rpcv petition to secretary clinton on haiti elections

8/8/2019 RPCV Petition to Secretary Clinton on Haiti Elections

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As Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, we believe strongly in the second goal of Peace Corps: the promotion of a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served. Acommitment to freedom and democracy is a shared value for Americans, and we believe it isimportant to promote an understanding of this commitment throughout the world. We thereforeurge our government to ensure that Haitis upcoming elections are free, fair and inclusive.***********************************************************************Secretary Hillary R. ClintonSecretary of StateU.S. State Department2201 C Street NWWashington DC 20520

October 8, 2010

Dear Madame Secretary,

We, the undersigned individuals, are writing to urge the U.S. government to work withthe Haitian government and international partners to ensure that Haitis upcomingelections are free, fair and inclusive.

Haitis Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has scheduled parliamentary and presidentialelections for November 28th of this year, elections postponed due to the devastatingJanuary 12 earthquake. We are deeply concerned that the CEP has barred more than adozen political parties from presenting candidates in the elections without serious

justification. We are also dismayed to note that, as yet, no serious measures appear tohave been taken to guarantee that the over one million Haitians that have been displaced

by the earthquake will be able to vote. The United States government has committedimportant funding to these elections and is playing a key role within the OAS Group of Friends of Haiti to assist with the electoral process; it therefore has a real responsibility tomake certain that these elections serve to strengthen Haitis fragile democracy rather thanfurther undermine it.

Current Challenges to the Electoral Process

Haiti currently faces three major challenges relating to the upcoming elections: alegitimacy crisis for the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP); the exclusion of a number of political parties from the electoral process; and the ability to provide voter identitycards and access to the polls for all eligible voters, particularly those displaced by theearthquake.

The CEP the state authority in charge of organizing and controlling electoral processes currently has limited constitutional legitimacy or credibility in Haiti because: a) theCEP was established through a process not recognized by the Haitian Constitution; b) ithas announced the unjustified exclusion of more than a dozen parties from the November 28, 2010 elections; c) the current CEP is rocked by scandals, with one member resigningthis month in the face of corruption charges.


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The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) reported in April 2010 that,giving the mandate of organizing the upcoming elections to the current CEP wouldmean that the electoral process will be considered flawed and questionable from the

beginning. Haitian voters and political organizations from across the political spectrumas well as important actors in the international community, including Senator Richard

Lugar of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and IFES, consider that a new CEPshould be established as they consider that the Councils actions and currentcontroversies demonstrate an inability to conduct fair, inclusive elections. Nevertheless,President Prval continues to insist that the current CEP run the scheduled elections.

A second major concern is the exclusion of more than a dozen parties from the electoral process, including Haitis most popular party Fanmi Lavalas (FL). As was the case inApril of 2009, in which fewer than 10% of the electorate turned out to vote, the continuedexclusion of electoral candidates will undermine the legitimacy of the upcoming

November elections and could lead to political and social unrest that could greatly hinder Haitis reconstruction and development plans, and imperil U.S. investments in Haiti.

Representatives of the United Nations and the Organization of American States objectedto the CEPs exclusions of political parties from the elections in April 2009 and the U.S.Embassy in Haiti stated that under the law, elections should involve all major parties...An election based on the exclusion... will inevitably question the credibility of electionsin Haiti among donors and friends of Haiti. However, despite this strong criticism, theUS government provided significant funding for the electoral process and chose torecognize the election outcome.

We are also concerned by the lack of effective measures underway to guarantee that thehundreds of thousands of eligible voters among the over 1.5 million people displaced bythe earthquake are assured the identification cards ( Cartes didentit nationale CINs)required for voting as well as reliable and uncomplicated access to the polls on electionday. We are encouraged to learn that the OAS committed to providing 850,000 CINs tonew voters and the many Haitians who lost their cards in the earthquake.

However, we note with dismay that no plan has yet been implemented for the enormousand complex task of providing CINs to the hundreds of thousands of Haitians who needthem. It is imperative that in the coming weeks mobile teams be dispatched to IDPcamps and remote rural areas so as to distribute these cards effectively in time for the

November elections.

Furthermore, there is no indication that plans are underway to make voting centersgenuinely accessible to those in IDP camps. As the IFES has stated, polling centers needto located near IDP camps and transportation must be provided for those who cannoteasily access the centers. Notwithstanding these measures, many of those most affected

by the earthquake will suffer the additional injustice of being disenfranchised in one of the most important electoral processes of their lives. Recommendations


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First number designates year of entry, second number indicates membership to first or second group of that year:

1. David Garfunkel 07-022. Kaveh Azimi 06-02

3. Stephanie Brewer 08-014. Jennifer Taylor 08-015. Renata Sancken 08-016. Michal Gutowski 08-017. Keane Bhatt 08-018. Peter Mach 08-019. Arianna Baseman 08-0110. Patrick Davis 07-0211. Chris Ward 08-0112. Ryan Stock 07-0113. Katherine Tuider 07-02

14. Taylor Joyal 08-0115. Amy Martin 08-0116. Maayan Melamed 07-0217. Neal Riemer 06-0118. Maryam Toossi 07-0219. Beth Plewa 07-0220. Iris Laurencio 06-0121. Asahi Wada 08-0122. Tim Brown 08-0123. Joel Alex 08-0124. Jennifer Bailey 08-0125. Ryan Schweitzer 06-0226. Danny Wilson 07-0227. Adrienne Gilbert 06-0228. Claudette Banda 07-0229. Benjamin Berry 07-0230. Katherine Valle 08-0131. Lily Mendelson 07-0232. Andrea Pestone 04-0233. Bobby Lehman 07-0234. Jonathan Santiago 06-0235. Joanna Carman 07-0236. Dilana Pickett Martinez 07-0237. Charley Requadt 07-0238. Joan Perreault 06-0239. Erin Kirkbride 06-0240. Jennifer Goode 07-0241. Gerda Stefanovic 07-0242. Megan Rounesville 06-0243. Emily Marchese 07-02


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90. Courtney Briar Pichardo 05-0291. Samantha Wapnick 05-0192. Michelle Sutton 06-0193. Drew Rabidoux 05-0294. Michael Menelli 06-01

95. Tilden Keller 05-0296. Tommy Ventre 05-0197. Elizabeth Bougher Garcia 05-0198. Van Smith 04-0299. Lisa Wiggleton 05-02100. Greg Mitchell 04-02101. Jill Higgins 04-01102. Joseph Blotnick 04-01103. Katie Galvin 05-01104. Rebecca Anderson 06-01105. Callie Simon 05-02

106. Jenny Galasso 06-01107. Helen Mao 06-01108. Adam W. Matteson 06-01109. Angela Bennett 04-02110. Brandon K. Betty 05-01111. Dawn O. Phillips 06-01112. Charles R. Phillips 06-01113. Katie Devine 06-02114. Alexis Loerke 05-02115. Lisa Daugherty 03-02116. Yee Chen 05-02117. Yuriko de la Cruz 04-02118. Stacey Ngo 07-02119. Megan R Drake-Pereyra 06-02120. Kate Cavallin 07-02 CC: Paul Farmer, Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti, United NationsCheryl Mills, Chief of Staff, Secretary of State Hillary ClintonMichael Posner, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor,US Department of StateJulissa Reynoso, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central American and Caribbean Affairs,US Department of StatePaul Weisenfeld, Haiti Task Team Coordinator, USAID

rpcv petition to secretary clinton on haiti elections

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