[News] Fact finding delegation reports an electoral coup now in process in Haiti

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*http://sfbayview.com/2015/10/fact-finding-delegation-reports-an-electoral-coup-now-in-process-in-haiti/

October 29, 2015
*


  Fact finding delegation reports an electoral coup now in process in Haiti


      *Every vote must count; Black lives matter in Haiti too*

*/by Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee; Yvon Kernizan, Haitian 
Human Rights Campaigner; Margaret Prescod, journalist and Global Women’s 
Strike representative; Walter Riley, civil rights attorney; Barbara 
Rhine, attorney, National Lawyers Guild SF /*

Following Haiti’s controversial presidential and legislative elections 
held on Sunday, Oct. 25, alarm is growing about irregularities in the 
counting of the votes at voting centers and in the transportation of 
votes to the tabulation center. There is widespread mistrust of the process.

Most international observers of the election and subsequent press 
reports have focused on the day of the election but not on the vital 
final stage of the electoral process – the counting and tabulation of 
the votes.

Although multiple political parties are protesting the post-election 
counting process, Haiti’s ruling party is praising the vote and 
objecting to critiques of the tabulation process. CEP (Haiti’s 
Provisional Electoral Council) has yet to make an official statement to 
address the growing concerns.

Voters are referring to the tabulation process as an electoral coup. 
Eyewitnesses on the ground say that the votes for each polling center 
must be matched with the names on the list for that polling center. If 
they do not match, they must not be counted. This is a practical way of 
weeding out ballot stuffing.

Although Haitians turned out in large numbers to vote, reports are 
putting the turnout at 30 percent. Community leaders are challenging 
this figure across the country; they say the turnout was much larger. 
There is also a groundswell for every vote to be counted in a 
transparent manner.


      Most international observers of the election and subsequent press
      reports have focused on the day of the election but not on the
      vital final stage of the electoral process – the counting and
      tabulation of the votes.

Members of the Human Rights and Labor Fact Finding Delegation, who were 
in Haiti in the lead-up to the election and reported on their findings 
<http://ymlp344.com/zYCKzI>, having met with over a dozen communities in 
several areas of the country, are now receiving the following reports:

  * Voters were blocked from voting when their names, though on the
    electoral rolls outside their polling center, were missing from the
    list inside the center and no provisional ballots were provided;
  * Irregularities in the counting of ballots at voting centers;
  * Starting about 3 p.m. on the day of the vote, ballots were brought
    in to replace the votes actually cast by the people;
  * Ballots collected at individual polling stations are being
    intercepted in a number of areas when in transit to the central
    tabulation center;
  * Some supporters of the candidate backed by the government now in
    power were caught ballot stuffing by MINUSTAH (U.N. troops);
  * In Port au Prince, a vehicle transporting ballots to the tabulation
    center got into an accident, there were two large boxes of ballots
    found and all were votes for the candidate supported by President
    Martelly. It is reported that the person driving the vehicle in
    question was an employee of the national palace;
  * Lavalas, the party that has shown a surge of support among voters
    despite having being banned from the electoral process for several
    election cycles following the coup against the Lavalas founder and
    leader President Aristide, has called for the candidate supported by
    the ruling party to be disqualified from the election due to illegal
    activity to influence the outcome of the vote;
  * The media is not reporting the surge in support for Lavalas despite
    voters testifying to the numbers.

Delegation members say that the U.S. has a special responsibility to 
ensure a fair and transparent counting of the votes. The U.S. confirmed 
the Aug. 9 election, although fraud was rampant and the turnout ranged 
from 4 to18 percent. The U.S. has poured millions of dollars into the 
election, and observers say that any vote tampering would not be without 
the complicity of the U.S. government.


      *Calls for free and fair elections in Haiti*

Congresswoman Maxine Waters said in a recent press interview: “There is 
a history in Haiti of the elections being tampered with … We know that 
people would like to just smooth things over and say that they are 
hopeful that things are going to go well because they don’t want to deal 
with the truth of the problems of Haiti and the problems of trying to 
get fair elections. There are still those who remember Martelly [Haiti’s 
outgoing president] and how he got elected and became president. So I am 
sure that feeling does not send a lot of confidence throughout the 
country. And we should all be concerned and continue to press forward as 
hard as we can.”

John McDonnell, the U.K. shadow chancellor, who has supported the people 
of Haiti in the past, expressed concern for the election: “It is 
critical that this election is a free and fair election, without 
violence or intimidation. Let democracy prevail.”

The actor Danny Glover: “There’s a great deal of money placed in this 
election … of which $30 million came from the U.S. The U.S. has a vital 
interest in what happens in this election, even though they are willing 
to accept fraud, accept any way in which voters are dismissed or removed 
from the voter register, any way in which Famni Lavalas is removed. They 
understand this is an important election. We have to understand that too.”

Delegation members include Barbara Rhine, attorney, representing the 
National Lawyers Guild of San Francisco; Dave Welsh, San Francisco Labor 
Council; Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee; Margaret Prescod, 
nationally syndicated journalist on Pacifica Radio and representative of 
the Global Women’s Strike in the U.S., England, Ireland, India and Peru.

Resources:

  * Rep. Maxine Waters’ letter to Secretary Kerry re elections in Haiti
    <https://waters.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congresswoman-waters-urges-secretary-kerry-support-free-fair-and>
  * Haiti Waits for Results of Presidential Election
    <http://www.voanews.com/content/haitian-vote-orderly-results-expected-early-november/3022897.html>,
    VOA News, Oct. 26, 2015
  * Summary of the fact-finding Human Rights and Labor Delegation to
    Haiti re presidential and legislative elections on Oct. 25, 2015
    <http://ymlp344.com/zYCKzI>

/The delegation can be reached through Global Women’s Strike, at 
//philly at globalwomenstrike.net/ <mailto:philly at globalwomenstrike.net>/. /

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