Haiti: UN, Core Group Urge “All Necessary Measures” to Hold Elections

Above: Sandra Honore, the Special Representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Haiti (UN Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti’s political actors must take “all necessary measures” in order to advance toward the organization of planned legislative elections in October, the United Nations urged in a statement.

The statement was issued following Haiti President Michel Martelly’s announcement of the formation of a new Provisional Electoral Council, which will be tasked with organizing the long-delayed elections, a development the UN said it had noted.

In a release signed by Sandra Honore, the special representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Haiti and the Core Group, which comprises the Ambassadors of Brazil, Spain, the United States of America, France and the European Union, the Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of Canada, and the Special Representative of the Organization of American States, Haiti’s political actors were urged to continue the dialogue process among all stakeholders “in order to build mutual trust and ensure that transparent and inclusive elections are held in 2014.”

Haiti has tentatively scheduled legislative, municipal and local elections on Oct. 26, 2014; that would be nearly three years after they were initially slated to take place.

“The inability to hold elections this year could lead to the dissolution of Parliament in January 2015, an outcome that Haiti’s partners refuse to contemplate,” the group said. “The members of the Core Group reiterate their support to the electoral process in its financial, technical, logistical and security aspects.”