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This
article was first published in www.oas.org
The Organization of American States (OAS) has a longstanding
commitment to help strengthen democracy in Haiti—one of its founding
member countries—and has worked with particular intensity in recent
months to provide support for the elections, the first phase of
which took place on February 7. The OAS member states have stated
unequivocally that free, transparent and participatory elections are
an essential step to bringing about the normalization of democracy
in Haiti.
In recent months, the OAS has worked closely with other
international organizations and stakeholders—including the Haiti
Core Group and the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)—with
the aim of helping the country take this crucial step in its
democratic development.
Here are a few highlights:
• In 2002, the OAS established its Special Mission for Strengthening
Democracy in Haiti, which was charged with reinforcing key
institutions responsible for governance, security, justice and human
rights.
• This effort was expanded last year with the creation of the OAS
Electoral Technical Assistance Program, which supported Haiti’s
Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) in conducting a massive voter
registration drive across the country.
• Through this process, carried out in cooperation with MINUSTAH,
more than 3.5 million Haitians—about 80 percent of eligible
voters—were registered. The electronic database created through this
process will serve as a starting point for a permanent civil
registry in Haiti, a key step in the country’s institutional
development.
• In the weeks leading up to the elections, the OAS worked with the
CEP to ensure that voters could retrieve their identification cards,
and provided additional support to Haiti’s electoral authorities.
• During this electoral process, the OAS has not had the role of an
observer, but rather has provided technical support.
• OAS technical experts designed the software used in the electronic
tabulation of the final results and trained CEP personnel on its
use.
• Once the polls closed on election day, MINUSTAH personnel worked
with CEP authorities to ensure the orderly transfer of paper tally
sheets from voting centers to the national Tabulation Center in
Port-au-Prince. There, OAS experts provided necessary technical
support in the electronic vote tabulation process, thus contributing
to confidence in the reliability and impartiality of the system.
• Both OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and Assistant
Secretary General Albert Ramdin were in Haiti on election day and
witnessed the voting process, which was peaceful with a high voter
turn-out.
• Insulza returned to Haiti the week after the election, when the
results of the presidential race were still uncertain, to support
efforts to seek a peaceful, democratic outcome. After the CEP
declared René Préval the President-Elect, Insulza said the decision
marked "a significant step toward building the country's future on
democracy."
Background
The OAS has been actively engaged in Haiti for more than 15 years.
In the legislative and municipal elections of 2000, its Electoral
Observation Mission reported serious irregularities in the
calculation of some results and suspended its observation activities
before the second round of voting. In the ensuing years, with the
country mired in a political impasse and beset by growing violence,
the OAS sought to foster dialogue and create conditions that would
nurture democracy and human rights.
In January 2002, the OAS Permanent Council adopted Resolution 806,
which called for the establishment of a special mission to Haiti to
help find a solution to the political crisis, within the spirit of
the OAS Charter and the Inter-American Democratic Charter. The
efforts of the OAS Special Mission to Strengthen Democracy in Haiti
have been reinforced since then by various diplomatic initiatives.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also been vigilant
in Haiti in recent years. The Commission conducted an on-site visit
to the country in April 2005, at that country’s invitation, to
gather information about the human-rights situation there. It
reported that “there is an urgent need for greater action on the
part of the international community, and corresponding cooperative
efforts by the government of Haiti, to address the most pressing
issues of insecurity, deficiencies in the justice system, and
fundamental inadequacies in health care, employment, and education.”
With the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February
2004, the OAS urged Haiti’s interim authorities to foster the full
restoration of democracy. A delegation of the OAS Permanent Council
visited Haiti in September 2004 and met with a broad cross-section
of political and social actors. Interim Prime Minister Gérard
Latortue spoke at OAS headquarters in early December 2005, offering
assurances that his government was taking all necessary measures to
ensure a reliable electoral process and to guarantee the Haitian
people a democratic transition. Later that month, Secretary General
Insulza was in Port-au-Prince, where he reviewed preparations for
the elections, then scheduled for January 8.
Given the complexity of Haiti’s internal political situation in
recent years, the international community was particularly dismayed
when Haitian authorities announced a postponement of the elections
just days before the scheduled date. On January 6, the OAS Permanent
Council and the UN Security Council both held special sessions to
examine the situation. Expressing its “grave concern,” the OAS
Permanent Council said, “Ongoing operational and security issues in
no way justify further delay.” It called for a new, definitive date
to be set for the elections, no later than February 7.
Once that date was set for the first round, the OAS and other
participants in the Haiti Core Group—which was created in 2004 under
UN Security Council Resolution 1529 and includes representatives of
the UN, other international organizations and interested
countries—repeatedly underscored the importance of this electoral
process. OAS Assistant Secretary General Ramdin participated, on
behalf of the Secretary General, in a high-level international
mission that visited Haiti January 19-20. The mission assured
Haitians of continued support for a process of democracy and
stability, but stressed that “it is the Haitians themselves who will
have the responsibility and authority to decide how their democracy
and governance can be strengthened.”
March 2006
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