Elections in Haiti

[hassan]

Re: Elections in Haiti

Feb. 12, 2006



Haitian official alleges vote manipulation

ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A member of Haiti's electoral council said results of the presidential elections were being manipulated, echoing complaints by throngs of supporters of Rene Preval, who poured into the streets on Sunday with angry allegations of fraud.

With 75 percent of votes counted, Preval was falling short of winning Tuesday's elections outright by less than half a percentage point.

"According to me, there's a certain level of manipulation," Pierre Richard Duchemin, an electoral council member, told The Associated Press, adding that "there is an effort to stop people from asking questions" about the tabulation process.

Duchemin said Sunday he needed access to tallies of vote counts in hopes of learning who was behind the alleged manipulation. He called for an investigation.

[Blackstar*]

Re: Elections in Haiti

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My theory is that the elite is so corrupt that not only do they hold the poor in disdain, they even hate their own country.

[/ QUOTE ]

it sure seems that way many times - especially among the ultra elite (the Andre Apaids, the Henry Bakers, et al)

i suppose that it has to do with the knowledge deep down inside that "their country" was created by Black slaves and not white slave owners like in the US or France (deeper still knowing maybe that had they been born two centuries earlier....)

[/ QUOTE ]That's deep, Hassan.

[hassan]

Re: Elections in Haiti

Haiti's Preval certain of election victory

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Former President Rene Preval says he won last week's election and has urged officials to hold off publishing final results because of massive fraud.

"We are sure of having won in the first round," Preval said. "We are convinced there was massive fraud and gross errors that affected the process."

Preval had 48,7 percent at last report. He won the first round easily but his supporters and some elections officials said the count was being manipulated to prevent him from taking office without a run-off.

He needs 50 percent plus one vote for an outright win. - Reuters


This article was originally published on page 2 of The Cape Times on February 15, 2006

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Haiti's Preval claims vote fraud, burnt ballots found
Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:08 AM GMT


By Joseph Guyler Delva and Jim Loney

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Former Haitian President Rene Preval said on Tuesday massive fraud had prevented him from winning a first-round victory in last week's election but the government had agreed to delay publishing the result while he gathered proof.

A few hours after he spoke, hundreds and possibly thousands of burnt and still smoldering ballots, many cast a week ago for Preval, were found on a Port-au-Prince garbage dump, outraging Preval supporters and setting off demonstrations after nightfall.

A one-time ally of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and opposed by the wealthy elite who drove Aristide out two years ago. Preval called earlier for his supporters to continue their protests but to tear down barricades of smoking tires and rubble that had brought Port-au-Prince to a standstill.

"We are sure of having won in the first round," Preval said at his sister's hilltop home on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, where his angry supporters thronged through the streets on Monday, storming the city's top luxury hotel.

"We are convinced there was massive fraud and gross errors that affected the process," he said in his first major comments since last Tuesday's vote.

The impoverished Caribbean nation of 8.5 million has been on tenterhooks for a week amid concern that election officials were manipulating the ballot, the first since Aristide fled into exile, to force Preval into a March 19 runoff.

Results, unchanged since Monday, gave Preval 48.7 percent of the vote with 90 percent counted. He needs a simple majority to avoid a second round.

"If they publish these results as they are, we will contest them and if Lespwa (Preval's political movement) contests them, the Haitian people will contest them," Preval said.

Members of the provisional electoral council said the demonstrations and roadblocks that have afflicted Port-au-Prince since Sunday had prevented ballot workers from completing the count anyway.

Rosemond Pradel, secretary general of the council, promised an investigation after charred ballot papers were found in a large state dump in the capital.

"That's absolutely unacceptable," said Pradel.

He said securing the ballots after they had been cast was the responsibility of the 9,000-strong U.N. force trying to keep the peace in Haiti.

U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said ballots were supposed to have been sealed in bags and placed in a container, protected by U.N. troops. "It's not normal to have these ballots there."

Wimhurst suggested the discarded ballots could have come from nine polling stations outside Port-au-Prince ransacked during the election, with the loss of around 35,000 votes.

In the district of Truitier, where the burnt ballots were found, angry Preval supporters and local residents denounced what they saw as an attempt to deny them a voice in Haiti's fractious and fragile democracy.

"They took all Preval's ballots. They threw them away in order to prevent the vote of the people from passing. That is a crime," said Rene Monplaisir, an official in the Preval campaign.

While many of Preval's presidential rivals have conceded he won an easy victory, some, including third-placed industrialist Charles Baker, considered the candidate of the wealthy elite, have vowed to join forces in a second round.

Ex-President Leslie Manigat was in second place with 11.8 percent and Baker was third with 7.9 percent.

Preval said his campaign had credible evidence the vote count had been manipulated. He cited an independent tabulation by the National Democratic Institute, a U.S. nonprofit group, which showed he had carried 54 percent of the vote.
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Brazil backs Preval's claim to victory in Haiti
Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:08 AM ET


BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil, whose military is leading the United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti, said on Wednesday that the best way to ease election tensions in the Caribbean nation would be to declare former president Rene Preval the victor.

