Cuba accuses US of election tampering (in Haiti)

[Mika]

Cuba accuses US of election tampering
http://www.thedailyjournalonline.com/article.asp?ArticleId=224679&CategoryId=14510
February 14,2006

Cuba accused Washington on Tuesday of helping manipulate the results of presidential elections in Haiti, where thousands of the frontrunner’s supporters blockaded roads in a second day of protests.

“What is happening in Haiti should not be surprising,” the Communist Party daily Granma said in a front-page editorial. “It isn’t the first time that the United States has intervened on a whim over the destiny of this nation, nor is it the first time it has shameless manipulated another country’s electoral results to its benefit.”

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Granma noted that Preval seemed to be headed toward an easy victory in last week’s election before he fell below the 50 percent needed to prevent a runoff. With about 90 percent of the ballots counted on Tuesday, Preval had received 48.7 percent of the vote, according to Haitian election officials.
“The world will not allow the reins of the entire planet to be controlled from the seat of imperial power,” the editorial said, referring to the United States.
“All of the responsibility will fall on the United States government and the occupying troops that do not hesitate in firing against the people,” it added, in a criticism of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti. - AP

[HuffleClaw]

1. nice to see someone up in arms about this complete travisty

funny how they've 'revised' the 'results' about half a dozen times.

[marmar]

2. So true...

Did anyone notice an African American woman in a hat and sunglasses and really nice Salvatore Ferragamo shoes exiting the vote counting location?

[hedda_foil]

3. Finally! The US has a new product to export!

Election fraud.

[ugarte]

4. LOL, apparently these naive Haitiians thought their votes would be counted

They are so unsophisticated that way.

[Voltaire99]

5. Hee hee -- and a growth industry! (nt)

[Robeson]

6. C'mon Democrats, let's quit talking about fixed elections.....

...that's not gonna help anything. Let's quit acting like this country fixes elections, and let's start focusing on other issues....:sarcasm:

[MadMaddie]

12. Yes you are so right...We must focus....

Der Furer's wench (condi) has asked for $75 million to deter Iran from creating Nukes. We have a war to get geared up for, who needs election fraud distraction:sarcasm:

[no_hypocrisy]

7. " I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"

Rhetorical statement.

[robcon]

8. Cuba provides neither evidence nor motivation.

Funny how propaganda works in a one-party state like Cuba.

[Mika]

10. Really? Read on.

Funny that the propaganda is put out by the one party state called the USA.


Haiti: Yankee Government Orders Second Round
http://www.periodico26.cu/english/opinion/haiti021506.htm

The manipulation of the results has been evident and shameless. Two of the members of the Electoral Council have exposed tampering with the vote count. Pierre Richard Duchemin, representative of the Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Church on the electoral body, informed a Haitian radio station that “there has been an insane manipulation of the data, there is no transparency.”

Another of the electoral judges, Patrick Requière, publicly criticized Jacques Bernard, CEP general director, for not consulting with the other members of that agency or of disclosing where he was obtaining the results that he has announced to the press.
On Monday, the presidential candidate Jeune Jean Chavannes, fourth to date in the polls, acknowledged Préval’s win and stated that the situation created is the result of a conspiracy mounted in pursuit of social chaos. Chavannes called for guaranteeing national sovereignty and not bending to base interests as certain people want.

Everyone is pointing to something that is absolutely clear and has been leaked through various channels: Mr. Bernard, general director of the Electoral Council, is fulfilling the U.S. mandate of forcing a second round. A number of analysts have taken it on themselves in the last few days to recall that Préval is not the favorite of the White House given his former links with the deposed President Jean Aristide, removed from power by force by U.S. troops and sent into enforced exile.

In January, The New York Times published a thorough investigation that demonstrates the efforts of the International Republican Institute, closely linked to the Bush administration, and various State Department officials, to destabilize Aristide’s government and expel him from the country.

In the face of the evident attempt to steal away his victory from René Préval, a man of much prestige who has taken great pains to serve the people, his followers – most of them from the poorest barrios of the capital – have taken to the streets in the last three days demanding respect for their vote. Thousands of demonstrators protested yesterday outside the headquarters of the Electoral Council and the government chanting the slogans: “Préval is president” and “Thief, you don’t know how to count,” in a clear reference to the action of the general director of the electoral body. The protesters accused the CEP of manipulating the votes and expressed their opposition to a second round, shouting “We’re not voting twice.”

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Meanwhile, from Washington and with total cynicism, a State Department spokesperson stated after a meeting between Bush, Condoleezza Rice and the UN secretary general that whenever a vote count is challenged it is important for the parties to come together and cooperate over and above allegiances in the interest of the country. Nobody knows exactly to which elections Sean McCormack was referring, as in the Haitian case the second candidate in the elections did not even gain 12% of the vote.

What is happening in Haiti comes as no surprise. It is not the first time that the United States has intervened at its whim in the destiny of that nation, nor the first time that it is barefacedly manipulating the electoral results in another country to its own advantage.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Great article. Very well done.

Sometimes right-wingers are moved to call the truth "propaganda." The truth always hurts their image, if it's even possible to damage it even more.

Propaganda is when _{George W. Bush's} administration spends U.S. taxpayers' hard earned taxes in INCREDIBLE amounts to con the American public. Filthy, filthy people, Republicans.

[EFerrari]

9. Wait till I tell Fidel about Florida. n/t