Haiti held presidential and legislative elections again on Sun., Nov. 20, and this alone was a minor victory. To reach this point, Haitians had to largely boycott three fraudulent elections and replace Michel Martelly’s rule in February 2016 with an interim administration. This transition government has been sufficiently honest to verify the election results of October 2015. An Independent Committee for Electoral Evaluation and Verification (Commission Indépendante d’Evaluation et de Vérification Electorale, CIEVE) discovered that “zombies” had cast about 70% of the ballots. In other words, in elections that were reported to have had a 25% turnout, the real participation was only 6% of the eligible 6.2 million voters, and the rest of the voters were fabricated.

The interim government took to heart the recommendations of CIEVE to repeat the elections and remove foreign influence from them. Haiti raised $48 million on its own for these elections. The country seemed on a smooth path to a free-and-fair plebiscite until category-four Hurricane Matthew made landfall in southwest Haiti five days before the scheduled date of Oct. 9. The elections had to be postponed.

Contrary to predictions, the main problems of the post-hurricane elections have had little to do with the damage to the polling stations. The claims in the media of massive damage to these stations have been greatly exaggerated and used to pressure the government to seek more money for the elections. The United States has assisted Haiti’s elections again, through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for some unspecified sum, with rebuilding its polling stations. Other concerns include: an opaque new method of vote tabulation that was announced only on Nov. 16 by Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (Conseil Electoral Provisoire, CEP); claims from human rights organizations and political parties that foreigners will tabulate the election results; journalist reports that many citizens were not granted their national identification cards (Carte d’Identification Nationale, CIN), which were required for voting; police reports that some individuals possessed large sets of CINs; and finally, the rains that have battered Haiti and caused floods, especially in the North, throughout November.

Haitians are trying to mend the political unraveling of their country since the cholera elections of 2010-11 spewed out the vulgar musician Michel Martelly. According to Wikileaks-procured Clinton e-mails, top aide Chery Mills advised her boss, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to go to Haiti to demand a change in the results of the first-round November 2010 elections, while publicly extolling the U.S. partnership with Haiti. To remove popular candidate Jude Célestin from the race, the Organization of American States (OAS) changed its vote-tabulation method to discard most of the votes that had been cast for him. Clinton and Mills got, as the second-round candidates, the “MMs” they wanted: Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly. Of course, Michel Martelly won.

With the full support of Bill and Hillary Clinton, by the earthquake’s fifth anniversary in January 2015, Haiti had become a cholera kleptocracy. About $13 billion of aid money had been laundered through the country, leaving Port-au-Prince unreconstructed. The Parliament had dissolved from neglect, because no local or legislative elections had been held in four years. All the mayors and other elected local officials had been replaced by so-called “interim agents,” many of them known criminals, who answered directly to Martelly. Public outcry and massive protests at the state of affairs forced Martelly in spring 2015 to organize legislative, local, and presidential elections in August and October 2015, but as we learned, these elections were rigged.

On November 20, 2016 Haitians went to the polls to elect 16 out of 30 senators plus 25 out of 109 representatives (députés), and consider 27 presidential candidates, the top four of whom were

(1) Jude Célestin, a mechanical engineer and the former executive director of Haiti’s construction ministry, the National Center of Equipment (CNE). He is the man whom Hillary Clinton personally intervened to have removed from the March 2011 run-off election. Now running under the banner of the Alternative League for Progress and Haitian Emancipation (LAPEH), he again placed second in the Oct. 25, 2015 contest but, due to the evident fraud, he refused to take part in a second round until the results were independently verified. He thereby facilitated the boycott movement that led to new elections.

(2) Moïse Jean-Charles, previously Haiti’s Senator for the North Department. The North is the site of Haiti’s gold mines and an area in which Hillary Clinton’s brother, Tony Rodham, continues to have great financial interest. For years, Moïse Jean-Charles kept Martelly in check by his work in the Senate and by helping to organize countless protests against Martelly, the Clintons’ corrupt Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), and the United Nations military occupation. In 2015, he formed the Dessalines Children (Pitit Desalin) party, a breakaway from the Lavalas Family party.

(3) Maryse Narcisse, a former public health minister who is supported by former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In principle, she should have massive support because of her association with Aristide and the long-popular Lavalas Family party, but her base has shrunk now that Lavalas has splintered into two parties. Narcisse kept mostly silent during the Martelly administration except for occasional commemorations of Lavalas anniversaries.

(4) Jovenel Moise, a rich banana farmer/businessman who was nationally unknown until he ran for president. He is the candidate of the Haitian Party of the Bald Heads (Parti Haïtien Tet Kale, PHTK), founded by former President Martelly. Not coincidentally, Jovenel placed first in the Martelly-organized October 2015 elections, which were found to be fraudulent.

The voter turnout was still low this time around, although a larger number of Haiti’s voters went to the polls. In the northern city of Cap Haïtien, many people lined up under umbrellas in the rain. More than 4,200 accredited Haitian observers were deployed to monitor the voting centers, inside and out, and over 12,000 police officers provided security. Despite its tainted past, the OAS also had its own 130 observers, led by the Uruguayan Ambassador Juan Raul Pereira, and UN troops were there too.

As the polls were closing, a suspicious electrical blackout blanketed Port-au-Prince and most of the country in darkness. Nevertheless, the U.S., OAS, and UN immediately congratulated the country on its well-organized, peaceful elections. This should be worrisome, because in the past such statements have always been coded language for “the fix is in.” Presidential candidate Jovenel Moïse is alleged to have distributed red roofing materials and 50 gourdes Digicel phone cards in exchange for votes. The pollsters have also been on his side, with some polls predicting that he will win more than 50% of the votes in the first round. Should this result be announced, Haiti will probably explode in massive riots. On the other hand, if somehow the elections manage to be reasonably free and fair, it is likely that two of the top four candidates will go to a run-off on Jan. 29, 2017.