Preval loses large lead in tense Haiti poll count, increasing runoff chanc

[mom cat]

Preval loses large lead in tense Haiti poll count, increasing runoff chances
Preval loses large lead in tense Haiti poll count, increasing runoff chances


AP , PORT-AU-PRINCE
Sunday, Feb 12, 2006,Page 7
"Everything in Haiti is broken and everything needs fixing."

Robert Maguire, director of the international affairs program at Trinity University in Washington

Rene Preval's lead in Haiti's presidential election narrowed, raising chances a runoff election will be needed to decide who will run this impoverished Caribbean nation plagued by political instability and gang violence.

Election officials were still counting ballots at a tortuous pace three days after voters turned out in huge numbers on Tuesday to choose among 33 presidential contenders.

Preval, a former president and agronomist who is highly popular among the poor, had 50.26 percent of 1.1 million valid votes counted so far, the electoral council said on Friday. Leslie Manigat, a former president, had 11.41 percent of the vote. Businessman Charles Henri Baker had 8.3 percent.

The first initial partial results issued by the council on Thursday showed Preval leading with 61.5 percent of the vote.

The winning candidate needs 50 percent plus one vote to avoid a March runoff.

More than 1.75 million votes were cast, UN officials said. Max Mathurin, president of Haiti's electoral council, said it was not known when the vote count would be completed.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/02/12/2003292705

[1932]

1. Three days to count votes??? And over three days Preval has lost over 10%?

Hmm.

So, will they conveniently finish counting once he's below 50%?

[adriennui]

2. why is haiti such a mess?

so much despair and poverty. is there any way to fix it?

[magellan]

4. Because Bush** can't keep his finger out

The Haitians had a democratically elected President, Aristide, until Bush** had him kidnapped and exiled so the US-backed rightwing military faction could take over. Haitians who'd been living in despair and poverty to that point suddenly started DYING en masse as well for having the gall to protest this interference in their affairs.

The way to fix it is to let Haiti run its democracy the way the Haitian people want!!

[adriennui]

7. i'd be afraid of anarchy

there were problems before the chimp. was there ever a time when haiti wasn't governed by the military? i'm woefully ignorant about haiti except for the duvaliers.

what is a good source for background info?

[mom cat]

12. Try this for starters:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/uncovering-a-usplanned-c_b_14750.html
I will see if I have anything else.
See also any links provided by Judy Lynn

and:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-02,GGLG:en&q=Aristide%2C+Democracy+Now

[adriennui]

16. thanks, momcat

it's time i become more educated.

[mom cat]

17. me too!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Update: Preval closing on lead in Haiti poll

Preval closing on lead in Haiti poll
From correspondents in Port-Au-Prince
12feb06

FRONT-runner Rene Preval, 63, a champion the poor, Saturday dipped below the 50 per cent needed to win Haiti's presidential outright, with one third of the votes still to be counted.

But Mr Preval maintained a huge lead over his rivals, and several thousand people took to the streets of the capital insisting he had won, and chanting "Mr Preval president."
Mr Preval had 49.6 per cent of the vote, based on 72 per cent of ballots tallied from Tuesday's election.

While the partial results placed Mr Preval just under the majority needed to avert a second round, the former president maintained a 38 per cent lead over second placed Leslie Manigat.
(snip/...)

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18122854%255E1702,00.html



René Préval

[mom cat]

9. Give this the smell test:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x190511

Note the issues of the alleged "blank ballots".

[Judi Lynn]

10. Now that's just unbearable, isn't it? It was hard to overlook the way the

right-wing-reactionary-pandering Miami Herald shot right past the blank ballot issue and dove into trying to nail down a pro-right-wing (misleading) reading of Haitian history, including an attempted character assassination of Aristide? Someone doesn't want public doubt of the legitimacy of the _Bush orchestrated, financed coup on Aristide.

Unfortunately that paper is unswervingly determined to reinforce _Bush policy at all possible costs. After a season of bomb-threats, death threats, wide-spread boycott by the Cuban right-wing "exiles" led by Jorge Mas Canosa, complete with details like jamming and smearing paper vending machines in the city with feces, things so bad the publisher David Lawrence and his wife started having their cars checked for bombs before starting them the Herald became a right-wing policy paper out self-preservation needs.

Just saw a show based on a N.Y.Times article on one of the cable channels a couple of weeks ago which revealed the _Bush involvement throughout the coup. It was astounding seeing it discussed openly on tv finally. Here's a related article:

On Sunday, the New York Times ran a lengthy investigative piece by Walt Bogdanovich and Jenny Nordberg, "Mixed U.S. Signals Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos," which claimed to expose how the a taxpayer funded Washington non-profit with close ties to the Bush administration, the International Republican Institute, and its Haiti operative, Stanley Lucas, fomented a coup in Haiti that deposed its democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In fact, the story was remarkably similar to a story I wrote nearly two years ago for Salon.com. On January 3, 2005, a New York Times staffer named Ursula Andrews emailed me, asking for help with research. I was excited that the newspaper of record was finally picking up on the story, and complied with their request. When the Times published its story, it contained no citation of my work.