"Considering the existing climate in the country, that would be the best solution," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's chief foreign relations advisor, Marco Aurelio Garcia, told reporters in Brasilia.

Garcia added that declaring Preval the winner would likely enjoy the unanimous support of the international community, since it would prevent a messy runoff vote from taking place. He said Brazil was worried about the situation in Haiti and that it "feared that the situation would deteriorate."

"We propose that the candidates recognize Preval's victory," Garcia said.

Garcia's remarks were made one day after Preval, a one-time ally of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and opposed by the wealthy elite, claimed that widespread fraud had prevented him from winning a first-round victory in last week's election.

Those allegations appeared to gain more legitimacy when hundreds of burned and still smoldering ballots, many cast for Preval, were later found at a garbage dump in Port-au-Prince.

Though the Haitian government has agreed to delay publishing the final results of the election to give Preval time to gather proof of his claims, protests continued to rage across the poor Caribbean country of 8.5 million people.

Haiti has been on tenterhooks since last week's vote as concerns swirled that election officials were manipulating the ballot to force Preval into a March 19 runoff.

Garcia, the Brazilian official, said Brazil would seek to work with the provisional electoral council to find a way to resolve the stalemate while respecting the law.

One way the electoral council could do this, he said, would be to choose not to recognize blank and nullified ballots, which would give Preval an absolute majority.

Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, has spoken by telephone in recent days with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to find a peaceful solution to the stalemate in Haiti.
web page

[Blackstar*]

Préval Declared Winner in Haitian Election

Preval Declared Winner in Haiti Election
By STEVENSON JACOBS, Associated Press Writer 9 minutes ago


Rene Preval was declared the winner of Haiti's presidential election early Thursday under an agreement between the interim government and electoral council, staving off a potential crisis over the disputed vote in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

With nearly all the votes counted, Preval had been just shy of the 50 percent margin needed to avoid a runoff next month. Under the agreement, some of the 85,000 blank ballots cast in the Feb. 7 election were subtracted from the total number of votes counted, giving Preval a majority, said Michel Brunache, chief of Cabinet for interim President Boniface Alexandre.


Haitian men walk through partially destroyed ballots in a trash dump on the outskirts of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Several ballot boxes and ballots, both blank and marked, were found in a dump and showed to the press one day after Presidential front-runner Rene Preval claimed "massive fraud or gross errors" in the 07 February Presidential and Parliamentary elections.(AFP/Roberto Schmidt)

"We acknowledge the final decision of the electoral council and salute the election of Mr. Rene Preval as president of the Republic of Haiti," Prime Minister Gerard Latortue told The Associated Press in a phone interview after the agreement was made.

The agreement, which Brunache said was signed by members of the electoral council and several government ministers, came during a late night meeting of government and election officials in the electoral council offices.

There was no reaction visible in the streets of the capital in the pre-dawn hours Thursday.

The blank votes represented 4 percent of the estimated 2.2 million ballots cast. By removing some of the blank ballots from the total count, Preval's share of the vote rose from 49.76 percent to 51.15 percent, Brunache said.

"We have reached a solution to the problem," said Max Mathurin, president of the Provisional Electoral Council. "We feel a huge satisfaction at having liberated the country from a truly difficult situation."

The agreement capped a dramatic nine days since Haitians turned out in droves for an election seen as crucial to avoiding a political and economic meltdown in the destitute Caribbean nation. Gangs have gone on kidnapping sprees and factories have closed for lack of security in the two years since former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's ouster.

Some 7,300 U.N. troops and 1,750 international police are in the country under Brazilian command, helping maintain order.

Voters almost overwhelmed poll workers by their numbers on election day. When returns were slow in coming, suspicion built that the vote count was being rigged.

At least one Preval supporter died in massive street protests against alleged fraud, though the demonstrations were largely peaceful. Preval had vowed to challenge the results if officials insisted on holding a March runoff.

On Tuesday, Haitian TV reported the discovery of ballots discarded in a garbage dump near the capital. AP reporters visited the site Wednesday and saw thousands of ballots, some marked for Preval, deep in the dump along with a vote tally sheet and four bags meant to carry returns from the election.

The discovery troubled U.N. officials because the bags were not supposed to be thrown out. U.N. official Catherine Sung, an electoral adviser at the vote tabulation center, told the AP the signed bags were meant to contain annulled and blank votes.

Later in the day, the U.N. mission in Haiti issued a statement urging "the Haitian authorities to investigate fully and prosecute anyone found guilty of this apparent grave breach of the electoral process."

Besides the blank votes, about 125,000 ballots had also been declared invalid because of irregularities, further fueling suspicions of fraud.

The son of a former government official, Preval has vowed to crack down on hardened criminals blamed for spreading terror in the capital, Port-au-Prince. The shy, soft-spoken candidate has been coy, though, on whether he would welcome back his one-time ally Aristide, who is in exile in South Africa.

