Ernseau Bolivar, a student living in La Saline, tried to get the New York Times to grasp the point that his neighbors already understood only too well. "The army and the people with money always were against the poor. Traditionally the political class used the army to oppress us. That is what we fear. President Aristide made a lot of mistakes, it is true. But he was always representing people of the poor, people of my class." Bolivar could see perfectly well what his interviewer could not. "He said he thought Mr. Aristide had been forced out by American pressure. He called the president's fall a coup. 'We elected Mr. Aristide,' Mr. Bolivar said. 'How can the Americans now come and take him away? What about our Constitution? What about our laws?'" Sony Aurelien, a port-inspector who lives in La Saline, made the same point a few days later. "With Aristide, for the first time we have started to live. I am the first one in my family to have a regular job. Aristide tried to lift us up, so America kidnapped him and took him away." (Damming The Flood, P252)
UPDATE: Kim Ives just posted very informative article about the election. MUST READ
A Guide to Decoding Haiti’s Sham Election
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.
Haiti's November 28, 2010 election was doomed to fail. Legitimacy in the eyes of Haitians was not the goal of Haiti's 2004 coup backers who continue to occupy the country. After all, they did ban Haiti's most popular political Party the Lavalas from participating in the election. The US, France, Canada and Haiti's tiny class of elites needed to be rid of any lingering remnants of the Lavalas movement.
The campaign to "get rid of Aristide" was a diversion: the real goal of the opposition, both in Haiti and abroad, was to break once and for all the movement that mobilized through and around Aristide. Their goal was to crush the remarkably resilient and profoundly threatening mass movement sustained by many dozens of pro-Lavalas organisations populaires. Their goal was to make sure that whatever happened, the next presidential election would not be lost to the same sort of people as the 1990, 1995, and 2000. Needless to say, the whole logic behind the 2004 coup would come crashing down if in the next round of elections, the people of Haiti dare to choose yet another pro-Lavalas president. (Damming The Flood, P.250) |
Haitian Election Complete Disaster! Fraud Rampant Everywhere!
Haiti Needs New, Credible Elections Run By A New, Credible Electoral Council
On election day, journalists, observers and diplomats alike reported massive fraud and voter disenfranchisement: ballot box stuffing; ballots were all over the floor; many people did not know where their polling station was; others were told their names were not on the list; some people had numerous voter IDs they used to vote numerous times; and 100,000 voters that applied for the required voter ID did not receive theirs on time. Reports came in that some people went to as many as five polling places before giving up. Driving is banned on election day in Haiti, so people had to walk from polling place to polling place. An observer attached to a diplomatic mission witnessed party officials filling out ballot forms for voters. "AP journalists had to ask nearly a dozen people before finding one who knew the location of a polling station."
these Haitians,
contemporary ancestors, sons and daughters of Toussaint, Boukman, Dessalines
Cry out to we who witness afar from the comfort of couch and screen
pontificating positions putrid with profundity and infertility
Isn't it insulting that some of the same "journalist," observers and politicians who reported massive fraud, disorganization and voter intimidation yesterday, suddenly, today, with no explanation claim there was not enough fraud to influence the results? How would they know anyway? "Over 100,000 voters could not vote because they did not receive their government-issued identity cards in time."
The perpetrators of the 2004 coup sought to portray it as a regrettable but necessary strike, on behalf of constitutional democracy, against a dictatorial regime that had lost all connection with the Haitian people. Once the steps taken to undermine this regime started to look sufficiently spectacular, the international media descended upon Haiti to observe the dénouement. In addition to providing largely uncritical backing to the outright lies propounded by Bush, Powell and de Villepin, the more subtle effect of this media blitz was to distort the very conflict at issue. What was at stake in the civil war of February 2004 was not simiply a struggle between a weakened administration and its immediate opponents. (Damming The Flood, P.250)
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Part 9 - Is Aristide still too popular.wmv Richard Morse admittedly helped plan the 2004 coup complains about election fraud Morse is a musician who manages the famous Haiti Hotel Oloffson(twitter @RAMhaiti) in an interview in April 2010 admits former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide remains Haiti's most popular politician. In video #6 he admits that he participated in the 2004 coup. He said that he was in the Washington meetings where the coup was planned. His only regret is that the elite families took control of Haiti. He is supporting his cousin Michel Martelly for Haiti's 2010 election. It was a bit ironic when he declared the election wasn't fair that there was fraud. Although Morse complained via twitter about the fraud on election day, the next day Mickey Martelly, they no longer thought that the fraud was significant. (I have had a few exchanges, some humorous, with him on twitter. I have also had words with the person who tweets for Charles Baker. He is a sweatshop owner, coup backer leader of one of Haiti's most anti-Aristide, rightwing groups, Group 184 and 2010 Presidential candidate.)
