By Kathie Klar­re­ich, Chris­t­ian Sci­ence Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/0318/After-Haiti-earthquake-council-prepares-for-elections-from-Gold-s-Gym

Despite the Haiti earth­quake, Pres­i­dent René Pré­val says the coun­try will hold elec­tions before his term expires next year. Haiti’s elec­tion over­sight body is work­ing on the logis­tics from its makeshift head­quar­ters in Gold’s Gym.

Haiti’s elec­tion over­sight body is in Gold’s Gym a lot, though muscle-toning isn’t on the agenda. The gym is where the pro­vi­sional elec­toral coun­cil (CEP) has been work­ing since the Jan. 12 Haiti earth­quake destroyed its office.

Had the 7.0-magnitude tem­blor not struck, the nine-member presidentially-appointed coun­cil would be final­iz­ing upcom­ing par­lia­men­tary elec­tions. Instead, it is revamp­ing the elec­toral cal­en­dar in the wake of what a Red Cross offi­cial said “may well be the worst nat­ural dis­as­ter ever” in terms of its pro­por­tion­ate impact on one country.

Most of Haiti’s 127 par­lia­men­tar­i­ans will be past their elec­toral man­date this May, and Pres­i­dent René Préval’s term expires Feb. 7, 2011. He is inel­i­gi­ble to run a third time.

Cur­rent debate is swirling over the logis­tics of hold­ing an elec­tion in the dev­as­tated coun­try, and also whether the pres­i­den­tial elec­tions should be held sep­a­rately from those for par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, may­ors, and local and regional representatives.

Pres­i­dent Pré­val has vowed to hold elec­tions within the year. “Elec­tions will hap­pen before I leave office,” he said Wednes­day in an inter­view with the Mon­i­tor. “The cap­i­tal was destroyed, but the rest of the coun­try still works. Whether it’s by elec­tron­ics, elec­toral cards, or dunk­ing your thumb in ink, we have to find a way to hold free, trans­par­ent elec­tions as soon as possible.”

Is an elec­tion feasible?

Even if there is polit­i­cal will to hold elec­tions, prob­lems exist. The earth­quake destroyed 43 per­cent of vot­ing booths in the three affected depart­men­tal regions. Voter reg­is­tra­tion has stopped and many of those who are reg­is­tered no longer live in the same place, as the quake left 1 mil­lion peo­ple home­less and sent many away from Port-au-Prince.

The head of the United Nations elec­toral team charged with logis­tics, tech­ni­cal sup­port, and secu­rity was also killed in the quake. A new team, which has to be trained, just arrived this week.

There is also the ques­tion of pop­u­lar sup­port. Com­plaints about the gov­ern­ment are as com­mon as tent camps in the cap­i­tal. Dis­gusted by what he calls the lack of gov­ern­ment response to the quake, Jean Jacques Hen­rilus, a coor­di­nat­ing mem­ber of one of the largest peas­ant orga­ni­za­tions, says that now is not the time to hold elections.

“The cri­sis is too great,” he says. “Instead of elec­tions we need to put together a coali­tion of rep­re­sen­ta­tives that can man­age the cri­sis, one that can change the man­ner in which this coun­try has been run, reflect­ing a new vision that includes decen­tral­iza­tion and decongestion.”

Inter­na­tional sup­port for an election

Some par­lia­men­tar­i­ans are push­ing for a gov­ern­ing body that would include a regional state coun­cil that would in turn help form a national state coun­cil. The national state coun­cil would, among other things, decide when elec­tions should be held.

The inter­na­tional com­mu­nity seems com­mit­ted to push­ing forth the idea of elec­tions. US Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton, in a joint press con­fer­ence last week dur­ing Préval’s visit to Wash­ing­ton, said she had “assured Pres­i­dent Pré­val that the United States would work with the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity to hold elec­tions as soon as appropriate.”

For some, that means by the end of the year. For oth­ers, like Rodrigue Desire, a Hait­ian national and for­mer US marine, that means never.

“I’d rather have the US be our gov­ern­ment,” he said. “We heard from Obama before we heard from Preval after the quake. My gov­ern­ment has never done any­thing for me, so vot­ing for a new one means nothing.”