Haiti: More than $30 million still needed for elections | Miami Herald

A top U.S. official stunned some Washington lawmakers Wednesday with testimony that Haiti needs as much as $50 million to carry out successful elections this year. The declaration during a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Western Hemisphere hearing comes just three weeks before Haiti is scheduled to hold the first of three critical elections. “There is a fairly good chance (the election) will happen,” Thomas Adams, the State Department’s special coordinator for Haiti, said about the scheduled Aug. 9 elections to restore Haiti’s parliament. “But there are still a few issues left. One is a lack of funding.”

Haiti: OAS pleased with preparations for elections in Haiti | Jamaica Observer

Outgoing Assistant Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin says he has been assured by Haitian authorities that elections will be held in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country as schedule. Ramdin, who visited Port au Prince last week, said the three rounds of elections will begin on August 9 for a new parliament with more than 2,000 candidates. “The issue with the candidates who are not approved to take part in the presidential elections that is a domestic issue that is on the basis on rules and regulations which Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has insisted on and we have no say in that,” he told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). Among those barred from the polls is former prime minister Laurent Lamothe, who had hoped to succeed President Michel Martelly.

Haiti: Elections loom: Haiti’s year of living dangerously | AFP

After three years of delayed polls and simmering political unrest, Haiti’s rusty electoral machinery is finally grinding into gear. By the end of the year, the impoverished Caribbean republic ought to have a newly elected president, parliament and local municipal governments — a test for any developing nation. Haitians have not been able to vote in an election since popular singer Michel Martelly won the presidency in a controversial 2011 poll. Since then, presidential nominees have replaced elected mayors in many towns and the Senate and House of Representatives have shrunk away. But the long delay has not dampened the ambition of Haiti’s political elite.

Haiti: Elections clouded by turbulence and uncertainty | Financial Times

Judging by the multitude of spray-painted names of political parties and candidates on walls across Port-au-Prince, there is no deficit of democracy in modern Haiti. As the country heads towards an intense election season in the second half of this year, some ask instead whether there is a little too much. Diversity in viewpoints is seen as a welcome change for most Haitians, many of whom remember the ruthless suppression of political opponents and of freedom of speech in the second half of the last century under the presidency of “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son “Baby Doc”, who died last year.

Haiti: Interim Prime Minister Named As Election Deadline Nears | Bloomberg

Haitian President Michel Martelly named the minister of health as interim prime minister as he seeks to break an impasse triggered by a new election law. Public Health and Population Minister Florence Duperval Guillaume, a physician who has overseen the country’s response to a cholera epidemic that has sickened more than 700,000 people, will take over immediately, the secretary of the council of ministers, Enex Jean-Charles, said in a statement. She will hold the post for a maximum of 30 days.

Haiti: Protesters rally in capital demanding vote | Associated Press

A few thousand protesters allied with Haiti’s opposition marched through the capital on Sunday demanding the chance to vote in legislative and local elections that are three years late, among other grievances. Placard-waving demonstrators started their rally in the downtown slum of Bel Air, burning piles of rum-soaked wood and holding up their voting cards to show they were ready to cast ballots. Some carried placards showing the bespectacled image of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is confined to his home in a Port-au-Prince suburb amid a war of wills with a Haitian judge investigating corruption allegations against him. Earlier this year, President Michel Martelly called for legislative and municipal elections overdue since late 2011 to take place on Sunday. But the vote has been postponed due to an ongoing stalemate over an electoral law between the government and six opposition senators.

Haiti: Long-delayed election likely postponed again | AFP

As Haiti prepared Tuesday to bury a former dictator who had little use for elections, it seemed all but certain that a long-delayed legislative vote due later this month will again be postponed. And, on the week that former strongman Jean-Claude Duvalier’s death revived memories of Haiti under dictatorship, observers warned this could leave the country’s current leader free to rule the impoverished Caribbean nation by decree. Four years after a sudden massive earthquake devastated the Haitian capital, the streets of Port-au-Prince are again bustling with working people struggling to get by, but there is no sign of any political campaign.