(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The CARICOM Special Representative for Haiti, Former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson has called for the international community to allow Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to rule on the disputed first round of Presidential elections in that Caribbean nation.

Despite the approach of the constitutional end of President Preval’s term in office on February 7, Patterson counseled that “all interested parties, in Haiti, the Diaspora, Organisation of American States (OAS) and the International Community… take no premeditated position or engage in any rigid posture that may appear to exert undue pressure on those vested with the competence and authority to decide the election processes.”

Mr. Patterson who has consistently been an advocate for full and untrammeled Haitian self-rule, reiterated that: “This is no time for unilateral action or a preemptive strike by those who are admittedly sincere and eager to see Haiti succeed.” He reaffirmed that the international community’s “generous levels of support are both essential and urgently needed for the exercise of a total rebuilding of the impoverished Nation.”

Mr. Patterson was making his remarks at a conference organized by the Jamaica Stock Exchange on “rebuilding Haiti”. Despite the slow pace of reconstruction, the cholera epidemic, the electoral crisis, the recent troubling return to Haiti of former dictator, Jean Claude Duvalier and the cholera epidemic, Mr Patterson suggested that CARICOM had no option but to continue to put its full weight behind the Haiti. The people of Haiti have suffered too much for too long and deserve no less.

In focusing on the election issue, the former Prime Minister reminded the conference that Haiti must be spared from an escalation of political tension which could trigger violent protests or confrontation on the streets.

He continued that “It is therefore the more regrettable that Haiti is already exposed to the danger of increasing turbulence in the course of political transition. This has been further aggravated by the precipitous return of a cruel and corrupt Dictator, Jean Claude Duvalier, to the Haitian soil, who should be confronted by the full force of the law and thereby enable the ends of justice to be duly served.”

The Office of the Special Representative has recently led technical discussions aimed at assisting Haiti to strengthen its institutions undertake priority activities such as rubble removal to speed up the recovery process. The Office has also been working to encourage private sector involvement in the recovery and development processes and to this end is spearheading work on the creation of a special fund to facilitate private sector investments in Haiti.

Contact Clare Forrester, (876) 289-1028; 970-4250, antoye@yahoo.com

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org