The election was billed as a move to restore democracy in the nation of 8 million, but it is a daunting task. With decades of brain drain, capital flight and crippling judicial, security, health and corruption problems, Haiti needs more than a quick electoral fix, experts say.

Once the richest colony in the Americas, Haiti has been impoverished since the world's only successful slave rebellion forced out French colonizers and a series of corrupt military and civilian dictators began ruling the country in 1804.

Today, most Haitians are unemployed or get by on odd jobs. The majority live in the deforested countryside with no electricity, clean drinking water or health care.

[Blackstar*]

Re: Préval Declared Winner in Haitian Election

[ QUOTE ]
UPDATE 2-Preval named Haiti president after election deal - RTRS
16 February 2006 12:19:44

(Adds Preval quote, reaction)

By Joseph Guyler Delva and Jim Loney

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Haiti declared Rene Preval, a one-time ally of ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country's next president on Thursday after reaching a deal over fraud claims and averting a possible explosion of violence.

Preval, opposed by the same wealthy elite who helped drive Aristide from power two years ago but passionately supported by the Caribbean country's poor, had said that "massive fraud" in the Feb. 7 election had deprived him of a first-round victory in Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries.

"We have won. Now we are going to fight for parliament," Preval told the Haitian Press Agency.

Jubilant supporters poured into the streets of Port-au-Prince, dancing and chanting "victory, victory," after the embattled Provisional Electoral Council issued a statement on Haitian radio in the middle of the night.

"Rene Preval has been declared the winner with 51 percent," said Max Mathurin, the council president, in the statement.

The vote was the first since populist Aristide fled into exile in 2004. Aristide was elected president twice and ousted both times, once by a military coup and then by a revolt. Haiti's turbulent two centuries of independence have been marked by political instability, dictatorships and bloodshed.

Preval, 63, is the only president in Haiti's 202-year history to win a democratic election, serve a full term and peacefully hand power to a successor.

"For us, Preval means hope, respect and progress," said Jonas Lundi, 28, as he joined a crowd in the Canape Vert district. "Now we have a president elected by the people. Without violence and with tolerance, we are going to work together to move this country forward."

Brazil, which heads a peacekeeping force of 9,000 U.N. troops and police, brokered the deal over 85,000 "blank" votes, which showed no choice for president out of the 33 candidates.

The blanks, amounting to 4.7 percent of the total, had been included in accordance with the law and reduced the final percentage allocated to each candidate. With 90 percent of the ballots counted, Preval had been at 48.7 percent, angering his supporters.

But many Haitians were suspicious of the large number of blank votes, saying they could not imagine people trekking miles (km) to polling stations simply to leave their ballots unmarked.

The U.N. mission sent to maintain the peace in Haiti has also acknowledged that partisan election workers could have stuffed ballot boxes with blank ballots.

The agreement over the blank votes lifted Preval's share to 51.15 percent, above the simple majority he needed to avoid a March 19 runoff.

Preval will take office on March 29, replacing an interim government under Prime Minister Gerard Latortue which was appointed after Aristide fled in February 2004 in the face of an armed revolt and under international pressure to quit.

Some of Preval's supporters warned the country's small and wealthy elite not to try to destabilize his presidency.

"We have elected Preval for five years," said Jean-Marie Theodore, 25, a student. "We won't accept that he misses one minute of his five-year mandate."

((HAITI-ELECTION, Writing by Michael Christie, editing by Diane Bartz; Reuters Messaging: [email protected]; Miami bureau +1 305 810 2688 or e-mail [email protected]))

(c) Copyright Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

---------------------------------------------------
Watch out for this one...

Industrialist Charles Baker, considered the main candidate of the wealthy elite and who had been running a distant third to Preval with 7.9 percent of the vote, said he was caught off guard by the deal.

"We thought we were in a democratic process and everybody would observe the rules," Baker told Reuters, saying the distribution of the blank votes violated the electoral law.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Préval Declared Winner in Haitian Election

The assorted groups of criminals that brought the country to the level anarchy,and degradation will be back to the drawing board to maintain the slavery conditions that they have kept the country in for so many years.
I hope the population don't think that it isthe end of this fight for the freedom they have been fighting for for 2 centuries..

[Blackstar*]

Re: Préval Declared Winner in Haitian Election

After unknowns frigged with the ballots, Baker and Manigat are vexed about not getting a runoff, due process, etc. It wouldn't be so annoying if they had been so vigourous in complaining about the burnt ballot boxes found in garbage dumps. Where was the outrage yesterday? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70402-thinking.gif[/img] [ QUOTE ]
DJ Preval Backers Rejoice After He's Declared Haiti Pres-Elect
16 February 2006 17:47:23


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP)--Haitians celebrated in the streets Thursday as word quickly spread that Rene Preval will be Haiti's next president. A former Haitian leader with a huge following among the poor, Preval was declared the winner of the Feb. 7 election after thousands of blank ballots were subtracted from the count, giving him a 51.15% of the votes.