Haiti vote 'valid' despite flaws Al Jazeera
The joint observer mission from the Organisation of American States/Caribbean Community said that although there had been widespread problems, including acts of violence and intimidation and poor organisation blocking many people from voting, this was not enough to doom the polls.
"The joint mission does not believe that these irregularities, serious as some were, necessarily invalidated the process," Colin Granderson, head of the 118-member mission said on Monday.
Twelve of the 18 presidential contenders in Sunday's polls called for their invalidation after claiming that "massive fraud" had been designed to help Jude Celestin, the preferred successor of Rene Preval, the current president.
But Michel Martelly, a musician who is one of the election frontrunners, backed away from this position on Monday, saying he believed the votes should be counted.
Mirlande Manigat, a longtime opposition leader and pre-election favourite, also softened her call for annulment, saying she would participate in a runoff if the vote count showed her among the two candidates with the most votes.
Haiti election result will be valid, say international observers
Unoffical figures put the musician Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly and the former first lady Mirlande Manigat at 39% and 31% respectively, with the preferred candidate of previous president René Préval , Jude Celestin, on 12%. Any form of official results are not expected for weeks.
Both had previously joined ten other candidates who denounced the election as a sham and called for any result to be null and void. Both subsequently reversed their positions as their ratings seemingly improved.
The Organisation of American States and the Caribbean Community, the two groups here to observe the election, said that voting was affected by intimidation, pre-filled ballot boxes being brought by party officials to polling stations and disorganisation on a grand scale, but that in spite of such issues the end result should not be affected.
People knew the elections were controlled by the international community and would therefore be fraudulent.
Nicole Phillips (0:00 -9:12 ) 30% turnout in city, 8% in country seems very high. "We estimated less than 10% turnout according to the ballot boxes at polling places we observed. Haitians are frustrated that US/international have insisted on fraudulent elections in midst of cholera epidemic.
Kevin Pina (9:13 -20:12 ) "Hilary Rodham Clinton, if Haiti had fallen off into the sea would have held these elections in Miami." The real story is the turnout. Low turnout. Less than 10%.
Intl Corporate Media depicts Haitians as rioters when they demonstrate for free and fair elections Haiti
From the organizational structure to distribution the IDs to people and to journalist to cover the poll; this electoral process has irregularities in its structural body. Voters do not know exactly where to go to vote. The CEP sent message text in which there is a number that voters can call to figure out their poll station. Still this method does not work because when calling this number it is always busy.
While churches praying for the elections, many people argued that the elections have been done, is the way to say they have been sold. The CEP was appointed by President Preval – and Mr. Preval's closest friend, member of his party, Jude Celestin is in the race. Critics said that Mr. Preval use the states resources to back up presidential candidate Celestin’s campaign. After the Nov. 28 Elections/Slections, Haiti will continue to struggle for social justice as it remains in a fragile state with the UN occupying forces on Haiti’s soil.
Meanwhile, United States, France, Canada and the rest of the international community continue to show its real face which is: sponsored and financed coup d’état and undemocratic, unfair, fraudulent and non-free elections in Haiti like in Honduras and other parts in the World.
