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OAS HAILS AGREEMENT TO SUPPORT THE ORGANIZATION OF GENERAL ELECTIONS IN HAITI

  January 17, 2005

UNITED NATIONS
United Nations
Stabilization Mission In Haiti

MINUSTAH
NATIONS UNIES
Mission des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en Haïti


PIO/PR/78/2005
PRESS RELEASE


Port-au-Prince, 17 January 2005 – The Acting Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Ambassador Luigi R. Einaudi, welcomed the signing, in Port-au-Prince on Monday, January 10, of a $US44 million global agreement as part of a project to support the organization of general elections in Haiti in 2005. The agreement was signed by the Haitian Government, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Ambassador Einaudi underscored “the strong collaboration among his organization, the United Nations, the CEP, and the Haitian Government, as well as the other partners in the international community, whose combined efforts were a vital asset for the electoral process.” A protocol of understanding, signed on November 3 by the OAS and United Nations, established the respective responsibilities of the two organizations as well as measures for cooperation and coordination between them, in support of the CEP’s efforts to organize and hold free and fair elections. The OAS will be in charge of providing all technical support for voter registration with a view, in the long term, to establishing a modern national civil registry system in Haiti.

The Chief of MINUSTAH, Juan Gabriel Valdes, went to Washington on Tuesday, January 11, to confer with the Acting Secretary General, Mr. Einaudi, and the Chief of the OAS Special Mission in Haiti, Ambassador Denneth Modeste, and to share with the Permanent Council his principal observations on developments in the situation in Haiti. The OAS member countries commended MINUSTAH for its efforts, and several representatives emphasized the importance of holding “inclusive elections open to all political parties in order to strengthen democracy in Haiti.”

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For additional info, please contact MINUSTAH’s Office of Communication and Public Information at
tel.: (509) 510-2563 ext.: 6343 or 510- 3183/84/85 ext.: 6037- 6034-6035
or consult MINUSTAH’s website at http://www.minustah.org.


Reference: HA-01-17E