Jacky Lumarque of the Verite Party

The Provisional Electoral Council (PEC), the nine-member institution commissioned to organize free, credible, transparent and inclusive elections in Haiti, has issued yesterday afternoon a press release to inform the population in general and the political parties in particular that Jacky LUMARQUE, the representative of the Verite Party, the party of former President Preval, in the race has been expelled for not having his discharge certificate, a requirement made by the electoral decree in its Article 90 paragraph (h).

The expulsion of Lumarque –from the list of the candidates accredited by the (PEC) to participate in the upcoming presidential election –is too little too late. It is nothing but a farce or intrigue orchestrated by Martelly and Preval to delude or baffle the people’s vigilance and make them believe that the electoral institution can be trusted to equitably fulfill its mission. We are not going to fall for that.

According to Rudolph Boulos, five of the nine members of the council receive their orders directly from Preval. In other words, it is partially controlled by a very influential leader of a political party –the supreme leader of the Verite Party. So we do not trust the institution to organize free, credible, transparent, inclusive and democratic elections in the country.

While the Provisional Electoral Council is at it, while they are cleaning up the house by excluding from the presidential race those candidates not having their discharge certificate, we are asking them not to forget to apply the same rules to these councilmembers –Pierre-Louis Opont, former General Manager of the PEC that had organized the 2010 elections; Marie Carmelle Paul-Austin, former Education Minister; Yolette Menguale and Nehemie Joseph, members of the previous PEC –who too need to have their clearance papers. Their presence in the institution violates Article 90 of the electoral decree. They cannot be enforcing a law which they are not in conformity with. Without their proper discharge papers, they have no business to be in the institution pushing candidates away for lacking the same piece of document as them.

This Provisional Electoral Council has no credibility to organize the elections; it does not inspire trust. We do not trust it to honorably fulfill its mission, which is to organize free, credible, transparent and inclusive elections in the country. We do not feel safe participating in these elections, not when we know that the institution is controlled by rival political parties. We want democratic elections in the country, not a SELECTION where the winners are already decided –without the full participation of the population.