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“Down with all the candidates for
president,
They want to sell out Haiti
To the Americans to fill their pockets.”
Félix Morisseau-Leroy
Haiti’s Nov. 28 general elections
were a complete disaster,
marred by blatant and widespread
fraud, manipulation and disenfranchisement. The Center for Economic and
Policy Research (CEPR) did a good
job of summing up many of the irregularities
widely reported by both
Haitian and international media and
observer teams: “inability of many
voters to fi nd the correct Voting
Center and/or Polling Station; inability
of voters to find their names
on the electoral registers posted
up outside the Polling Stations;
saturation of the call centers overwhelmed
by callers seeking where
to vote; instances of incorrect application
of voting procedures ( the
signing of the ballots by BV [voting
bureau] Presidents before the
arrival of the voter); instances of
voter manipulation – repeat voting
of some voters facilitated by complicit
poll workers and unidentified
party agents; the lack of control of
already limited voting space by the
poll workers, as well as the indiscipline
of many mandataires [candidates’
observers], led to clogged
polling stations where control of
the process became tenuous and
facilitated misconduct.” Furthermore, several candidates
claimed that mandataires
from President René Préval's party,
Unity, took over voting bureaus
around the country the night before
the election, not allowing entrance
and observation by mandataires of
other parties. All of this comes on top of
the Provisional Electoral Council’s
(CEP) original and most important
sin: the arbitrary and unjustifiable
disqualification of exiled former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s
Lavalas Family (FL), Haiti’s largest
and most popular party. The debacle moved 12 of
Haiti's 18 presidential candidates to
issue a joint declaration in an unprecedented
joint press conference
at Pétionville's Caribe Hotel on Sunday
afternoon calling to annul the
elections because "the government
of René Préval, in agreement with
the CEP, is putting into execution
the plan hatched to tamper with
the elections ... with the help of
the official political party and its
candidate, Jude Celestin.” (Faux-Lavalas candidates Yvon Neptune
and Yves Cristallin attended the
candidates’ pre-press-conference
conclave but did not sign the statement.) Despite everything, the CEP
proclaimed the election satisfactory.
“We cannot say it was a 100%
success, but the day was successful,”
declared the CEP’s general director
Pierre Louis Opont. Only 56
of the 1500 voting stations nationwide,
or 3.56%, had irregularities,
the CEP claimed.
As usual, Washington let
its minions in the Organization of
American States/CARICOM Joint
Mission be the first to rubberstamp
the CEP’s charade. After noting
many irregularities including “deliberate
acts of violence and intimidation
to derail the electoral
process both in Port-au-Prince
and the provinces,” CARICOM’s
Assistant Secretary General Colin
Granderson said “the Joint Mission
does not believe that these irregularities,
serious as they were, necessarily
invalidated the process.” U.S. State Department spokesman
P.J. Crowley concurred, calling
the election “a significant step for
Haiti.” With the U.S. paying for
about half of the $30 million election,
events unfolded pretty much
as one would expect: a massacre of
democracy which is then justified
by its sponsors.
But this is where things get
more complicated, and events
might take some popularly unexpected
twists. So here is a five point
guide of things to watch for in
the coming days as the magouy or
monkey-business multiplies. 1) Jude Célestin is not the
only - or real - candidate being
"selected" The way much of the media
has framed the election, the people
will be victorious if any presidential
candidate other than Jude Célestin
wins. In reality, the U.S., and even
Préval, appear to have been preparing
for another candidate's victory
for some time. Although a Célestin "selection"
cannot be completely dismissed,
there have been grave
doubts among Unity's leadership
about Célestin's viability due to
his numerous legal and financial
problems, his apparently phony
engineering degrees, and his uninspiring
oratory. Already Sen. Joseph
Lambert, Unity's campaign
chief, has said the party "is ready
to accept democratic change,” and
“if we’ve lost the elections at the
presidential level we’ll go into opposition.” A more likely “selection” appears
to be that of Mirlande Manigat,
the wife of former military-junta-puppet-president Leslie Manigat.
She boasts broad support not just
from Haiti’s bourgeoisie but also
from political thugs like Sen. Youri
Latortue (recently accused of being
a former death-squad leader) and
Guy Philippe, the perpetually elusive
leader of the death-squad/soldier
“rebels” that helped overthrow
Aristide in 2004. Compas musician Michel
Martelly and notary Jean-Henri Céant
are also possible "selections."
