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<font size=4><b>HAITI'S ELECTION FARCE BACKFIRES by Charlie
Hinton<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>15 January 2011<br><br>
Haiti held its $30,000,000 fraudulent demonstration election on<br>
November 28, but we still don’t know if or when a run-off will take<br>
place, or who will be the candidates. It’s such a mess that Haiti’s<br>
international rulers are sending in a commission to try one last
time<br>
to give a whiff of legitimacy to a totally illegitimate and corrupt<br>
process.<br><br>
The day after a visit by U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,<br>
Haiti’s Electoral Council ruled that for the 2009 Senatorial<br>
elections, Fanmi Lavalas, Haiti’s largest and most popular party,<br>
founded by twice overthrown and currently exiled President<br>
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, could not run candidates. This decision led
to<br>
an electoral boycott that saw fewer than 10% vote in the first
round,<br>
and far fewer in the run-off. Nevertheless, President Preval and the<br>
“international community,” (the United States, France, and Canada,<br>
with the United Nations acting as surrogate) recognized the
results.<br><br>
In these 2010 presidential elections, the Electoral Council, without<br>
giving any explanation, ruled that neither Fanmi Lavalas nor more
than<br>
a dozen other parties could participate. Preval was reported to have<br>
said it would take only 4% of the vote to win, indicating that the<br>
suppression of voter turnout might be a campaign tactic. Although<br>
Preval has ties to many of the candidates, he favors Jude Celestin,<br>
who according to differing reports, is either engaged or married to<br>
Preval’s daughter.<br><br>
The Obama administration spent $14,500,000 on these elections,<br>
funneled through USAID, despite 45 U.S. congresspeople’s warning
they<br>
would not be free and fair, and their call for the participation of<br>
banned parties, in particular Fanmi Lavalas. The candidates spent<br>
millions of dollars promoting themselves, an insult to the potential<br>
voters they courted, huddled in miserable tent and tarp
encampments.<br><br>
The government used voter rolls from before the earthquake,
containing<br>
the names of many of the 250,000 people who had died. People had no<br>
idea where to vote. One woman went to 6 polling places in<br>
Port-au-Prince, another to 4, looking for their names on lists.
People<br>
looking for their names created long lines at polling places,
falsely<br>
reported by international media as people lined up to vote. In<br>
addition, the number of polling places had been reduced from around<br>
12,000 in the last genuinely democratic election in 2000, to fewer<br>
than a thousand this time, helping to create the appearance of a
large<br>
turnout while keeping turnout low.<br><br>
In a polling station in the north, one candidate said that when poll<br>
observers arrived at 6:45 A.M., they were told that the voting was<br>
over, reminiscent of fraudulent elections held under Duvalier and<br>
subsequent military dictatorships when ballot boxes were stuffed<br>
before voting began. This complaint was heard in different parts of<br>
the country. Official results claim that 23% of the electorate
voted,<br>
but on-the-ground observers claim turnout was much lower.<br><br>
By noon, 12 of the candidates, including Michel Martelly and
Mirlande<br>
Manigat, had joined together to denounce the massive fraud and
demand<br>
the elections be cancelled. That evening, however, Edmond Mulet,
head<br>
of the U.N. occupation forces in Haiti, called them both to say they<br>
were in the run-off, and they withdrew their opposition. Then the<br>
results were announced: Manigat, an attorney and former first lady
who<br>
represents the interests of Haiti’s elite, first, and Celestin, a<br>
government official in charge of infrastructure reconstruction in<br>
Haiti, second, with Martelly, a musician with close ties to Duvalier<br>
and successor death squads and coup leaders a close third.<br>
(<a href="http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume4-22/MichelMartelly_Stealth_Duvalierist.asp" eudora="autourl">
http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume4-22/MichelMartelly_Stealth_Duvalierist.asp</a>
)<br><br>
Protests broke out all over Haiti. The media credited the outrage to<br>
Martelly supporters, but people from many political tendencies<br>
protested the phony elections, the exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas, the<br>
U.N. occupation, and the role of U.N. troops from Nepal bringing<br>
cholera into Haiti. The “international community” has sent in an<br>
electoral commission to “recount the votes.” The people of Haiti say<br>
