Overview:
The delay in forming the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) underscores the difficulties confronted by key sectors in Haiti as they wrestle to agree on appointing their representatives to the establishment liable for organizing the subsequent elections. Divisions and disagreements spotlight the broader challenges of coordination and consensus-building among the many varied teams concerned within the preliminary course of.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — The deadline for sectors to nominate representatives to the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) expired on Aug. 26. As of this writing, the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) has solely obtained representatives from three out of the 9 sectors concerned within the course of, underneath the decree of Could 27, 2024. Many of the actors have but to succeed in a compromise for choosing their representatives
Phrases like compromise and settlement maintain little weight in Haiti right now. Societal divisions and quarrels are evident as varied civil society organizations conflict over the elections of their representatives to the CEP, which is tasked with organizing common elections within the nation earlier than February 7, 2026.
To date, solely three of the 9 sectors—Vodou, Episcopal Convention, reformed cults, Haitian College Council, human rights organizations, journalists’ associations, ladies’s rights associations, farmers’ associations, and the commerce union sector—have named their representatives.
The primary three recognized members of the CEP embody Jacques Desrosiers for journalists’ associations, Marie Florence Mahieu for the Haitian College Council, and Patrick Saint-Hilaire for the Episcopal Convention. The CEP ought to comprise 9 members representing an equal variety of civil society sectors.
Efforts to resolve ongoing disputes
Three sectors — journalists’ associations, the Haitian College Council, and the Episcopal Convention — have managed to resolve their disagreements, whereas the opposite six designated sectors proceed to wrestle.
Selections made by the farmers’ associations, human rights organizations, and the commerce union sectors have sparked vital protests from member organizations inside these sectors. Moreover, different sectors, resembling reformed cults, Vodou faith, and girls’s rights advocates, submitted two totally different names every to the presidential council, complicating the work of the CPT members.
Louisette Vertilus, chief of the Platform of Organized Girls for the Growth of Artibonite (PLAFODA), criticized the ladies’s rights group Kay Fanm for making an attempt to dominate the method by appointing one in every of their associates to the CEP with out attaining consensus throughout the sector.
“Kay Fanm tried to create an unique course of by sidelining ladies’s associations and organizations in provincial cities, permitting simply two hours for these associations to elect a consultant, in contrast to these based mostly within the capital,” Vertilus mentioned.
PLAFODA initially challenged the strategy for selecting a consultant from the ladies’s rights sector. After a lot competition, leaders returned to the desk for extra dialogue. But, conflicts stay unresolved.
An analogous state of affairs occurred throughout the human rights organizations. Nonetheless, the Platform of Human Rights Protection Organizations (POHDH), which often dominates the choice course of, withdrew its management to facilitate the involvement of different teams. After intensive negotiations and a postponed election, the organizations concerned lastly agreed on a consultant. The Residents’ Group for a New Haiti (OCNH) carried out an election and picked Gédéon Jean on Aug. 26.
“Up to now, POHDH led this course of, however the context has modified, and OCNH took over,” Jean mentioned on Magik9 radio station following his election. Nonetheless, his alternative has but to be validated by the presidential council attributable to ongoing contestations.
Within the college sector, most actors and leaders have determined to step apart and permit the State College of Haiti (UEH) to run the choice course of on their behalf. That’s how Mathieu was shortly chosen to signify the upper training sector within the CEP.
The consultant of the journalists’ associations was chosen with out sector-wide battle. Nonetheless, the method was not clear. Main media associations, together with the Nationwide Affiliation of Haitian Media (ANMH) and the Affiliation of Unbiased Media of Haiti (AMIH), weren’t concerned however selected to not hinder the method.
With regards to the reformed cults sector, issues stay in dispute. On Aug. 6, two members of the CPT, Edgard Leblanc Fils and Frinel Joseph, met with representatives from the Nationwide Non secular Council of Church buildings (CONASPEH), the Protestant Federation of Haiti (FEPAH), and the Convention of Haitian Pastors (COPAH) to facilitate negotiations, but disagreements persist. A procedural disagreement between COPAH and FEPAH surfaced, additional complicating issues.
“The delay within the invitation letter and the way FEPAH acted don’t encourage confidence,” mentioned members of COPAH in a press launch.
Disputes within the Vodou sector mirror these within the Protestant sector, with a faction of the Nationwide Confederation of Haitian Vodouisants (KNVA) opposing Newton Louis St-Juste’s alternative, alleging he isn’t a reliable member of the faith.
Farmers’ organizations and unions additionally wrestle to pick out their representatives. It’s like a sport of poker: every group desires to win.
Forming the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) is the primary and essential step in advancing Haiti’s electoral course of. Nonetheless, past restoring peace, safety, and order to the nation, the challenges encountered in initiating this step underscore the transitional authorities’s difficulties in adhering to its schedule.
The CPT members proceed to fulfill with varied organizations to facilitate agreements. Nonetheless, it stays to be seen how lengthy they’ll watch for the struggling sectors, on condition that forming the CEP shouldn’t be their solely accountability.