Despite the optimism they professed only days before, Haitian government officials failed to entice declared and undeclared political opponents to join in forming a new Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) by the Nov. 4 deadline fixed by Organization of American States (OAS) Resolution 822 (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 26, 9/11/2002). The resolution, adopted Sep. 4, gave the government 60 days to assemble a new CEP with members from the U.S. Republican-supported Democratic Convergence opposition front and other "civil society" sectors.

Besides the Convergence‚s predictable refusal to name a representative to the new body, five "civil society" sectors also spurned participation until the government invites the "international community" (as the U.S./European axis is called) to provide, in the words of the Civil Society Initiative‚s State Department protege Rosny Desroches, "a foreign security contingent," in other words, a new military occupation force.

The five sectors -- the Episcopal Conference of Haiti, the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church Federation, the Human Rights sector, and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti -- acknowledged in a statement that their representatives should have been chosen by the deadline but that they would not "be inclined to formally communicate the selection as long as the Haitian State and the OAS have not formally started the process of assuring the security and consequently the reliability of the electoral process."

This group of five also wrote on Oct. 26th to David Lee, the head of the OAS‚s special mission to Haiti, to remind him that he had already asked the government in an Oct. 10 letter to invite the "international community" to supply this "assistance" to the police.

To sugar-coat their implicit demand for an interventionist force, the five sectors even proposed a two-week period for Haitian authorities and the OAS work out the details of this "technical‚ military assistance."

In an Oct. 29 letter to Lee, Prime Minister Yvon Neptune requested technical assistance for police professionalization, justice, human rights, governance, disarmament, and the elections, including their security. Neptune did not specify what form this assistance should take. But Lee needs no more than a nod to set in motion the OAS machinery that will take charge of security and disarmament as outlined in Res. 822. In his Oct. 31 response, Lee said: "In the name of the OAS mission aimed at strengthening democracy in Haiti, I have the honor to confirm our agreement with this official request."

Gérard Pierre-Charles, the leader of the Convergence‚s OPL component, echoed the group of five‚s call, asking for a "substantial mission" of the "international community" to complement the police in providing election security. Other non-Convergence opposition parties followed the herd saying that they too would only send their joint representative to the CEP if "security supervision" was set in place.

In short all these groups are maneuvering the country toward a replay of the 1915 and 1994 military occupations of the country. Most ironically, this comes as the bicentennial of Haiti‚s Jan. 1, 1804 independence day approaches.

In the end, the government could muster only two representatives for the nine-member CEP: the Executive‚s and the Supreme Court‚s.

Thus Aristide finds his back to the wall, particularly after U.S. representative to the OAS, Roger Noriega, stated on Oct. 30 that "we have very serious concerns about the leadership of Jean Bertrand Aristide." He was echoed the next day by Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Otto Reich who ominously warned that the Aristide government faces the prospect of "forfeiting its credibility and legitimacy" by not complying with Res. 822.

In a Nov. 4 press conference at the National Palace, Aristide feigned optimism and called on all sectors to take part in forming the CEP. He argued that 2003 elections would result in the "the lifting of economic sanctions on the country " and also evoked the approach of Haiti‚s 2004 anniversary. "We should quickly establish the Provisional Electoral Council so that there is no conflict with the festivities planned for the bicentennial celebrations," he explained, as if the bitter political struggle of the past 3 years has resulted from his opponents not checking their calendars.

Speaking on Radio Métropole on Nov. 5, Jonas Petit, the interim head of Aristide‚s Fanmi Lavalas party, called the refusal of the different sectors to name CEP reps a "disgrace" and a "deficit of engagement."