US diplomatic cables reveal international community supported disputed elections in Haiti

Diplomatic cables recently released by Wikileaks reveal that the United States and international community supported elections in Haiti realizing that they were problematic and excluded opposition parties. In a June 23, 2009 cable a US ambassador reported that Haiti had recently seen historically low parlaimentary elections, with only one or two ballots cast at some polling stations.

Most estimated voter turnout at or below the eleven percent registered during the first round of elections April 19, a phenomenon attributable in part to low interest in these purely legislative elections and modest voter education efforts by Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP). Observers reported that many polling stations in the Port-au-Prince area at the 4:00 PM closing time had only one or two ballots cast in addition to those of the pollworkers and pollwatchers.

It attributed the low turnout to the exclusion of opposition parties on the ballot, and death threats warning voters to stay away from the polls.

The exclusion of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party from these elections may have also modestly reduced turnout, especially given that flyers threatening prospective voters again circulated before the second round of balloting. The week before the election, MINUSTAH detected at least two leaflets on the streets warning voters to stay home on election day and threatening them with death should they venture out. One of the leaflets warned voters that the ballots had been printed in Mexico (note: by law, they are printed in Haiti) where they had been impregnated with the deadly swine flu virus.

A December 4, 2009 cable revealed a meeting discussing upcoming Haitain presidential elections between representatives of the United Nations, European Union, Spain, Brazil, and the US. They agreed to support the elections despite the decision to exclude former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's opposition party Fanmi Lavalas once again. The European Union ambassador was quoted saying, "the international community has too much invested in Haiti's democracy to walk away from the upcoming elections, despite its imperfections." The story was broken by Haiti Liberte, who were granted an advance look at the Wikileaks documents.

All agreed that Preval and the CEP would not to go back on their decision to exclude Lavalas and others. The EU representative noted that the international community has too much invested in Haiti's democracy to walk away from the upcoming elections, despite its imperfections. Ambassador Merten argued for meeting with the CEP and Preval to hold them accountable for the transparency of the electoral process, and then supporting a robust election observation effort that will put additional pressure on the GOH to conduct a transparent election. The EU opined that Preval would not respond to donor pressure, and advocated instead going directly to the media to express donor dissatisfaction with the exclusion of Lavalas and calling for the GOH to be more transparent in the conduct of these elections than they have been up until now.