So here is my article, "The Other Regime Change," in its entirety. Unlike the Times, my story includes well-sourced details of Stanley Lucas' sordid personal history, like his family's orchestration of a bloody peasant massacre, his role in training death squad personnel, and his campaign to destroy former US Ambassor Brian Dean Curran. You may be surprised at what your tax dollars are funding in the name of democracy promotion:

The other regime change
Did the Bush administration allow a network of right-wing Republicans to foment a violent coup in Haiti?
(snip/...)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/uncovering-a-usplanned-c_b_14750.html

[mom cat]

11. I am worried that the same forces are now at work to foment a crisis

between now and a runoff (caused by the mysterious blank votes) whereby UN forces engage in more of a crackdown and/or Preval is assassinated.
Thank you for your information and insight on Latin America and your detailed, reasoned and yet impassioned commentary on the issues there. Your posts have helped educate me on the issues there more than any other single source.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Strange that it should come "to pass" that we would be led to fear

U.N. "blue helmets!" I had always imagined that was the imaginary world created by idiot right-wingers who "entertain" themselves with their yarns about U.N. "blue helmets" training out in the wild in Montana, etc., flying around in all those "black helicopters."

It took the appearance of _{George W. Bush} and Neo-Con America to subvert the use of these soldiers to something deadly. Here's an article which indicates they may have simply become an international strong-arm force which can be used like contractors to enforce _Neo-con policy:

UN's feared blue helmets blamed for Haiti attacks

http://smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/02/03/haiti4206_wideweb__470x327,0.jpg
By Reed Lindsay in Cite Soleil, Haiti
February 4, 2006
Page 1 of 2
BY NOON the gunfire had stopped and residents of this cinder block and sheet metal slum cautiously gathered around the body of Jackson Mombege.

It lay face down in a pool of blood in the middle of the street. A man shouted in anger, women wailed, and Mr Mombege's three-year-old son burst into tears.

Neighbours said United Nations peacekeepers gunned down the 33-year-old labourer when he stepped into a side street.

"{The UN} tank stopped in front of him," Guiva Mombrun, 48, said. "They shot him, and he fell."

As he spoke, the rumble of an approaching UN armoured personnel carrier was heard, and Mr Mombrun and his panicked neighbours dashed away.

In this enormous seaside slum, where police do not dare enter and young men armed with automatic rifles zip around in stolen four-wheel-drives, UN peacekeepers have come to be feared and resented by the people they were sent here to protect.

(snip/...)

http://smh.com.au/news/world/uns-feared-blue-helmets-blamed-for-haiti-attacks/2006/02/03/1138958907410.html

The deadly last lines of that article deserve special attention:

So far the UN has not ceded to elite demands for a large-scale offensive. But nor has it tried to negotiate with the armed groups, hampered by the US-backed interim government's refusal to grant an amnesty.

"There is no military solution to Cite Soleil," said General Husban. "The solution could be giving the gangs amnesty and giving more social help. Medicine, food, development projects … It seems that the Government is not willing to solve the problem of Cite Soleil and they want us to go there and destroy it, to kill all the people there. We will not do this."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sounds as if there CAN'T be peace there until the U.S. gets a peace-seeking, decent President.

[mom cat]

14. This brings me to tears of rage! ...yet some good news:

http://www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org/whats_new_index.html
FEBRUARY
10 February - The gangs that control Haiti's largest and most violent slum will give up their weapons and stop fighting a "totalitarian" government if René Préval becomes president, a top gang leader said. Augudson Nicolas, known as General Toutou, said the gangs would hand over their guns to a Préval government in a public ceremony, bringing peace to the teeming Cité Soleil slum where UN peacekeepers have been involved in near-daily gunfights with heavily armed street toughs in recent months. Early election returns had Préval leading with 61 percent of the vote in Tuesday's election. If the result holds, he would have the majority he needs to avoid a March 19 runoff. "We are not interested in using weapons any more. The elections have taken place. We are going to have a legitimate government," Nicolas, considered one of the most influential leaders of the gangs, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday in Cité Soleil, a teeming warren of shanties thought to be home to more than 300,000 people.

Haiti's disparate armed groups have offered to disarm but failed to carry through in the past, but the United Nations mission in Haiti - about 9,000 soldiers and civilian police - welcomed Nicolas' proposal. "The whole issue is about getting the guns out of Cité Soleil," UN spokesman David Wimhurst said. "It would be great if they moved in that direction." (Reuters)



Whether they can make peace before the US instigates more violence is the issue. I fear that the runoff will be an excuse for planned destabilization.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Thanks for the news, and the good link. You hate to see them become

too vulnerable, too trusting with people working for the Neocon agenda there. It looks as if _Bush-like people do see people who can't be useful to them as being completely disposable. They've found a way to live without consciences, apparently , so they're not limited the way real human beings are bound by concern, protectiveness, respect for others.