His closest rival, Leslie Manigat, accused election officials of breaking the rules to give Preval a first-round victory instead of forcing the two into a runoff. Manigat, who like Preval is a former president, had about 12% of the vote.

"We are not going to be sore losers but we are human beings," said Manigat, who wouldn't say if he would register a formal complaint. "The right of a second round of elections is inscribed in the election rules."

Preval had been just shy of the 50.1% margin until election and government officials decided early Thursday to subtract some of the 85,000 blank ballots cast from the total number of votes counted, giving Preval a majority, said Michel Brunache, chief of Cabinet for interim President Boniface Alexandre.

There was celebrating in the streets among backers of Preval. They jubilantly marched past Preval's sister's house in the capital, waiting for him to appear.

"I'm so happy, because we have what we were looking for," said Elvia Pressoir, 36, who clutched Preval campaign leaflets as she waited outside the gate. "With Preval, we'll have security, jobs and life will get back to normal."

Haitians also cheered in Florida, where many have fled from the island's chaos and poverty. Speaking by phone from his home in Broward County, the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, a well-known Preval supporter, said he was extremely hopeful once again.

"We are praising God for every Haitian and friend of Haitians all over the world who helped us make democracy return to Haiti," Jean-Juste said. "Now is the time when we offer our forgiving hand to our brothers and sisters who may consider his or herself the loser. There are no losers. Haiti has won. We all have won."

The victory declaration at 1:30 a.m. capped a dramatic nine days since Haitians turned out in droves for an election seen as crucial to avoiding a political and economic meltdown in the destitute Caribbean nation. Gangs have gone on kidnapping sprees and factories have closed for lack of security in the two years since the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The breakthrough agreement signed by members of the electoral council and several government ministers followed days of protests by Preval supporters who alleged the elections were stolen.

"We acknowledge the final decision of the electoral council and salute the election of Mr. Rene Preval as president of the Republic of Haiti," Prime Minister Gerard Latortue told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

The blank votes represented 4% of the estimated 2.2 million ballots cast. By removing some of them from the total count, Preval's share of the vote rose from 49.76% to 51.15%, Brunache said.

"We have reached a solution to the problem," said Max Mathurin, president of the Provisional Electoral Council. "We feel a huge satisfaction at having liberated the country from a truly difficult situation."

On election day, voters had almost overwhelmed poll workers and security forces. Some 7,300 U.N. troops and 1,750 international police are in the country under Brazilian command, helping maintain order. When returns were slow in coming, suspicion built that the vote count was being rigged.

At least one Preval supporter died in huge street protests, though the demonstrations were largely peaceful.

Preval, who was once allied with Aristide, had vowed to challenge the results if officials insisted on a runoff.

On Tuesday, Haitian TV reported the discovery of ballots discarded in a garbage dump near the capital. AP reporters visited the site Wednesday and saw thousands of ballots, some marked for Preval, deep in the dump along with a vote tally sheet and four bags meant to carry returns from the election.

The discovery was troubling to the United Nations. U.N. official Catherine Sung, an electoral adviser at the vote tabulation center, told the AP the signed bags were meant to contain annulled and blank votes. Later in the day, the U.N. mission urged Haitian authorities to "investigate fully and prosecute anyone found guilty of this apparent grave breach of the electoral process."

Besides the blank votes, about 125,000 ballots had also been declared invalid because of irregularities, further fueling suspicions of fraud.

The son of a former government official, Preval has vowed to crack down on hardened criminals. The shy, soft-spoken candidate has been circumspect, however, on whether he would welcome Aristide back from exile in South Africa.

Restoring democratic processes in the nation of 8 million will be a daunting task. With decades of brain drain, capital flight and crippling judicial, security, health and corruption problems, Haiti needs more than a quick electoral fix, experts say.

Once the richest colony in the Americas, Haiti has been impoverished since the world's only successful slave rebellion forced out French colonizers. A series of corrupt military and civilian dictators began ruling the country in 1804.

Today, most Haitians are unemployed or get by on odd jobs. The majority live in the deforested countryside with no electricity, clean drinking water or health care.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires



(c) Copyright Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Préval Declared Winner in Haitian Election

The problem is that they do not have a leg to stand on,because what was done is to subtract the blank ballots that were wrongly counted in the first place,from the previous total to come to the new figure.

..but as history has recorded,they will do whatever to keep the general population in slavery.

[Blackstar*]

Re: Préval Declared Winner in Haitian Election

It will be interesting to see if the US, France, & Canada try the same tricks on Préval that they used on Aristide to bring him to heel. [ QUOTE ]
UPDATE 1-Haiti election seen as victory for Aristide
17 February 2006 00:01:20
By Tom Brown


MIAMI, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Rene Preval's election as Haiti's new president is seen by some as a clear victory for Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who many Haiti experts say was undermined by Washington before he was toppled in an armed revolt two years ago.

