Foreign Affairs committee  We can't really classify it into a category. I must say that in Haiti we have a lot of sore losers.

Foreign Affairs committee  There we have two types. One is the tally, the number of votes, but since it was an open process, everybody had a copy of the reports. They come, and we take them to the tabulation centre and show them precisely that what we post on the Internet is a reflection of the actual vote.

Foreign Affairs committee  In the first round of elections we had 63%, and in the second round of the legislative elections we had 31%, actually 30.86%. Mind you, the way you should compare it is to look at past second rounds for legislative elections in Haiti. We never went beyond 15%. This time we reached 31%, so I think to that extent it was a success.

Foreign Affairs committee  On the corruption point, let me say that I was put in charge of organizing elections, but I'm not really an election expert. Believe it or not, I'm primarily an international banker and an economist. I can tell you that I have travelled to a lot of third world countries, and I consider corruption as the cancer of third world countries.

Foreign Affairs committee  If I may, I will answer the second question first. The registration of the voters was stopped voluntarily because we had to stop somewhere to be able to build a list. Once we complete the municipal elections, then we can go ahead and restart registration. We have the technology.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would like it to remain a permanent facility. The building where the tabulation centre is located belongs to the government. In fact, the whole industrial park where we are belongs to the government. To that extent, I think it's easier to keep it as a permanent facility. All the equipment is there.

Foreign Affairs committee  What I'm saying is that, frankly, when I joined the CEP I was so concentrated on having elections that it is only now that I'm starting to think about the future and how we're going to be able to keep all these facilities, all this knowledge, and the transfer of knowledge from the OAS to Haiti.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, I do hope we will be able to keep it. That's going to be my recommendation to the government upon my return to Haiti on June 4. That's one of the things I'm supposed to do. I have personally already taken steps to make it permanent, but in the final analysis, it's not my decision; it's the decision of the government.

Foreign Affairs committee  What we did for this election was combine them by function. So for instance, for president, all the presidents were on one ballot--but different political parties. You have to realize that we had about 45 political parties participating, so the ballots were pretty good. But in the second round, where we reduced the number of candidates for deputy to only two, the ballots were about the size of a sheet of paper.

Foreign Affairs committee  With respect to the blank ballots, the election writ is somewhat unclear. On the one hand there is a subjective interpretation of the definition of a blank ballot and on the other hand what the writ says to that effect, which is not very clear. If you look at the section of the writ of election which deals with unmarked ballots, you will see that it states that all ballots marked with an X or any other sign unequivocally indicating the voter's intention to vote in the space (circle, photo, emblem) reserved for the candidate are valid and accounted for.

Foreign Affairs committee  Disclosure?

Foreign Affairs committee  We tried to modernize elections in Haiti. We created a broadcasting centre. Each day, the centre would broadcast election results, aside from what we published on the Internet. It just so happened that on that day I was the only one announcing results. The tally for Mr. Préval had fallen to 49.7%.

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely. I must tell you that there were some places where problems occurred, and that is precisely why we held new elections in 14 for some members' ridings as well as new elections for senators from the North East.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think we have to specify what we're talking about because the subject is open to debate and discussion. I believe that we have to distinguish between the electoral machine and the administrative council overseeing everything. In Haiti, we need an electoral machine that is capable of technically and scientifically run elections.

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely. In fact, even for municipal elections, which are going to be held in two or three months, we will be setting up the same machine. The same national identity card is going to be used, the same system will be used, the same voters' partial list will be used as well. What we need now is to consolidate our achievements.