Publisher's Synopsis
The electoral process in Haiti is fully centralized. Although there is a Permanent Electoral Council charged to maintain and enforce voting standards for the country, the central government monitors and finances the organization of elections, bars candidates and political parties from participating in elections, rejects and excludes natives who leave the country for longer than five years, and schedules dates and fixes criterion of eligibility. Such a system is inconsistent with the basic concepts of participative democracy as well as that of decentralized institutions. It promotes uniformity instead of diversity in the electoral system, presents one single point of failure, and facilitates electorate fraud. This study describes the electoral process in Haiti and how it suppresses political freedoms and subdues civil liberties. It provides an overview of the Permanent Electoral Council as well as the powers of the Presidents of the Republic as it relates to their involvements in the electoral process.