This will be a very dicey crossing in the next few days.

Found an article which indicates Haitians are NOT deceived concerning _Bush's objectives in Haiti:

The connection between the KLA, the United States - in particular U.S. Ambassador to Haiti James Foley and Haiti's paramilitaries/former military - is not new. In an article published the day Aristide was ousted by the U.S., Canada, and France-backed coup, Ottawa Professor Michel Chossudovsky effectively predicted the scenario that we are now seeing played out today. Chossudovsky first describes the KLA in Kosovo:

"The KLA had been involved in similar targeted political assassinations and killings of civilians, in the months leading up to the 1999 NATO invasion as well as in its aftermath. Following the NATO led invasion and occupation of Kosovo, the KLA was transformed into the Kosovo Protection Force (KPF) under UN auspices. Rather than being disarmed to prevent the massacres of civilians, a terrorist organization with links to organized crime and the Balkans drug trade, was granted a legitimate political status."

Chossudovsky also points out the connection between James Foley (appointed ambassador to Haiti in September, 2003) and the KLA:

"At the time of the Kosovo war, the current ambassador to Haiti James Foley was in charge of State Department briefings, working closely with his NATO counterpart in Brussels, Jamie Shea. Barely two months before the onslaught of the NATO led war on 24 March 1999, James Foley had called for the "transformation" of the KLA into a respectable political organization:

"We want to develop a good relationship with them (the KLA) as they transform themselves into a politically-oriented organization,' ..`(W)e believe that we have a lot of advice and a lot of help that we can provide to them if they become precisely the kind of political actor we would like to see them become... "If we can help them and they want us to help them in that effort of transformation, I think it's nothing that anybody can argue with..' (quoted in the New York Times, 2 February 1999)"

As we consider the connection between this context and that of the paramilitaries-cum-"liberators" in Haiti, led by Guy Philippe and Jodel Chamblain, some further KLA context is essential. Writes Chossudovsky:

"The US State Department's position as conveyed in Foley's statement was that the KLA would "not be allowed to continue as a military force but would have the chance to move forward in their quest for self government under a 'different context'" meaning the inauguration of a de facto "narco-democracy" under NATO protection."

It's also important to note how Ambassador Foley is perceived by Haitians. A Haitian lawyer who "asked not to be named" told the Ecumenical Program in Central America and the Caribbean's delegation

"What I see now is we're going right into a dictatorship. U.S. Ambassador Foley is the real President of Haiti! Each day I get more and more scared. It's the rewriting of 1915."(2)
(snip/...)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/FEN411A.html

[Mika]

18. This BushCo's plan for "transition" in Cuba also.

Gee.. I wonder why Cubans in Cuba don't want the US formulating any "transition" plans for them?

[High Plains]

5. The amazing disappearing winning margin...

Why would I think this smells a little funny?

[Judi Lynn]

6. It would be interesting to know who is in there helping them count.

Can these reeking pieces of #### be accounted for, or have some of them gone to help out?



Maybe Miami sent Vigilia Mambisa, the "rent-a-riot" Cuban-Americans who were so happy to assist the Tom Delay congressional aides at the Miami-Dade recount.

[mom cat]

8. Election results expected in Haiti Sunday

Election results expected in Haiti Sunday Associated Press
Published: Sunday, February 12, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Final election results are expected today in Haiti, where former president Rene Preval has a big lead.

The question now is whether he won enough votes to avoid a runoff.

Preval has nearly half of the nearly 1.5 million votes counted so far out of nearly 1.8 million cast.

The second place candidate has about 12 per cent of the vote, and all the other hopefuls are in single digits.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=50972b3a-b02e-4d58-a016-c8a00e2f131a

[cal04]

19. Crowds demand Preval be named Haiti president

Shouting "Preval is president," thousands of protesters marched in the Haitian capital on Sunday demanding election results five days after the troubled Caribbean nation's first vote since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted two years ago.
The large demonstrations came as concerns grew that the election results, which showed former president Preval romping ahead of his rivals in the first round but just short of a majority needed to avoid a runoff, were being manipulated.

Preval, a former Aristide ally opposed by the wealthy elite in the poor Caribbean nation, complained there was a "problem" with the counting, and two members of a nine-member council that oversees elections decried "manipulation" of the count. The electoral council had said final results would be made public on Sunday but they had not been released by early evening, as thousands rallied outside the hilltop hotel where the tally was to be announced.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6462783&cKey=1139790018000

[lostnfound]

20. What a surprise (sarcasm). And the poor were shut off from voting

in Cite Soleil, and in nearby polling places they didn't open for hours, with very long lines.