Martelly was a prominent supporter
of both coups (1991-94 and
2004-06) against Aristide. Céant
has postured as the antidote to Lavalas'
electoral exclusion who will
bring Aristide back from exile. But
both Aristide and FL spokeswoman
Maryse Narcisse have made clear
that the party has no truck with
the "selections” and no “stealth"
candidate. Céant admitted he even
traveled to France to meet with
and woo back former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in an effort to show
how "broad” and “all inclusive” his
government would be. 2) Préval faces a divided
opposition Already opportunism has rent the historic show
of unity made by the 12 "opposition" candidates on Nov.
28. The following day, when the CEP (perhaps slyly)
suggested that Martelly and Manigat
were leading in preliminary
vote tabulations, both candidates
unceremoniously dropped their
calls for election annulment. Neither
showed up at the meeting the
12 candidates had planned for the
next day, which Céant condemned
on Radio Signal FM as "very serious.” Martelly even denied that he
had signed the joint declaration.
It was not an ultimatum but just a
“request,” which the CEP “chose
not to agree to” and “it has the final word.” Thus, he is now ready
to “respect the popular verdict,”
secure in the belief that he will be
the winner. Manigat, after saying the elections
were “organized robbery” on
Sunday, backtracked on Monday,
telling the Haitian Press Agency
that she had received “guarantees
from the CEP and the government”
and was “still in the race and had
a good chance of winning.”
“I am coherent and I keep
my word," Céant responded to the
betrayals. "We have to completely
break with these old tricks. If we
use them, we become no different
than those we are fighting.”
In short, despite nationwide
protests, there is no indisputable
leader of either the disgruntled
candidates calling for a rematch or
popular organizations calling for
the CEP's overhaul, facilitating the
electoral forced march of Préval and
his international sponsors. 3) Control of the Parliament is
key to control of Haiti While the media’s focus has
been primarily on the presidential
race, equally important are the
contests for one-third of the Senate
(11 seats) and all 99 Deputies.
The President must choose a Prime
Minister from the Parliament’s majority
party. With more candidates,
money and organization, the ruling
party, which by default swept
last year’s massively boycotted
partial Senate elections, is likely to
again control Parliament. This will
completely hamstring any non-Unity president, who will already
be weak and assailed coming from
this clearly compromised polling. 4) Fair elections would require
a new CEP In the face of protests, the
CEP has already reassured voters
and candidates that voting will be
reheld wherever there were major
problems. However, popular organizations
grouped around the Heads
Together of Popular Organizations
(Tèt Kole) and others have been
saying in press conferences and
demonstrations for months that the
CEP, hand-picked by Préval, is too
corrupt and has to be overhauled
and selected by popular and representative
civil society groups or
a provisional government (which
is essentially how the 1990 CEP
was formed). Gaillot Dorsinvil, the
CEP's Secretary General, is viewed
as particularly slavish to Préval. 5) Haiti is still militarily
occupied and effectively
administered by foreigners and
their minions The real power in Haiti lies
militarily with the 13,000-soldiers
of the U.N. Mission to Stabilize
Haiti (MINUSTAH) and economically
with the Interim Commission
to Reconstruct Haiti (CIRH),
headed by former U.S. President
Bill Clinton. This control effectively
neuters any sovereignty that these
elections might aspire to.
One of the final acts of Haiti’s
last Parliament in April was to pass
a law empowering the completely
unelected 26-member CIRH (composed
half of foreign bank and
government representatives, half
of Haitians from or beholden to
Haiti’s ruling elite) to decide and
direct how to spend the $10 billion
in international assistance raised
to rebuild Haiti after the Jan. 12,
2010 earthquake. That mandate
will continue at least until the end
of 2011. Meanwhile, MINUSTAH’s
mandate continues until Oct. 14,
2011, and the UN Security Council
has given no signs of wanting to
pack up the operation anytime soon.
Several UN officials have spoken of
decades of “commitment.” However,
the Haitian people’s resentment
has turned to rage after learning
that MINUSTAH troops likely introduced
deadly cholera into Haiti,
and there is a rapidly growing anti-occupation
movement. In short, the election (should
it proceed) may well result in a
president other than Célestin, but
this makes it no less a "selection."
Préval's main concern is to retire to
his hometown of Marmelade without
threat of prosecution or exile, a
matter he has reportedly broached
with several candidates. Washington,
with its partners in Paris and
Ottawa, is primarily interested in
installing a government which will
follow orders and not exhibit any
"nationalist" tendencies, as one
U.S. Embassy cable (released this
week in the giant WikiLeaks document
dump) complained about
Préval. In the final analysis, whoever
is elected president in these
"occupation elections” will be little
more than a “portrait,” as Haitians
say. |
