Extensive Voter Intimidation and Fraud in Haitian Elections (Charles Henri Baker)

Port-au-Prince, February 8, 2006. The extent of the voter fraud and intimidation that took place in yesterday’s national elections appears to be much greater and widespread than previous thought.

Because results of the election have not yet been released by the Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP), the Baker campaign will not release its detailed reports of the incidents until after the CEP releases its final tally. However, it is clear from the reports received that there was massive voter fraud and intimidation throughout the country.

The Baker campaign had received dozens of reports of election abuse beginning early Tuesday morning, and the reports of election irregularities continue to stream in. Today, a number of people from the Petion-ville area have brought evidence of voter fraud to the Baker campaign headquarters. This evidence includes many voter registration sheets that had been discarded in the trash near the polling stations. Some voter tally sheets indicate more votes than are registered at the poll. Most of the voter registration and tally sheets do not have the information required by the law.

In a chilling example of voter intimidation, a videotape provided to the campaign shows unidentified men, inside a Petion-ville polling station, instructing voters for whom to vote.

The campaign is compiling its list of “election anomalies” to provide to electoral officials and international election monitoring personnel.

The documentary evidence received by the campaign today is in addition to the testimonial evidence of Baker field representatives. These representatives have reported scores of Election Day illegalities and irregularities, including:

The presence of unauthorized firearms in polling places.
Voter intimidation at gunpoint
Armed men directing voters to vote for Rene Preval.
Restricting access to polling places by accredited Baker campaign representatives
Daylight stealing of ballots, already cast.
Police officers filling out ballots for voters
Unauthorized individuals filling out ballots for voters.
The presence of unauthorized individuals in polling places instructing voters how to vote.
Incomplete voter registration lists
Missing voter registration lists
Unauthorized closing of voting locations
Individuals voting repeatedly at the same location
Voter counts exceeding the maximum number of voters registered in a polling location.