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HAITIAN ELECTORAL COUNCIL MULLS LIST OF CANDIDATES, REVEALS BIAS.

Article Excerpt
With about two months to go before Haitians go to the polls to replace the internationally imposed, widely unrecognized regime that has ruled them since the ouster of their elected president, the field of presidential hopefuls now numbers about 30. The list includes the exiled former President-for-Life Jean Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier (1971-1986) but in late developments has had stricken from it the name of the candidate of the country's major party, Fanmi Lavalas, Gerard Jean-Juste.

The electoral council (Conseil Electoral Provisoire, CEP) has ruled that Jean-Juste is barred from running because he must register his candidacy in person, and, since he has been jailed without charges by the anti-Lavalas interim government (see NotiCen, 2005-09-08) and cannot therefore make it down to the CEP, he is disqualified.

Former Lavalas senator Louis Gerard Gilles said he had shown the CEP a letter from the imprisoned priest authorizing the party to register him, but the council refused to do it. CEP official Jaccillon Barthelemy said Jean-Juste had to show up in person. Gilles countered, "The council has no authority to prevent a candidate from registering. Nothing in the Constitution requires he be present in person."

If the ruling stands, the CEP will have thrown the legitimacy of the election out of the fire and back into the frying pan. The council appeared to have saved the elections from becoming a farce by...

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