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                          HAITI PROGRES
                 "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                       * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                          May 10 - 16, 2006
                            Vol. 24, No. 9

AS NEW PARLIAMENTARIANS ARE ANNOUNCED AND SWORN IN:
RUN-OFF ELECTION DISPUTES CONTINUE AROUND HAITI

Although Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced winners
of the April 21, 2006 legislative run-off elections on May 8, dozens of
candidates that lost their bid for Senate and Deputy seats continue to
demand new votes in several districts, charging fraud and
irregularities.

The Senate candidate for the West Department of Serge Gilles' social
democratic Fusion party, Marie Denise Claude, claims that there was
massive fraud at several voting centers around the capital,
Port-au-Prince. Finishing in fourth place according to final CEP
results, Claude charges that most of the irregularities took place in
Building 2004, where Cité Soleil residents voted. (Cité Soleil, Haiti's
largest and poorest slum, was a stronghold for former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.) Claude is calling for the vote at this center
to be reheld and for a recount at the other centers where she charges
there was fraud.

Fusion's candidate for deputy from the southern district of
Port-au-Prince, Yolette Mengual, accuses her victorious rival from
President-elect René Préval's Lespwa party, Jean Myrtil Clédor, of
having bribed voters and members of electoral offices to fix the vote in
his favor. Mengual is backed in her protest by the "Network of Women
Candidates to Win," which is affiliated with the USAID-supported Haitian
Coalition of Women Leaders (COHFEL). Mengual, who garnered only 24% of
the vote to Clédor's 76%, has called for annulment of that district's
election.

Also in the West department, the losing candidates for the
Fonds-Verettes/Ganthier district near Croix des Bouquets, which was won
by MODEREH's P. Jude Destiné with 20% of the vote, have marched in front
of the CEP's headquarters to denounce what they claim was massive fraud
on April 21.

On the island of La Gonâve, the candidate for deputy of Evans Paul's
Alyans party, Marie Ginette Galliotte, charged that there were flagrant
irregularities. She said she was the victim of sexual discrimination and
is calling for a new vote.

In the Artibonite, partisans of the Senate candidate of Leslie Manigat's
Assembly of National Progressive Democrats (RDNP), Willy Jean-Baptiste,
called for annulment of the vote in certain districts. They even held
protests blocking the southern entry to the city of Gonaives to show
their anger. However, one would expect Jean-Baptiste to simply concede
the race because Manigat, to protest the CEP's ruling that Préval won in
the first round where RDNP placed a distant second, asked all his party'
s candidates to withdraw from their races.

Similar cries of foul are coming from Fusion's candidate for Deputy for
the district of Marchand-Dessalines, Wouldi Simon. He claims that voters
and his poll watchers were brutalized by supporters of Jean Pressoir
Dort, his adversary from Youri Latortue's Artibonite in Action party
(LAAA) who won with 56% of the vote. In Desdunes, the candidate for
Deputy of the Struggling Peoples Organization(OPL), Beaudelaire
Noelsaint, has accused a local group called Base 32, which supported the
Fusion's winning candidate Levaillant Louis-Jeune, of mistreating his
partisans and preventing them from voting for him. He is calling for
annulment of the vote.

In the Northwest department, the Senate candidate of the Bridge party
(PONT), Evalliere Beauplan, placed second with 39.42% of the vote,
thereby winning a four-year Senate term. But he rejected the CEP's
results which proclaimed Alyans' Eddy Bastien victor with 41.56% of the
vote, which nets a six-year seat. Beauplan says he has evidence to prove
fraud and has called for cancellation of the elections at certain voting
centers, like that in Saint Louis du Nord.

Meanwhile, the MIRN's candidate for Deputy for the district of Jean
Rabel, André Joseph, called the CEP to carry out a serious investigation
before publishing its final election results. Joseph accuses Gerard
Théramene, his adversary from the party Konba, of having his partisans
stuff ballot boxes.

In the Southeast department, one of Lespwa's Senate candidates, Frantz
Large, curiously came in fourth after having placed second in the first
round. "The people in charge of the polling stations stuffed the ballot
boxes in favor of other candidates," Large declared. "In communes like
Belle-Anse, Thiotte and Cayes-Jacmel, the number of the citizens who
voted is much greater than the number of people registered." At least
Large brings verifiable charges. Two other Lespwa candidates - Joseph
Lambert and Laurent Féquiere Mathurin - won the first and second Senate
seats for the Southeast. The OPL's Ricard Pierre, who finished well
behind Large in the first round, won third place.

In the Nippes department, Anglade Jacob, one of Lespwa's Senate
candidates, accused CEP secretary general Rosemond Pradel and director
general Jacques Bernard of carrying out under the table maneuvers which
favored Fusion's candidate, Huguette Lamour, who finished third,
securing a two-year Senate seat. Jacob is protesting his fourth place
finish, which denies him any Senate seat. Another Lespwa candidate,
Nenel Cassy, finished in first place, winning a six-year Senate seat.

Frantz André Féquiere, the ADEBAH's candidate for deputy for
Anse-B-Veau, has also called for new elections in his district, charging
fraud which favored Fusion's candidate Frantz Robert Mondé, who got 62%
of the vote.

In Haiti's westernmost Grande Anse department, the police arrested Sorel
Yacinthe, Fusion's candidate for Deputy for the district of
Moron/Chanbellan. They charge that he assassinated a Lespwa partisan.
However, according to the CEP's partial results, it seems the accused
murderer is winning the race with 52% of the vote.

As one can see, there are no shortage of disputes, and unfortunately
some which might be very justified will be lumped together with
frivolous challenges and dishonest maneuvers. Despite the jostling, the
fact remains: Préval's Espwa party is far from having a majority in
either house of the Parliament.

On May 8, the Haitian state's official journal, Le Moniteur, published
the official results of the run-offs for 27 of 30 senators and 86 of 99
deputies. The elected rushed the same day to the "newly renovated"
Legislative Palace to register for Haiti's 48th Legislative session.

The registration process continued on May 9, and the new
parliamentarians also prepared to hold their first National Assembly.
Three Senate seats and thirteen lower house seats are still vacant
because of the vote was annulled in thirteen districts in the Northeast
department for obvious cases of irregularities and fraud.

The Deputy elected from Maissade, Willio Joseph, had been arrested and
imprisoned in January on charges of stealing cars and criminal
conspiracy. But a judge set him free, and he was sworn into the
Parliament.

Meanwhile, the vice-president of the Parliament's Maintenance
Commission, Alix Richard, said that there is still a great deal of
renovation work to be done on the Legislative Palace, which means that
the new legislators will be working in less than ideal conditions.

Préval is scheduled to be sworn in before the Parliament on the morning
of May 14.

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Please credit Haiti Progres.