Sophie Lagueny, IFES chief of party in Haiti, comments on the November election and how Haiti’s election commission, the Conseil Électoral Provisoire (CEP), can improve in the future:

“Some of the main concerns with the Haitian election were the difficulties related to the electoral lists, particularly that many voters did not know in which polling station to find their name and vote. There is no doubt that the CEP must address this problem. For example, the day the electoral lists are officially posted should be the day the call centers and other avenues of communication become officially operational so that people can find out where they should vote. This should not be done a week before polling day as was the case this past November.

Additionally, CEP personnel must be deployed on Election Day to help voters find their names on the lists posted outside the polling centers. It is also important that those manning  the polling stations be qualified enough to help voters find their names on the list as well as neutral enough to resist disenfranchising voters by telling them they are not on the list when they are. At the moment, however, our main concern is whether the difficulties with the voter lists were serious and widespread enough to change the results of the elections.

There is also room for improvement in Haiti’s election system when it comes to political parties and candidates. If they choose to participate in the political process and run for office, they must be responsible, just and honest enough to keep from exploiting the system’s weaknesses and abusing the situation by claiming that ‘massive and widespread’ fraud was committed unless they have sufficient evidence, proof or justification.”