PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – President Rene Preval yesterday rejected U.S. Senate proposals for upcoming elections in Haiti and said one of them could even sow “anarchy” in the earthquake-shattered Caribbean country.
Preval, who earlier this week set Nov. 28 as the date for presidential and legislative elections, was responding to a report issued in June by Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The report suggested that Preval let Haiti’s international partners help restructure the eight-member Provisional Electoral Council, which has been accused of bias and currying favour with the president.
It also called for arrangements to ensure the participation of factions within an opposition party loyal to exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which was blocked from participating in 2009 legislative contests because of a dispute over rival candidate lists.
Speaking at a news conference outside the once-ornate national palace, which was severely damaged during Haiti’s Jan. 12 quake, Preval called Lugar’s proposals “unacceptable.”
“I cannot set up an electoral council in consultation with international partners. I do not form an electoral council with international partners. I form the electoral council with national partners,” he said.
He also rejected Lugar’s call for the participation of elements within Aristide’s popular Fanmi Lavalas party in the upcoming elections, saying the party had rightfully been banned from elections last year after rival Lavalas factions submitted competing lists of candidates.
“If we are to strengthen political parties we cannot recognize fractions that exist within them, unless those fractions transform themselves into political parties through the legal channels,” said Preval.
“How can a political party present four or five candidates under the same banner and for the same position,” he asked. “That’s anarchy.”
Preval has repeatedly denied accusations that he handpicked members of the current electoral council and that he was controlling them from behind the scenes.
