Haitians Boycott Senate Elections - Lavalas Flexes Its Muscles in Haiti

[magbana]

Please go to the website to check out the pictures.

"Lavalas flexes its muscles in Haiti

by Kevin Pina
President of Haiti Rene Preval appears visibly worried as his security detachment far out numbers voters at the polling station where he cast his ballot.
A nearly empty ballot box sits at a polling station in Port-au-Prince on April 19, 2009. Voters overwhelmingly stayed away from the polls after Haiti's largest political party called for a boycott.

HIP — Haiti's Lavalas movement effectively destroyed the credibility of yesterday's Senate election through a successful boycott campaign called Operation Closed Door. Even the most generous electoral count puts participation at less than 10% in the capital of Port-au-Prince while the actual figure may be as low as 3% nationwide.

According to Rene Civil, one of the spokespersons for Operation Closed Door, "What we are seeing is the non-violent resistance of the Haitian people to undemocratic elections. There is no way they will be able to call the Senators elected in this process legitimate. You cannot hold elections without the majority political party." Ronald Fareau, another representative of the campaign stated, "We want to congratulate the international community for their hypocrisy in these elections. They spent over 17 million dollars on another electoral fraud in Haiti while our people continue to suffer from malnutrition and illiteracy."

The controversy over the election began when factions of the Fanmi Lavalas party originally presented two slates of candidates to the Conseil Electoral Provisoire or CEP. The two slates were an apparent attempt to wrest control of the party from former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was ousted in Feb. 2004 and remains in exile in the Republic of South Africa. A break-away faction led by former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune questioned the legitimacy of the candidates presented by the former president's appointed representative Dr. Maryse Narcisse. The campaign against Narcisse and Aristide was brutal among their supporters including accusations of his appointed representative working with the CIA and the US State Department. Neptune's group then presented a second slate but in the end the Fanmi Lavalas party's leadership managed to hammer out a compromise list of candidates in time to meet the deadline.

The CEP finally refused to accept the Fanmi Lavalas applications on the grounds they did not have former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's personal signature from exile in South Africa. The CEP reportedly would not allow for a facsimile copy of his signature on the documents when they were presented on the final day of the application deadline. This effectively excluded all Fanmi Lavalas candidates from participating in the election and led to the boycott of the Senate elections on Sunday.

Neptune and other members of his faction within the Fanmi Lavalas party called for participation in the election despite the nationwide boycott. Early Sunday morning Neptune said publicly on a local radio program, "We must vote today if we are to keep the integrity of the democratic process." When asked on Radio Caraibe's Ranmase program if he had a message for voters Neptune responded, "Vote well." The success of yesterday's boycott was taken as a referendum of support for Aristide by the base of the Lavalas movement in the much-touted internal party conflict.

Although there were some reports of sporadic violence in yesterday's elections between supporters of current president Rene Preval's Lespwa party and its rival L'Union, the disruptions were isolated to a single city, Mirebalais, in the country's Central Plateau region.

There were largely no reports of violence or voting irregularities in the capital where streets and polling stations remained deserted throughout the day. The only incident occurred in the seaside shantytown of Cite Soleil after a member of the L'Union party was accused of handing out money and food to bribe voters.

Private vehicles and motorcycles were banned during the election as they were during the presidential election in Feb. 2006. Where long lines formed at the polls early in the day on Feb. 7, 2006, polling stations remained virtually empty on Sunday due to the Lavalas boycott.

Five Lavalas hunger strikers continued to occupy Haiti' s parliament building in an effort to draw attention to their party's exclusion from the election. They vowed to continue until the election is nullified and demanded that they be held over again during upcoming national elections scheduled for November.

As of 2:00 PM Haitian time, thousands of demonstrators were gathering in front of the parliament to support the hunger strikers as SWAT teams with the Haitian National Police, backed by UN military personnel, were seen surrounding the building.


©2009 Haiti Information Project "
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/4_20_9/4_20_9.html

[magbana]

1. Haitian Priorities Project (HPP) Demands Anullment of Senate Elections - Less Than 5% Voted

A PARTICIPATION RATE LOWER THAN THE 5% FORECASTED BY HAITIAN PRIORITIES PROJECT (HPP).

HPP CALLED FOR THE ANNULMENT OF THE ELECTIONS.

HAITIAN PRIORITIES PROJECT (HPP) takes this opportunity to thank all of its partners and contributors who helped achieved a careful and precise pre-election poll conducted in record time. Success was achieved despite the difficulties encountered in Haiti to produce reports in a time-sensitive manner. With the information provided to us by the people and our workers, and their respect for democratic principles in relaying and analyzing the facts as the people reported, our survey is by far the closest to the reality of the so-called elections on 19 April 2009.


To our beloved people, we send our applause and eternal gratitude for having once again demonstrated peace, serenity and political savyness. Your show of ingenuity and resilience against this undemocratic election gave a lesson of democracy to the CEP, the government of Haiti, and the international community. This past week has been a testament to the true will and might of the people.