Preval was declared the winner of Haiti's presidential election on Thursday, after an agreement between the U.S.-backed interim government and election officials over disputed results that defused a potentially explosive crisis over last week's vote.

Washington welcomed Preval's victory, saying it hoped to help build a new future in one of the world's most impoverished countries.

"We are going to work with the Preval government. We want this government to succeed," said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "This is a chance for a country that has had too few chances," she said at a congressional budget hearing.

Preval, a former president and one-time Aristide ally, is the latest in a series of populist leaders in the Western Hemisphere -- elected since Hugo Chavez won the presidency in Venezuela in 1998 -- who could pose a challenge to U.S. policy.

And despite Washington's public endorsement, his victory may not go down well with the U.S. government.

Along with polls pointing to a win by staunch leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador when Mexico holds its presidential elections in July, Preval's victory highlights a fading U.S. influence in Latin America and the Caribbean, a region Washington once controlled like its personal fiefdom, political analysts said.

Larry Birns, who heads the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs think tank, said the United States is more isolated in Latin America than Cuba, a country it has tried to marginalize for more than 50 years.

'PUTATIVE VICTORY'

Birns called Preval's election "a putative victory for Aristide," since the new president shares many of Aristide's political philosophies and beliefs, and said Preval represented "Aristidism without Aristide.'

That is something the United States, along with France and Canada, had very much wanted to avoid, according to Haiti experts.

The problem is that populist appeals are a powerful force in places like Haiti, where most people live on less than $2 a day. Preval found his strongest voter support in the same slums that formed Aristide's power base.

"It's almost ridiculous to think that somebody could have won the election that hadn't had something to do with Aristide," said Eduardo Gamarra, director of the Latin American and Caribbean center at Florida International University.

Critics have described Aristide as a tyrant who relied on violent street gangs to enforce his rule. But Gamarra said he was still a very popular figure in Haiti.

The irony, according to Gamarra, is that U.S. troops were sent into Haiti when Aristide was deposed in a bloody rebellion in February 2004. Now a man some see as Aristide's crony comes to power, not by bullets, but through the ballot box.

"We invaded to get him (Aristide) out. Now we've got the guy who succeeded Aristide as the president," Gamarra said.

Preval served as president from 1996 to 2001 and was Aristide's hand-picked successor.

Washington's overwhelming concern with Haiti is to maintain enough stability to avoid a repeat of the mass 1990s exodus of boat people triggered by death squads and a surge in political bloodletting in the Caribbean nation.

But setting the stage for possibly difficult ties with Preval, Washington has already urged him to oppose any return by Aristide from his exile in South Africa.

Cuba is among those who have blamed the United States for the "overthrow" of Aristide.

"We hope he will be allowed to govern and that outside interference in Haiti's internal affairs ceases," Ricardo Alarcon, speaker of Cuba's National Assembly, said of Preval on Thursday.

((HAITI-USA, editing by Mohammad Zargham; Reuters Messaging: [email protected]; +1 305-810-2688))

(c) Copyright Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Blackstar*]

Haitian Election: The Problems Soon Start

Rich-poor divide to challenge Haiti's Preval
17 February 2006 16:58:15
By Michael Christie and Joseph Guyler Delva


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Haitian President-elect Rene Preval has begun meeting rivals to build a parliament coalition as he embarks on an effort to patch deep divides between the country's small elite and the poor majority who propelled him to office.

A constant stream of well-wishers on Friday trooped through the hilltop house of Preval's sister outside Port-au-Prince. Meetings over the last two days have included fourth-placed presidential candidate Chavannes Jeune, and a Senate candidate for the Fusion party, both bitter enemies of Preval's one-time mentor, ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

A reticent, 63-year-old agronomist, Preval was declared the winner of the Feb. 7 election after electoral authorities agreed to redistribute 85,000 unmarked ballots to settle allegations of vote fraud.

He had yet to address the Caribbean nation and lay out his plans after his election was announced in the middle of the night on Thursday.

But Haiti experts and nongovernmental organizations quickly sketched out Preval's challenges in a country where rich and poor are divided by hatred, 80 percent are unemployed and incomes average just $400 a year.

The wealthy elite's mistrust of the large slum populations -- which fueled turbulence during Aristide's two terms and ultimately led to an armed revolt that ousted the former Roman Catholic priest in February 2004 -- has not gone. The country remains awash in firearms and plagued by gunmen and gangs.

The chaotic and ramshackle capital was ravaged by kidnappings and crime before the election, despite the presence of 9,000 Brazilian-led U.N. troops and police.

"As difficult as getting elected was, the challenges now are absolutely staggering," said Ken Boodhoo, a Florida International University professor who runs the Whole Man Ministries charitable missions in Haiti.

"MASSIVE SUPPORT" NEEDED

Security, jobs, "the problem of the elite" and the potential for Aristide to return from exile were leading challenges for Preval, Boodhoo said. "He needs massive support from the international community and he's probably going to get it."

