News from Haiti

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Voter Registration Lists Found in Trash at Ecole Alfred Vieux, Petion-Ville (Charles Henri Baker)

Port-au-Prince, February 9, 2006. Stacks of voter registration lists were found discarded in trash containers behind the Ecole Alfred Vieux in Petion-ville, after Tuesday's elections. The voter registraton lists should have been marked by an election official with unique voter ID numbers before an individual voted and then returned to the Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP) after the election. The lists, with the voter ID numbers, were the only control to ensure that voters did not vote repeatedly during Tuesday's election. Many individuals went to their designated polling stations only to be told that their names were not on the list. In some cases, there were no lists at the polling places. According to some reports, when a list was not avaialble, voters were told that they could vote anywhere.