HAITIAN PRIORITIES PROJECT simultaneously deplores the attacks of 19 April 2009 against election workers, politicians and the general public. We condemn acts of violence by militants and soldiers, against the people, trying to force them to vote in elections without complying with democratic norms. We say "shame" to those who have tried by flawed polls to influence the election results on behalf of wealthy patrons who completely ignore the welfare of our nation. Shame also to the security forces national and international operating in the country. These individuals who are supposed to be concerned with the safety of the people of Haiti, and the security of its streets proved unable to, despite the few participants in the streets, in order to protect the population against the violence of the enemies of democracy.


Key points
HPP has completed its analysis of the electoral procedures enacted by the senate on behalf of the Electoral College, and the application of the rules in the partial elections of 19 April 2009. It is necessary to report clear and serious cases of violation against articles 97, 121,125, 166 and 203. Detailed data on these issues were presented to the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) prior to the elections. We have verified these violations as being true and the behavior of CEP regarding these concerns was illegal and unreliable based on the aforementioned articles.




HPP has found evidence of abuse by the electoral commission in favor of LESPWA candidates. Corpuscles belonging to the President of the Republic's inner circle received

excessive and inappropriate support through the use of funds made available
and access to materials belonging to the state. They have exerted violence against elected officials and the public. These abuses have been demonstrated by the Senator of FUSION in the Central Plateau, Ms. Edmonde Bauzile Supplice, who claimed to be the subject of death threats. Heavily armed individuals have closed many polling stations.


Candidates for the Senate in the South East, Yves Dérisier (Fusion of Haitian Social Democrats) and Jean Pierre Joseph (Rassemblement National Progressive Democrats) have been officially withdrawn their candidacy from the race on Saturday 18 April 2009. Their withdrawals have been in protest to the decisions of the Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP) that they consider illegal.


The independent candidate Ronald St. Jean announced Thursday his withdrawal from the race because of many loopholes and violations by the establishment and the Electoral College machinery. He denounced the lack of a set of tools which should be the matrix of any serious election such as:

* The participation rates are abnormally low across different constituencies eligible
* The electoral register should have been available six months before the election, but still is not
* The general electoral roll and electoral partial list should be ready for 60 days and 30 days respectively before the election.



These abuses occurred in several regions of the country. Although important in terms of elections and democratic principles, the aggregate number of violations from these irregularities is decisive to the slimmest extent.

Serious irregularities have occurred, and attempts to manipulate voting results are evident. There are major procedural violations. A number of election workers have been involved willingly or forced into acts of fraud. These irregularities also reflect a lack of control over the production of official documents including the accreditation of observers and the documents relating to official travel, which have been used to fraudulently claim the right to vote.

PPH does not in any way prejudge the prerogative given to CEP in making their own decisions, however, the facts at issue, are to submit its analysis in order to inform the public and to provide candidates and political parties an independent and objective





evaluation of the process.

HPP requests that all concerned remain calm and ensure that their apprehension of the elections is based solely on a neutral and rigorous analysis of electoral facts. With a rate of less than 5% of qualified individuals who took part in these elections, the CEP, the

President and the international community can in no way validate these elections.

Participation rate
Official figures should show a national participation rate of less than 5%, or about 25% to 46% less than the turnout in the elections of 25 June 1995 Page 4.



http://www.gao.gov/archive/1996/ns96147.pdf



In 2006, the participation rate was 30%, based on statements made by David Wimhurst Spokesperson for the UN mission in Haiti. (see haitiprogres)



www.haitiprogres.com/2006/sm060426/eng04-26.html


A participation rate this low simply reflects the wish of the people to stop the government of Préval/Pierre-Louis and the international community from reinstituting exclusion in Haiti. It was a strong and vigorous message and mobilization by the Lavalas Party: "PÒT FEMEN, LARI BLANCH.



However, offices or polling centers that display higher participation rates than others in their areas deserve further attention. Moreover, if the results of these offices heavily favor one candidate, this could indicate an attempt to manipulate the result of the elections through ballot stuffing or fraudulent votes made in the absence of witnesses or observers.

HPP lead its election observation in accordance with the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and Code of Conduct adopted by the United Nations in 2005. These principles should have been utilized uniformly to abate and nullify this farce election.





www.hpp4haiti.com
www.project2000international.org
312-735-6071

[Judi Lynn]

2. Unbelievable. Great photos at the link. Very revealing.

Hope the Obama administration will somehow work toward getting a truer understanding of what has happened, what is happening in Haiti.

Sending Hillary or her husband through to talk with the sweatshop owners will not be the solution. If only they can finally figure this out for themselves before far more lives are needlessly lost.

How the CEP officials ever pulled off that "not even by fax" demand for Aristide's signature is pathetic, and brazen. Shameful. Hope they will be taught a lesson they'll never be able to forget.

[sam kane]

3. news blackout on this in the U.S.?

amazing.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Sad, isn't it? Almost NO information on Haiti EVER gets through to us.

It's horrendous, considering how large the funding paid for with our own tax dollars has been to overthrow their elected, beloved President Aristide TWICE. We've paid a lot of money to deprive them of the legitimate results of their elections,

[magbana]

5. And no wonder one of the stories honored in Project Censored 2008

was about Haiti

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/12-another-massacre-in-haiti-by-un-troops/