Charles Arthur of the British-based Haiti Support Group said Preval's first problem will be managing the huge expectations of his supporters in the slums.

The second challenge was working with parliament, where election results have yet to be announced, he said.

Preval's coalition "Lespwa," Creole for "The Hope," fielded 19 candidates for 30 Senate seats and 58 candidates for 99 lower house seats, he said.

But Arthur said other groups were likely to dominate parliament and elect a prime minister, who under Haiti's Constitution holds more executive power than the president.

"I see them all (the other leading parties in parliament) as hostile to Preval," Arthur said.

Preval's two main campaign rivals, ex-president Leslie Manigat and industrialist Charles Baker, have both condemned the unusual deal that led to Preval's election, a harbinger perhaps of continued political confrontation.

The United States, long the key foreign player in Haiti, has welcomed Preval's election, but U.S. officials have also warned him not to bring Aristide back from exile.

The international community and $1.3 billion in promised aid that has been only partially dispersed since Aristide was deposed, are crucial to Preval's government, aid organizations said.

((HAITI-ELECTION, writing by Michael Christie, editing by Randall Mikkelsen; Reuters Messaging: [email protected]; Miami bureau +1 305 810 2688 or e-mail [email protected]))

(c) Copyright Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

[wolmersboy]

Re: Elections in Haiti

What is the proper US response to events in Haiti? Hands-off and let things run their course, massive economic and if necessary, military assistance or just support UN efforts to rebuild Haiti?
It seems to me that no matter what the different US administrations have done in Haiti, they have gotten severe criticism. Not enough yesterday, too much today.
So, if you were President of the USA, what would you do to help the Haitian people?

[hassan]

Re: Elections in Haiti

the United States has a long and documented history of not doing enough when circumstances dictated more and doing too much when circumstances begged for leaving things be.

a few things to be mindful of:

- only Rene Preval was able to finish out his term as elected president of Ayiti in that country's LONG history

- nothing happens in the Americas without the hand of Sam (Uncle) being in the mix somehow

to think otherwise is to venture down a sad path to unparalled naivete

like Al Capone and Southside Chicago, nothing goes on in Uncle Sam's block without him knowing about it

the sanctions imposed on Haiti by Thomas Jefferson that lasted for sixty years set a country in need of help after one of history's most destructive revolutions ("there's never been a bloodless revolution" - Malcolm X) behind an almost insurrmountable eight ball

twenty years after the "great liberator" Jefferson put the pinch on Haiti's ability to conduct international commerce the French sent a battle squadron of battle ships and men o'war into Port au Prince harbor to demand the payment of an indemnity for monies lost by France in its former colony - 90 million francs

*i've still never heard of the loser in a war even forming its lips to ask the victor for payment outside of this sad example of a global car-jacking

with the US-sanctions in full swing (bear in mind that the current US sanctions against Cuba have been in effect for just over forty years and look at what is doing to Cuba) no one wanted to lend Haiti money it didnt have but France demanded ... except for French banks which attached exorbitant interest rates to capital

the loan (capital and interest) was not finally paid off by Haiti until the second half of the 20th century

So much for the Monroe Doctrine

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Elections in Haiti

[ QUOTE ]
What is the proper US response to events in Haiti? Hands-off and let things run their course, massive economic and if necessary, military assistance or just support UN efforts to rebuild Haiti?
It seems to me that no matter what the different US administrations have done in Haiti, they have gotten severe criticism. Not enough yesterday, too much today.
So, if you were President of the USA, what would you do to help the Haitian people?

[/ QUOTE ]

What difference is that to you?
Why whatever othe rpeople think get your blood into a boil?
hey let other's have their views aired noh!! Why should It not matter to others what the US does in Haiti after it was the US that invaded Haiti and destroyed their economy in the early 20th century follower by decades on occupation?
Why should it not matter when it was the US that placed Dvalier and propt him in power and along with france secreted his son who they supported after he inherited power?
Why are you not troubled by these actions?
Why is it that the over throw of The last elected president by the US Conservatives making your blood boil.even with the recent disclosure of the then US diplomat in the country?
Hey you have youe views others have theirs,no body is harassing you about yours,why are you harrasing others?
Incidentally thes views are not limited to this post but to the trend in most of your posts.

[Blackstar*]

Re: Haitian Election: The Problems Soon Start

No More Lavalas, the Fire Next Time?
Common Sense
John Maxwell


The Associated Press headline says it all: 'Haiti poll marred by ballot fraud protests'. The poll was marred not by fraud, but by the people's protests against the fraud.

It is important that we understand the difference, because for the next few years what will be important in any international discussion about Haiti is not whether René Preval won the majority of the votes cast, but that it took a peaceful uprising of the people to establish that Mr Preval did win more than half the votes cast.

