN Special Representative to
Haiti Juan Gabriel Valdez
speaks during a press
conference 16 January, 2006
in Buenos Aires to announce
that the first round of the
elections in Haiti will be held
7 February. AFP PHOTO/
Juan MABROMATA

Wednesday,  January 18, 2006

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP): Special UN envoy to Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdes, confirmed Monday that presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in Haiti on February 7.

Haiti's interim government picked the new election date earlier this month after coming under international pressure for postponing the vote a fourth time.

"I repeat: there will be elections," Valdes told reporters in Buenos Aires.

"The technical and political requirements have been met, and there is no reason to postpone them," he said.

The envoy spoke after a meeting with Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana as well as the deputy foreign ministers of Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Guatemala and Ecuador that was dedicated to Haiti's election calendar.

According to an announcement made in Port-au-Prince on January 7, the first round of presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in Haiti on February 7.

A runoff is scheduled for March 19. The president-elect is due to take office on March 29.

Valdes expressed hope that at least 80 percent of voter cards will have been distributed to Haiti's 3.5 million registered voters for the vote.

Scheduled initially for November 15, 2005, the vote has been successively postponed to November 20, December 27 and January 8.

The postponements were justified by technical reasons such as problems with the distribution of voter cards and identification of polling places.

Thirty-four candidates, including one woman, are running for president, while 1,300 people are contesting 130 parliamentary seats.

Violence has rocked Haiti since former president Jean Bertrand Aristide fled the impoverished Caribbean nation on February 29, 2004 in the face of a popular rebellion.

Valdes pointed out that regardless of which political party will prevail in the upcoming election, the international community will support "stability, consensus, tolerance and democratic practices."

A return to the past will no be tolerated, he added.

The UN envoy expressed solidarity with the Haitian people, who he said have to face armed gangs, drug traffickers "as well as those who believe they can defend their interests only with violence."

"This meeting should be interpreted in Haiti as an appeal by the people of Latin America to peace and calm so that we could go through this process in the spirit of clarity and constructivism and avoid having it tarnished by suspicions and complaints," Valdes stressed.

Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American Sates who also took part in the meeting, pointed out the international community had invested a lot of effort "in the indispensable development process" in Haiti.

Meanwhile, Argentine Defense minister Nilda Garre warned that election day in and of itself does not guarantee a stable future and urged the international community to do more for "the process of security and reconstruction" in Haiti.

  Back...

  Most popular articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed

  Printable version