Haiti Fixes ‘Final and Firm’ Date for Ballot

The government Thursday set balloting for Dec. 27, paving the way for a nationally elected leader to take the reins of power by a Feb. 7 deadline.

The first round of presidential, parliamentary and local balloting was likely to scuttle holiday travel plans for some Haitians, and its timing raised concerns that there might be a pause in ballot counting to observe New Year’s Day, which is also Haiti’s independence holiday. A runoff will follow Jan. 31.

But the long-delayed announcement of an election date was mostly received with feelings of relief: that an end could be in sight to the power struggles and chaos that have lately beset this poorest of Western Hemisphere countries.

Haiti has been without an elected president since former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide went into African exile Feb. 29, 2004. It has also lacked a functioning legislature for four years. Gang violence has devastated the capital’s teeming slums and paralyzed commerce.

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, the retired U.N. official who has been assigned the task of preparing elections, told journalists that the Dec. 27 vote -- already delayed three times -- was “final and firm.”

In the 15 years that democratic elections have been attempted in Haiti, voting has been held on Sundays. But Christmas and New Year’s fall on the first Sundays after election organizers expect to have ballots and ID cards ready, so officials settled on the Tuesday between the two holidays as the last date allowing time to hold and tabulate both rounds and then inaugurate a new president Feb. 7, the end of the current government’s mandate.

The council preparing the vote has forbidden vehicular traffic on election day to lessen the risk of drive-by shootings at the polls. If the vote had been scheduled on a holiday, the driving ban would have kept families from visiting relatives.

“The bigger question is how the counting will be done,” said Wendell Theodore, a commentator for Radio Metropole.

Officials with the U.N. and the Organization of American States say they fear claims of fraud if results are not clear by Jan. 1 and the vote count is suspended for holiday celebrations.

Elections were originally planned for early October, but infighting among the members of the election council, supposed to maintain neutrality, prompted delays, as did squabbles over the eligibility of several high-profile presidential hopefuls. Processing of voter ID cards has also been painfully slow, with most of the 3.3 million registered voters still waiting for their credentials.

Doubts remain whether the new dates will stand. The candidate lists were approved only this week.

Despite the delays, and a 200-year history of despotic rule, Haitians appear eager for another chance to choose their own leaders. The presidential field includes 35 contenders, many of them figures from past regimes.

“I don’t know who are the good ones and which ones are trying to fool us, but we want this vote,” said Dieudonnee Oclore, a 29-year-old cashier.