It has taken nearly two weeks for the interim government of Haiti to declare what every Haitian and many outside Haiti suspected, that the masses of Haiti, mainly poor, had stood patiently for hours in hot, uncomfortable conditions, to tell the world that they wanted their democracy back.

Brian Concannon is an American lawyer who spent several years in Haiti helping the governments of Aristide and Preval identify, document, track down and prosecute some of the most gross human rights abusers of the era of the dictatorships of Duvalier and Cedras. On Friday, on the site of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, he gives a clear and dispassionate analysis of the recent elections (http://www.ijdh.org/) which explains in much greater detail than I can here, what really happened in Haiti over the last 12 days.

"On February 7, Haitian voters went to the polls to elect a president for the fourth time since 1990. Through great patience and determination they overcame official disorganisation, incompetence and discrimination, and for the fourth time since 1990 handed their chosen candidate a landslide victory.

And for the fourth time Haitian elites, with support from the international community, started immediately to undercut the victory, seeking at the negotiation table what they could not win at the voting booth."

Concannon points out that there is very little doubt that Preval was the overwhelming choice of the Haitian people, and that they made this choice despite two years of brutal intimidation, despite the fact that many of their leaders have been murdered or are in jail unjustly, despite the fact that it was made extraordinarily difficult for them to register to be able to vote, despite the fact that their candidate was prevented from staging an effective campaign, despite the fact that the number of voting places was inhumanly deficient, despite the fact their enemies did not want this election.

The electoral council, using a legal technicality, stuffed the total ballot count with blank ballots, thus inflating the number of votes needed to win an absolute majority. Somewhere in the system too, thousands of ballots were dumped and burned, and other mischief done to prevent it becoming known that Preval had triumphed and did not need a second round of voting, a run-off, to seal his victory.

As Concannon points out, the Electoral Council was shamed into making the right decision, but for the wrong reasons: "Although the negotiated agreement reaches the same result as a correct tabulation would have reached, it does so by changing the rules instead of correcting the violations of the rules."

As it was in the past, so it will be in the future. Concannon says: "The deal provides leverage for those seeking to delegitimise Preval's presidency and block the progressive social and economic policies that he was elected to implement.

The election's also-rans are already crying foul, and they will be joined by more voices from Haiti's elite and the international community. Soon enough, invoking "the contested elections of February 2006" will suffice to justify an array of economic and political coercion against Haiti's elected government".
This is precisely what the sweatshop bosses, the American fundamentalist Republicans and the other criminal conspirators used against Aristide and Preval in the past. As I pointed out last week, one of them, a candidate for president named Charles Henry Baker, was, before the votes were halfway counted, preparing to try to annul the results of the election because of what he said were irregularities favouring Preval.

It was typical of these characters, who routinely accuse their opponents of doing what they themselves intend to do. We've seen it in Jamaica and we've more recently seen it in the last two US presidential elections.
The Resource Curse

In certain circles, among sophisticated journalists and coiffured statesmen and development 'experts', there is talk about a "Resource Curse", which is said to afflict Third World nations rich in natural resources.

This curse prevents these nations from developing as logic would suggest is possible. Instead, they are afflicted with corruption, huge income inequalities and persistent poverty. Their leaders frequently have large holdings in offshore banks and similar institutions, and the people are miserable, rebellious and usually unaware that they live in failed or about to be failed states.

Some people from states afflicted by the Resource Curse have other ideas; speaking in the early 1970s, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonso, former Venezuelan oil minister and a founder of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), declared 'Ten years from now, 20 years from now, you will see, oil will bring us ruin. It's the devil's excrement. We are drowning in the devil's excrement.'

He was speaking of course, pre-Hugo Chavez, who seems to have exorcised the Resource Curse and turned the oil wealth of Venezuela into an engine for the development of Venezuela, educating and feeding the poor, bringing them drinkable water and affordable health services instead of enriching only the distant elites of colder climes.

Chavez' performance seems to suggest that the Resource Curse consists largely of intransigent elites and their foreign sponsors who refuse to believe that all human beings should have the right to sustainable development - development within their environments for the benefit of their communities and their nations.

In countries without a national elite the West will attempt to invent one - with the worthy and pure intention of improving governance and enhancing democracy as in Angola and the Congo. Political eugenics demand the removal or neutralisation of 'Populists" - highly dangerous vectors of virulent epidemics like liberation theology and socialism.

The diamond mines of Tanzania and South Africa, the gold mines of Angola, the uranium mines of the Congo and Niger, the forests of Liberia and Brazil and the enormous deposits of Western oil underlying such failed or failing states as Iraq, Iran, Sudan and Nigeria all witness to the potency of the Resource Curse. Haiti's sole resources, as far as we know now, are its people and its strategic position halfway between the United States and Venezuela and conveniently next to Cuba.

The Cubans are believed to have found promising undersea structures within their exclusive economic zone, which borders on Hispaniola and is part of the same geological formation.

