Haiti parties demand review or suspension of CEP membership verification ‘fiasco’

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti’s political parties are calling on the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to suspend or review its membership-verification process, which they say is rejecting valid identification numbers and placing some members on the lists of parties they never joined. The complaints are adding to concerns about the CEP’s ability to complete the verification process and keep the Dec. 13 election timetable on track.

The dispute centers on the requirement that political parties and coalitions prove that they have at least 30,000 affiliate members before they can register for the elections, Haiti’s first national vote in a decade.

For one, the Fusion of Haitian Social Democrats (FUSION), led by former Senator Edmonde Supplice Beauzile, said in an Aug. 27 statement that its members had encountered problems during verification.

“Several hundred FUSION members have already had their data rejected, their NINU [Unique National Identification Number] declared invalid, or been flagged as already registered with another political party,” the party representative said.

FUSION claimed that some of the affected members include coordinators, members of its general secretariat and members of its executive directorate who had never authorized another political affiliation.

The party also said identification numbers rejected by the CEP system were recognized as valid by the National Identification Office (ONI). It called for the publication of the CEP-ONI validation protocol and sanctions for anyone found to have fraudulently used voters’ personal data.

The allegations come as the CEP works to verify about 3.15 million political affiliations — 30,000 members for each of the 105 parties and coalitions cleared to participate in the elections.

The verification process began after candidate registration opened on Aug. 20. The CEP initially set Oct. 2 as the deadline for completing the process but has extended it to Oct. 14, according to a Sept. 2 note from the electoral council.

As of Aug. 31, only nine of the 105 political organizations had submitted the required membership lists, according to some actors involved in the process and local reports. The list includes the VIKTWA (Victory) platform, led by former Prime Minister Jean-Henry Céant and comprising allies of the transition government; the Ayiti Transfòme coalition, led by former provisional President Jocelerme Privert and the Haitian Christian Democratic Party (PDCH), led by Mathias Pierre — a former delegate minister for electoral affairs.

The CEP has not publicly said how many parties have met the 30,000-member requirement.

The electoral council is scheduled to publish a preliminary list of registered candidates by Sept. 17, while online registration is set to close Sept. 3.

Parties question CEP handling of process

The complaints extend beyond parties that say their members have been rejected. 

Les Engagés pour le Développement (EDE), led by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph, said Aug. 31 that it had submitted its membership list but continued to question the CEP’s management of the online process.

“The difficulties observed in implementing the online registration phase for members of political organizations reinforce the concerns already expressed by EDE regarding the CEP’s operational control of the process,” Joseph said in a statement posted on X.

The Forum of Nine Political Coalition has also alleged that national identification data may have been obtained from financial institutions and government agencies without members’ knowledge. The group has not publicly provided evidence supporting the claim.

Clarens Renois, a journalist and leader of the National Union for Integrity and Reconciliation (UNIR), said some of his party members who have belonged to the organization for more than a decade discovered that their identification numbers had been associated with other political groups they have never affiliated with.

“We cannot register candidates for the time being because the issue of the 30,000 members remains unresolved,” Renois said.

Election timetable under pressure, security remains a focal point

The membership dispute adds another challenge to an electoral process already facing security and logistical problems.

A deadly gang attack in Kenscoff on Aug. 23-24 killed at least 47 people, including five children, and left dozens abducted, according to the United Nations. The attack prompted an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting and renewed calls for the rapid deployment of the Gang Suppression Force (GSF).

The U.N. also reported that at least 1,408 people were killed and 656 injured from April through June, with gang attacks accounting for more than half of the casualties.

Those conditions have raised questions about whether the Dec. 13 timetable can be maintained. EDE leaders said complying with the membership-verification requirement does not mean it considers the December election date realistic, citing unresolved political, security, technical and operational concerns. The party has projected that elections may have to move into 2027.

The Haitian government said it met with political parties and coalitions from Aug. 23 to 30 to discuss technical and operational problems and difficulties in applying provisions of the electoral decree. The government said it asked the CEP to address concerns raised during the consultations.

Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said the government remains committed to elections that meet standards of transparency, fairness, legality and public trust.

“The government reaffirms it intends to continue its efforts to ensure that the electoral process meets democratic standards and serves the best interests of the nation,” Fils-Aimé said in a statement on Aug. 31.

Still, many observers said, for Haiti’s electoral process to remain on schedule, the CEP must resolve the membership-verification dispute, establish confidence in the integrity of the data, address technical failures and complete the remaining administrative steps while security forces work to create conditions in which voters can safely participate.

Without those conditions, several political leaders added, the 30,000-member requirement risks becoming more than an administrative hurdle. It could become another obstacle to Haiti’s already fragile election timetable.

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