Preliminary reports from IFES observers in Haiti indicate that most of the nation?s polling centers opened late, but that serious crowd control problems at polling sites largely have been avoided.
Voters in Port-au-Prince began queuing outside polling centers in the capital before sunrise. At one polling site, observers said that there were more than 200 people crowded inside the center trying to vote, with an additional 1,000 people waiting outside. Problems with frustrated voters storming voting sites were restricted mainly to Port-au-Prince and Gonaives, Haiti?s third-largest city.
?The people want to vote, but I would say that the way things are organized in these huge voting centers it does not facilitate the vote,? said Vincent De Herdt, IFES Chief Election Observer in Haiti.
Hours after the polls opened, Haitian election officials announced that they would extend voting hours, although they did not set a definite closing time for the polling centers. Initially, the Provisional Electoral Council said they would guarantee that any voter in line at 4 p.m. would have the chance to vote.
IFES observers report that some citizens are confused about where to vote while others cannot find their names on voter lists. De Herdt said this problem could have been remedied if the voter lists had been posted in more public places prior to election day.
In addition, IFES observers report that many polling centers are allowing people to cast ballots in voting centers where they are not officially registered, contrary to the country?s election law. De Herdt says these preliminary findings indicate a lack of organization within the polling centers.
The large amount of time individual voters must spend inside voting sites is contributing to crowd control problems. Each voter is given three ballots naming the candidates running for president and the upper and lower houses of the 129-member National Assembly. For the presidential election alone, voters must read through a ballot listing 35 names.
De Herdt said one positive sign is that political party members are present at almost all the polling centers where IFES is observing, providing an extra layer of scrutiny over the process.
IFES election observers are deployed throughout Haiti as part of an international effort to monitor the country?s first elections since the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Haitians are electing a new president and a 129-member parliament, which will replace the interim government that has governed Haiti for almost two years.
IFES? delegation includes 24 short-term observers who arrived in Port-au-Prince February 2, as well as 10 long term observers who have been in Haiti since Autumn 2005. The IFES observers are part of a 250-member international effort that includes observers from the European Union and the International Mission for Monitoring Haitian Elections ? a coalition of observers from Canada, Latin America, French-speaking countries and Japan. In addition, 36,000 Haitian election observers are taking up their posts around the country.
International and local observers will monitor preparations at more than 800 voting centers, as well as voting procedures and counting on election day. Observers will be checking a variety of polling site procedures including whether the polls open on time, whether voters? fingers are inked and whether election workers check to see that people have not already voted. The findings of the IFES observation team will be compiled and released in a comprehensive report after the elections.
In preparation for the election, IFES? observers took part in an intensive, two-day training in Port-au-Prince that covered topics such as the legal framework for the elections, the electoral process, observer methodology and security. IFES long-term observers conducted additional training when the short-term observers deployed to each of Haiti?s ten regional departments.
Haitians hope the elections will be an important first step toward establishing political and economic stability in the country, which is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Haitian electoral officials repeatedly postponed the election, originally scheduled to be held in 2005, citing technical problems such as registering voters, distributing voter cards and organizing polling centers.
IFES issued two special reports in 2005 that highlighted the problems that required attention by Haitian electoral authorities and the international organizations providing them with technical assistance.