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ANOTHER POSTPONEMENT: HAITI WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR A LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT.

Article Excerpt
Haitian elections have once again been postponed. In announcing this fourth postponement (see NotiCen, 2005-08-11, 2005-12-01), the interim government did not set the stage for further embarrassment by announcing new dates. The scuttled presidential election had been set for Jan. 8. Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue made the postponement announcement on Dec. 28. In a follow-up unofficial statement, provisional election council (Conceil Electoral Provisoire, CEP) member Pierre Richard Duchemin explained, "None of the target conditions have been achieved for the country to be ready to hold the elections on Jan. 8. We cannot ask people to go and vote without the conditions being met."

The blame game

Among those unmet conditions, only about a half million of the 3.5 million registered voters have received their electoral identification cards, observer teams have not yet been made up, location of the 800 voting offices has not been determined, 40,000 election workers have not been hired, and prohibitive levels of violence have continued unabated. Duchemin faulted the interim government. "The political conditions are stained with confusion and there is a manifest lack of will by the provisional government to...

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