Friday, Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe has indicated that the budget for the next election amounts to $36 million and that about 6 months will be required to put in place, the entire electoral process.

The Prime Minister said that well before the negotiations, which led to an agreement earlier this week, between the executive and legislative branches, the Government had set up a Joint Committee with members of the international community who support the electoral process, which has helped to reduce the time needed to achieve the next elctions of approximately 2 to 3 months.

"[...] well before all the political negotiations, we had set up a Joint Committee, composed of members of the Government and members of the international community that helps us to fund the elections, in the safety and logistics of the elections. We discussed of the budget, which reached 36 million U.S. dollars. The international community asked us to participate and we have set aside about $10 million.

We worked on other steps that had to be made, for example, the Ministry of the Interior has worked on a plan for the elections, we have established a schedule of steps, in parallel with the political side, it was important that the technical advance too, for as soon as the political side is ready, we can move quickly to the next step. This is necessary to save time, because normally it is a process that should take 7 to 9 months, we easily win with this preparation 2 to 3 months [...]

We will continue to strengthen these processes and the conditions are much more favorable today, because there is an agreement that has been signed and I would like to applaud this Agreement, even if some people are criticism to the latter. This is a great step forward, that has been done. As we say, as the President said, it is in the dialogue and the gathering, we have to solve all the problems, because we have 10 million Haitians who depend on us and expect that we take the right decisions So I want to focus on the positive side of the issue, we found an agreement, now we must put the together the technical side with the politics, to be able to move forward and put the cap on elections [...]"

Hopefully now that the appointment of members of "College Transitional of Permanent Electoral Council", responsible for the organization of the next elections will be done quickly, in order not add too much delay to the 6 months required for the organization of the next elections, which probably [with all reserve], should be held during the second half of 2013.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-7501-haiti-cep-the-agreement-signed-monday-divides-the-political-class.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-7489-haiti-cep-an-agreement-was-finally-signed-between-the-executive-and-parliament.html

S/ HaïitiLibre