Despite the fact that hundreds of Marines were already in control of the city by the morning of Monday 1 March, it wasn't until the end of Wednsday that some of the 2,000 foreign troops began heavily armored patrols of the more public sections of downtown Port-au-Prince. The main purpose of such patrols was not to protect ordinary people from rebel reprisals but to soften up "hostile" neighborhoods by clearing away their last remaining defenses the makeshift barricades erected to ward off rebel attacks. Foreign reporters kept a respecful distance but the New York Times described Wednesday as "a day of violence and fear in the capital," as "rebels and the police battled Aristide loyalists with volleys of gunfire in the squalid slums that sent thousands of people fleeing." In the midst of the gunfire, US officials did their best to explain to jeering local residents why their Marines "have no instructions to disarm the rebels" and "were under orders not to use force to halt Haitian-on-Haitian violence." Journalists who visited Haiti in early April 2004 learned from numerous witnesses that in the neighborhood of Bel Air, something between fifteen and fifty people were killed and then carted away in a single attack on the night of 12 March, with the connivance (if not active participation) of US troops -- as Anthony Fentonobserved, the idea seemed to be that "once the fear of militarized Haitian police and 'trigger-happy' US military are instilled in these people, they will think twice about disrupting the new political process that is being imposed on them. (Damming The Flood, P257-258)
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Haiti’s Fouled-Up Election 11-29-10
In my view, this election was not only criminal but an ugly reminder that the value ascribed to the lives and livelihood of the Haitian masses–who are continually and historically disenfranchised both at home and abroad–remains zero. And that is in spite of the overwhelming outpouring of support from a global community that obviously seem to think otherwise.
Those of us concerned with Haiti must remain vigilant now more than ever. Keep watch and speak out. There is simply too much hanging in the balance.
The IC made their priorities clear when they showed little urgency in treating the cholera epidemic (which they brought to Haiti) yet they were determined that Haiti push ahead with illegitimate election. While senators have put holds on funds for humanitarian aid for Haitians, there were no holds placed on funds for election (coup) aid.
Haiti, the UN and cholera on election day
On the side of the road, a shirtless man with brown pants and no shoes lay on the sidewalk outside a busy market entrance -- eyes open, with his arm in the gutter and flies buzzing around his face. He was dead. A couple photographers quickly snapped photos and jumped back into their vehicles as the ambulance crew arrived to pick up the body. He was another victim of an outbreak which will only kill the poor and the vulnerable -- which unfortunately makes Haiti a deadly conductor for the spread of the disease.
snip
However, with the international support and funding for the elections (and their widespread irregularities) on Sunday, Nov. 28, it becomes increasingly clear that the international community and MINUSTAH does not care about the health or welfare of the Haitian population.
Haiti Election Live-Blog: http://bit.ly/...
November 28, 2010 was the day of the election that could end the Lavalas movement, which by then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, just six years earlier brought Haiti to the precipice of real change to Haiti's rigid class divide. The 2004 coup was not simply to oust Aristide but more to stomp out the movement that threatened Haiti's domestic elites and the international community.
The US, IC and Haiti's tiny class of domestic elite have successfully kept Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Party the Fanmi Lavalas out of every election since the 2004 coup. Haiti's social and economic system is unjust and unequal and that is how Haiti's tiny, parasitic class of elite, the US and IC want it to stay. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was not the radical his opponents portrayed him to be. He was actually a realist. His policies made small incremental changes. However even small change to Haiti's social and economic system that exploits and oppresses the country's poor is unacceptable to the US, Elite and IC.
President Aristide Reveals Details of Coup
In the longer term, it would require, intensification of the process that might "integrate" Haiti into a suitably stable regional order: the adoption of untrammeled privatization and neo-liberal adjustment, increased reliance on foreign aid, increased penetration of the economy by foreign NGOs, increased international supervision of the national police, and so on. All of these measures would serve to reinforce the class barriers that were briefly threatened by the ad-hoc alliance of the 1990 and then challenged by a united and well-organized Fanmi Lavalas in 2000. (Damming The Flood, P251) |
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
Mission
We strive to work with the people of Haiti in their non-violent struggle for the consolidation of constitutional democracy, justice and human rights, by distributing objective and accurate information on human rights conditions in Haiti, pursuing legal cases, and cooperating with human rights and solidarity groups in Haiti and abroad.
IJDH draws on its founders’ internationally-acclaimed success accompanying Haiti’s poor majority in the fields of law, medicine and social justice activism. We seek the restoration of the rule of law and democracy in the short term, and work for the long-term sustainable change necessary to avert Haiti’s next crisis. |
"IJDH is simply the most reliable source for information and analysis on human rights in
Haiti." — Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) |
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
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