In Jamaica, environmentally disastrous seismic exploration has been licensed by the government in the hope of finding enough oil to make the Doomsday Highway viable. Perhaps, as I suggested nearly two years ago, there may be oil in Haiti. Whatever the truth of those speculations, Haiti's new president will begin with enormous problems.

The most dangerous problem is the Haitian elite, whose hatred and disrespect for the 'slum priest' Aristide and his barefoot followers know no bounds. Any leader of the poor is a gangster or 'chimere' in their words. Any attempt to say, raise the minimum wage is cause for immediate 'withdrawal of confidence", which is a time-tested way to get rid of unwanted and dangerous reformers.

The leader of the Haitian 'elites' is an American citizen of Lebanese origin called Andy Apaid, who owns what are politely called garment factories - sweatshops producing T-shirts for a Canadian company Gildan - for the Canadian and American markets. Charles Henry Baker, one of the presidential candidates swept aside by the Preval flood, is Apaid's brother-in-law.

The elite power structure is close knit and apparently absolutely agreed on one thing - to squeeze Haiti until the pips squeak. They have put nothing back into Haiti. The depredations of people like them have drained Haiti dry. When people are starving they have no money to save. Capital investments in Haiti consist simply of large prefab buildings with hundreds of sewing machines, ready to be transported at a moment's notice to the next failing state.

Apaid pays his workers 1,500 Haitian gourdes per fortnight or about US$3 per day or less than one-fifth of the Jamaican minimum wage.

No wonder that Gildan's CEO Glen Chamandy boasted "Gildan's labour costs in countries such as Haiti and Honduras are actually cheaper than those in China...the bulk of T-shirts heading to the US market are from the Caribbean" (Toronto Globe & Mail April 11, 2005, quoted by ZNet).

A report by a fact-finding mission from the University of Miami Law School in November 2004 quoted Apaid himself as admitting that he had ties to a notorious gangster named Thomas 'Labaniye' Robinson. The report said "During the investigation, investigators repeatedly heard reports from police and slum residents that Apaid pays a Cité Soleil gang leader to kill Lavalas supporters".
What Haiti Needs

So-called friends of Haiti like Roger Noriega, Luigi Einaudi and US Ambassador Timothy carney, all exponents of the State Department's policies toward us lesser breeds without the law, are full of advice for Preval.

The problem is that their advice is largely about the need for him to keep his distance from President Aristide and Lavalas. Einaudi, two years ago, said the only thing wrong with Aristide's Haiti was that it was run by Haitians. Defying logic and the evidence of their senses, they say Aristide is a man of the past.

Aristide had a pretty clear-eyed view of what Haiti actually needs. He was resolved to build "Utopia upon a dung heap" as he said, to build some kind of viable national community upon the detritus of the past.

To do this he needed money to educate and train his people, money for water supplies, for health services, for building and repairing roads and basically, for inventing a viable state on the ruins created by Haiti's friends from Thomas Jefferson and Colin Powell to Pierre Pettigrew and Dominique de Villepin, to say nothing of Kofi Annan.

Most of all, Haiti needs friends, people like Jamaicans who can lend support in agricultural extension and other basic skills which have been driven out of Haiti. And, most of all, Haiti needs to reclaim its real elite, the far-flung exiles driven from home by rapacious greed, mindless cruelty and the total disrespect for life and dignity which defines the Cuckoo Elite now roosting in Haiti.

The problem is that the Cuckoo Elite cannot help themselves. They are like the scorpion in the old fable, who seeks a ride across the river. He convinces a frog to ferry him across, promising upon his honour that he will not sting the frog.

The frog is doubtful, but agrees. As they begin to cross the river he again cautions the scorpion: "Remember," he tells his passenger, "If you sting me, we both die!"

Those were his last words.

[Blackstar*]

Re: Haitian Election: The Problems Soon Start

Aristide return to Haiti possible-S.Africa's Mbeki
19 February 2006 12:53:00


JOHANNESBURG, Feb 20 (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday that former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide may be able to return home after consultation with Haiti's new president, local media reported.

Aristide has been living in exile in South Africa since 2004 when he fled an uprising over charges of rights abuses and corruption.

Mbeki said there was no reason why the former Roman Catholic priest should not go back to Haiti after an election this month, which was won by Aristide ally Rene Preval.

"I would imagine from everything that I've seen and heard President Preval himself wouldn't want to oppose President Aristide's return to Haiti," Mbeki said on SABC radio.

"But I think it will be determined largely by an assessment by Rene Preval, by President Aristide as to the timing of it so that it doesn't produce unnecessary problems."

After his ouster, South Africa insisted that Aristide was Haiti's rightful leader and said he had been toppled by the United States and France.

Aristide, who remains popular in Haiti's poor slums, has been silent for most of his stay in South African and not commented on his possible return after the elections.

((SAFRICA-HAITI-ELECTIONS; Reporting by Gershwin Wanneburg Johannesburg newsroom tel +27 11 775 3155; editing by Paul Casciato))

(c) Copyright Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.