[News] No to Stolen Elections in Haiti

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS IN HAITI!   ONE PERSON ONE VOTE.**
NO TO STOLEN ELECTIONS IN HAITI.*


Haiti’s Presidential election, postponed from the scheduled date of Oct. 
9^th due to Hurricane Mathew,
is now scheduled for November 20^th , 2016.  There can be no recovery 
unless there is a government
in place that truly represents the people.  The lack of such a 
government is why there was no recovery
from the 2010 earthquake and why there must now be free and fair 
elections in which the people's
voice is heard. If hurricane relief is separated from that, recovery 
will fail.*

*The Haitian grassroots have worked very hard for over a year, risking 
their lives to demand free and
fair elections. As a result of their pressure, the 2015 electoral 
results were declared fraudulent.But
there is concern that those who do not want to see free and fair 
elections are putting in place an
apparatus of violence and intimidation, denying voters their electoral 
cards, and instituting sudden
changes of polling stations to suppress the popular vote, steal ballots, 
change the vote count, and
influence “election observers”.

The grassroots majority is demanding:
*1) Free and fair elections.
      2) No US/Canada/France/UN interference in the right of Haitians – 
one person one vote.
      3) Stop US financing and other support for the terror campaign by 
a minority elite against
          the impoverished majority who are fighting for democracy in Haiti.
      4) The new Haitian President must be installed by Feb 7^th , 2017, 
in keeping with the Haitian
          Constitution
      5) Fair and unbiased reporting by the international press. *

Fanmi Lavalas, the political party and movement headed by Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide, is running a presidential candidate for the first time since 
the US-backed coup removed President Aristide from power in 2004 and 
excluded Lavalas from elections. Dr. Maryse Narcisse has been endorsed 
by President Aristide and they are campaigning together across the 
country, meeting huge enthusiastic crowds. *Dr. Narcisse could become 
the first woman elected president of Haiti and the first since President 
Aristide to be chosen by and speak for the impoverished majority.* She 
has traveled as part of Karavan Solidarite Fanmi Lavalas to areas 
hardest hit  by the hurricane, assessing damage and bringing food, 
medical care, building supplies, drinking water and water treatment to 
prevent cholera, which was brought to Haiti by UN forces and has been 
spread by flood waters.

The Haitian people, who mobilized for months last year, risking their 
lives to overturn rigged election results, succeeded in winning this new 
election round.  They are determined that their votes will count this 
time and that every vote will be counted.  After the vote, they will 
mobilize again to defend their ballot from interference.

With the election rescheduled, people are protesting the end-of-January 
date for a run-off election.  They say it would not allow sufficient 
time to install the new President by the Feb 7^th date set by the 
Haitian Constitution, and they are demanding that the Feb 7^th 
Constitutional deadline be met.

The electoral council (CEP) is charged with organizing the elections, 
but they have a history of overseeing the massive fraud that has marred 
recent elections.  There is also concern that if the CEP results are, 
once again, fraudulent, teams of “observers” headed by the OAS and other 
international bodies and their local counterparts will declare the 
results “legitimate” despite evidence pointing to the opposite.

The information below is gathered from people on the ground in Haiti:

1) The CEP is headed by Leopold Berlanger, a leading figure of the 2004 
US-backed coup against democratically elected President Jean Bertrand 
Aristide.

2) The main 2004 coup leader and wealthy sweatshop owner, Andy Apaid, 
plays a central role as lead consultant in the CEP tabulation center 
where the votes will be counted and the results published.

3) The CEP under Berlanger's leadership has not implemented a number of 
recommendations of the Electoral Verification Commission, which was 
established in response to the massive fraud in last year’s elections. 
The CEP has allowed fraudulent parliamentary results to stand, favoring 
supporters of outgoing President Michel Martelly who was imposed by the US.

4) The CEP insists on quarantining a candidate's votes from a precinct 
where this candidate obtains 200+out of a total of 550 ballots. Under 
the pretext of preventing fraud, perfectly valid ballots are eliminated 
from the count because a popular candidate is receiving “too many” 
votes. Officials of Fanmi Lavalas have been protesting this measure as 
it arbitrarily discards valid ballots in precincts that have large 
turnouts in favor of their candidates. Quarantined or provisional 
ballots end up not being counted and are likely to be destroyed.

5) A leading figure of the 2004 coup, Rosny Desroches, is in charge of 
the officially-designated election observer teams of 1,500 individuals.  
The media reports that funding for the observer teams came through the 
National Democratic Institute (NDI) in collaboration with International 
Foundation for Electoral Services (IFES).  While the International 
Republican Institute (IRI) does not have offices in Haiti, it operates 
from the Dominican Republic through a number of existing organizations 
in Haiti. Both NDI and IRI are part of the U.S. government’s National 
Endowment for Democracy; the IRI was implicated in the 2004 coup and are 
known for funding interference, destabilization and other efforts to 
influence elections to impose US foreign and economic policies, 
including regime change.

6) It has been reported that the National Organization for the 
Advancement of Haitians (NOAH) is organizing an election observer team 
of 200 people.  NOAH has worked closely with the Organization of 
American States (OAS) and the US State Department, both of which have 
been ardent supporters of fraudulent elections in Haiti.

7) The OAS, which is sending a team of observers for the November 20th 
election, has been thoroughly discredited in Haiti for its recent 
support of the massive fraud orchestrated by the CEP in 2015.   The OAS 
record of support for fraudulent elections in Haiti includes its 
intrusive role in the 2010-11 elections that resulted in Martelly being 
imposed as president.

The people of Haiti continue to mobilize for elections that are truly 
free and fair, free from ballot dumping and other blatant fraud which 
characterized the 2015 elections. The Haitian people are demanding: *One 
person, one vote.  Tout moun se moun.  Every person counts.*


-- 
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