there’s nothing to recount garbage in, garbage out. A report by
the<br>
Center for Economic and Policy Research states, “The amount of votes<br>
not counted or counted wrong in this election is huge. . .Based on
the<br>
numbers of irregularities, it is impossible to determine who should<br>
advance to a second round. If there is a second round, it will be<br>
based on arbitrary assumptions and/or exclusions.”<br>
(<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/haitis-fatally-flawed-election" eudora="autourl">
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/haitis-fatally-flawed-election</a>
)<br>
The majority of Haitians claim there should be new free and fair<br>
elections with all parties participating.<br><br>
But this goes counter to the purpose of these “demonstration<br>
elections” in the first place, which are designed to isolate Fanmi<br>
Lavalas to PREVENT real grassroots democracy in Haiti, to put a<br>
“democratic” face on a military occupation, to provide an illusion
of<br>
“democracy” to ensure a stable investment climate, and to<br>
“demonstrate” to the populations in the occupying countries that
their<br>
troops and tax dollars serve a useful purpose.<br><br>
Fanmi Lavalas and the Lavalas movement overwhelmingly have shown
their<br>
popularity and influence in every election since 1990, when Aristide<br>
was elected with 67% of the vote. The Haitian majority loves<br>
President Aristide, who put the needs of poor Haitians ahead of the<br>
demands of international bankers, though by doing so created
powerful<br>
enemies. (see WE WILL NOT FORGET: The Achievements of Lavalas)<br><br>
Since the ruling elites could not defeat him through the electoral<br>
process, they turned to other means, culminating on February 29,
2004,<br>
when U.S military and diplomatic personnel kidnapped the President
and<br>
his family, and flew them to the Central African Republic. U.S.,<br>
French, and Canadian troops occupied Haiti, until 8,000 U.N. troops<br>
replaced them. That number rose to the current 11,500 personnel on
the<br>
ground (military and police) after the earthquake, and now the media<br>
is speculating even more troops will be sent to fight “gangs” and<br>
“unrest,” when the true purpose of these troops is to quell
political<br>
resistance to the occupation.<br><br>
These foreign troops, along with Haitian police and mercenaries have<br>
killed more than 10,000 people in a counterinsurgency operation
aimed<br>
at destroying the base of Lavalas in the poorest communities within<br>
Haiti, but the movement for grassroots democracy continues to be so<br>
strong that now the ruling powers have been driven to the extreme of<br>
continually increasing the number of occupation forces and
prohibiting<br>
Fanmi Lavalas participation in the electoral process, because they<br>
know their candidates will win.<br><br>
So they spend $30,000,000 on this exercise in un-democracy through
non-election:<br><br>
* To pretend stability exists in a profoundly unstable
situation.<br><br>
* To pretend that more than a million people are
living normal,<br>
stable lives, not in tents and under tarps, because they have no<br>
homes, no sanitation, no cooking facilities, and no clean water.<br><br>
* To pretend that more than a tiny portion of donated
aid has been<br>
delivered and distributed fairly.<br><br>
* To pretend that more than 5% of the rubble from the
earthquake<br>
has been cleared.<br><br>
* To pretend that U.N. troops from Nepal did not
introduce cholera<br>
into Haiti.<br><br>
* To pretend that Haitians want any elections in which
the largest<br>
and most popular party can’t run candidates.<br><br>
* To pretend that those “elected” will serve Haiti’s
majority<br>
before they serve Haiti’s ruling elites and international
masters.<br><br>
* To pretend that President Aristide isn’t Haiti’s
most popular<br>
and respected leader, and that people don’t want him back in the<br>
country.<br><br>
* To pretend that democracy exists in the first place.
But it<br>
doesn’t. How will this pretend electoral fantasy play itself out?
Stay<br>
tuned.<br><br>
To sign the petition sponsored by the Center for Constitutional
Rights<br>
and Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti demanding fair,<br>
inclusive elections in Haiti, CLICK<br>
---------------------------<br><br>
Charlie Hinton is a member of Haiti Action Committee and works at<br>
Inkworks Press, a worker-owned and collectively managed printing<br>
company in Berkeley, CA. He is the author of:<br><br>
“From Jackboots to Wingtips: The evolution of Nazi Economics from<br>
World War II to the Present,” available upon request. You may reach<br>
him at ch_lifewish@yahoo.com.<br><br>
<br><br>
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