On Sun., Aug. 9, 2015, the
Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) of the government of
President Michel Martelly and de facto Prime Minister
Evans Paul plans to hold the first round of legislative
elections to fill two-thirds of the Senate (20 seats)
and the entire Chamber of Deputies (119 seats).
According to the CEP, more than 5.8 million
Haitians are expected to vote, although campaigning,
which ends Fri., Aug. 7, 2015, has been very restrained
due to confrontations between various candidates’
supporters.
We expect a lot of trouble. As we have often
warned, this electoral farce has been organized in a
context of violence, corruption, and intimidation. Is
there not a hidden hand that pulls the strings of
violence which has already begun?
The CEP professes that it is working in good
faith for the elections’ success, as does the
government. But their actions suggest they are setting
the stage for an electoral disaster. Having a whiff of
the violence in the air, the CEP issued a statement
reminding candidates that the Electoral Law’s Article
119 gives it legal authority to disqualify any
candidates found guilty of violent acts and to suspend
from electoral contests for a period of up to five years
any political parties or groups found to be instigators.
But, in addition to political parties, shouldn’t the CEP
also address the verbal abuse and insults with which
President Martelly publicly pelted a woman at an
electoral rally in Miragoâne last week?
Fritz Jean Louis, the minister responsible for
electoral affairs, has called on voters not to vote for
candidates who are the cause of violence during the
electoral campaign. But following Martelly’s violent
public tirade in Miragoâne when campaigning for his
party the PHTK, shouldn’t Minister Jean Louis urge
people not to vote for Martelly’s candidates?
A few days before the elections, even Sen. Andris
Riché, the Senate’s de facto President, has expressed
grave doubts, saying that "the conditions are not yet
ripe for the holding of good elections in the country."
Last Sun., Aug. 1, the military occupation force
known as the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH)
organized a “Concert for Peace” in Fort National. During
this public relations event, MINUSTAH’s chief, Sandra
Honoré, called on Haiti to promote and choose peace at a
time when outbreaks of electoral violence are growing.
Ironically, over its 11 years in Haiti, MINUSTAH has
been one of the greatest instigators and causes of
violence.
The people must be vigilant and very careful. The
growing violence may be planned, as it was in the Nov.
29, 1987 elections. Generalized carnage is perhaps being
prepared to terrorize, confuse, and further weaken the
masses, the driving force of mobilizing for change, with
the same aim as the last two coups, namely to remove
them from the political scene.
Here is a partial list of representative cases of
violence and killings reported by the Haitian media over
the last month of the electoral campaign.
Jul. 5: Wilkenson Bazile, a family member and assistant to CEP
member Jaccéus Joseph,
was shot dead around
7:30 p.m. in Delmas by assailants on a motorcycle.
Jaccéus calls it an “assassination.”
Jul. 22: In the morning, Pierre Lafond, the Fusion party’s candidate
for mayor in Marigot, died at the Saint-Michel hospital
in Jacmel after having being shot by a security agent
known as Bissainthe, who works for the
Pont party’s
candidate for deputy, Déus Deronette.
Jul. 22: Around 10 p.m., in the neighborhood of Avenue
Christophe Chanel (in the commune of Carrefour), three
men Shiller Anthony (32), Roody Raphael (33) and Jackson
Pierre (42) were shot to death by unidentified
individuals on motorcycles. Witnesses said the three men
were putting up posters for Jacques Beauvil, the VERITE
platform’s candidate for deputy of Carrefour.
Jul. 29: The Respè party’s
candidate for deputy Denis Pierre Lima, for the district
of Torbeck/Chantal, was attacked in the afternoon by an
armed group led by former deputy Guy Gérard Georges, the
Lavalas Family’s candidate.
Jul. 31: Great tension reigned in Delmas 6, inside the Daniel
Fignolé high school, where Senate candidate for the West
Department, Marie Liliane Vedrigue-Hersche, of the
National Unity Force party (FUN), accompanied by her
campaign staff, had come to make the opening kickoff in
a soccer championship. Witnesses said sporadic shooting
was heard in the area. The candidate was evacuated for
her protection by her security guards.
Aug. 1: Germain Fils Alexandre, the VERITE platform’s candidate for
deputy in Petit-Goâve, claimed that he and his
supporters had been attacked by party members of
Martelly’s Bald Headed Haitian Party (PHTK).
Aug. 2: Two people were injured by gunfire and many car windshields
were broken during a campaign rally for Abel
Descollines, a PHTK candidate for deputy. Descollines
accused unnamed supporters of some of his opponents.
This past week: in the Rivière Froide area, one of the supporters of
the Fusion party’s candidate for deputy of Carrefour,
Nadine Anilus, was cut in the ear by a knife or machete. |