Creative plan for a less costly elections in Haiti

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Respect can only come when Haitians show they got brains too just like Henri Christophe did during reign.

This plan is a framework pretty much just like all of the other documents I posted or published online.

This plan contains two parts:

A) Provisional Electoral Commission Composition
B) Suggestions for a safer electoral process
1) Cost savings
2) Safer streets on election days

An election is a project.

It is a complex project.

It is also a special project because lives and a nation's future are at stake.

It is a project that requires the charisma of high moral value human beings and the expertise of qualified strategic project managers.

In that regard, I strongly believe that the Provisional Electoral Commission should be made of the following experts:

1. Experts in strategic project management (at least 4 members of the 9 members)
2. Experts in Finance and Accounting (at least 2 members of the 9 members)
3. Expert in Logistics and Real Estate (at least 1 member of the 9 members)
4. Expert in Sociology and Public Relations (at least 1 member of the 9 members)
5. Expert in Public Safety (at least 1 member of the 9 members

If you have several different problem areas to resolve and you have only one tool or means by which to try to resolve those problem areas, there is a theory that proves that it is more effective to resolve a little bit in each of the problem areas than to resolve everything in one particular problem area only and ignore all the other problem areas.

That theory is the basis for the following suggestions.

Taking into account the limited resources the PEC has, taking into account the limited amount of expertise the PEC has, taking into account the limited Haitian national police force and taking into account the reluctance of the international community to get involved, I propose elections to be held in a span of eight (8) days from a Sunday through the following Sunday.

In other words, the election does not have to be held in one day nationwide.

It can be held county by county or region by region.

Haiti is geographically subdivided into nine provincial counties (departments).

The nine counties can be regionally juxtaposed the following way for the election:
{ Grand Anse & Sud } { Ouest & Sud-Est} {Centre & Artibonite} {Nord, Nord-Est & Nord-Ouest}

The table below summarizes the process.

D
A
Y
S G
R
O
U
P
{GRAND-ANSE & SUD}
{OUEST & SUD-EST}
{CENTRE & ARTIBONITE}
{NORD, NORD-EST & NORD-OUEST}
DAY #1 Voting & Results - - -
DAY #2 Certification Redeployment - -
DAY#3 - Voting & Results - -
DAY#4 - Certification Redeployment -
DAY#5 - Voting & Results -
DAY#6 - - Certification Redeployment
DAY#7 - - - Voting & Results
DAY#8 - - - Certification

The method above if adopted will provide two great advantages to the election process:
a) Operational cost savings
b) Increased Safety for the voters

The method above if adopted means that the PEC needs to hire and train much less personnel than their current method.

The reason is that the same personnel used during election day (DAY#1) in juxtaposed county group { GRAND-ANSE & SUD} will be reused (redeployed to be exact) in county group { OUEST & SUD-EST} on election day (DAY#3).

Fewer personnel always translate into decreased expenses.

When the news come out that the 2005 election in Haiti would cost $ 43 millions, some of us wanted to pull our hair out. Until today, I hardly believe the election should cost even $30 millions.

But more importantly for me is the fact that now the Haitian national police force only needs to concentrate its security forces in one area of the country at a time instead of having to provide security for the whole country like the PEC has it planned on October 19th, 2005. The Haitian national police now has the opportunity to strategically place its elite forces on election day (DAY#1, 3, 5 & 7) in only the counties where voting would be scheduled to be held. I believe that temporary concentration of forces will put the Haitian police force at an advantage against any paramilitary forces that may intend to perturb the election.

I will conclude by saying that security or safety in a country is first of all a state of mind and second a matter of strategy rather than just the availability of resources for the police force.

Technologies have played a significant role in helping the police forces everywhere bring an acceptable measure of safety to the general population, starting with the telegraph way back when, the telephone way back when and now GPS.

Thank you

Rubens Titus, May 26 2008, 11:13 AM

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