Haiti Abstains (Less than 18% election turnout)

[EFerrari]

Haiti Abstains
Dan Coughlin
March 22, 2011

Despite a massive UN mobilization, Haitians stayed away from controversial presidential elections in large numbers on March 20, raising serious questions about the legitimacy of the government poised to take power.

“The majority of the Haitian people did not vote in this election because the majority of people stand behind Lavalas,” said Wilnor Moise, a 29-year-old former bus conductor from Cité Soleil, referring to Fanmi Lavalas (FL), the democratic movement of former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which was barred from participating in the elections.

Haiti’s disputed parliamentary and presidential poll, culminating in the final round of voting this past Sunday, is key to the future of billions of dollars in pledged earthquake aid and to that of the 14,000-strong UN force that has occupied Haiti since the 2004 coup d’etat that overthrew Aristide and his party.

snip

Patrick Elie, a former adviser to both outgoing President Rene Preval and President Aristide, argued that the United States has played an influential, behind-the-scenes role in the election, helping to put the extreme right in power in order to perpetuate the occupation of Haiti and keep its neoliberal policies in place.

More: http://www.thenation.com/article/159388/haiti-abstains

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This was the important election that the State Department didn't want Aristide to disrupt.

[xchrom]

1. abstaining is legitimate.

people aren't happy and they want a different way.

give it to them.

[EFerrari]

3. Yep. FL was excluded from running and they have the support

of about 70% of the population.

Maybe a window will open now that Aristide is back.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EFerrari]

4. Must read Kim Ives run down.

Michel Martelly, Aristide's weak imitator
Kim Ives
Guardian UK
22 March 2011 20.30 GMT





'Sweet Micky' Martelly is tipped to win a presidential vote the majority of Haitians boycotted. Aristide's return is the real story


Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was the real winner of Haiti's 20 March presidential and deputy runoffs as the majority of Haiti's 4.7m voters shunned choosing between a vulgar pro-coup konpa musician, Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, and a professorial former First Lady, Mirlande Manigat, for president. Both candidates share rightwing histories (supporting the 1991 and 2004 coups d'état against Aristide) and programmes (most tellingly, reactivation of the Haitian army, which Aristide demobilised in 1995).

Most polling stations had only light turn-out. Any voting lines observed around the capital, Port-au-Prince, and its tent-strewn suburbs were due to administrative delays and irregularities (which were widespread), including a lack of ballots, finger-marking ink or poll workers. One station had ballots for a 2009 senate race delivered. Some polls opened up to four hours late.

Our random sampling of final vote tallies at four polling stations (each composed of several "voting bureaus") in Cité Soleil, Delmas and Lalue revealed that only 17.7% of their registered voters turned out to vote. That participation rate is well below the almost 23% rate of the dramatically flawed 28 November first round, which already marked a record low for Haiti, and all Latin America, since such record-keeping began over 60 years ago.

An OAS poll observer said that turnout in Arcahaie and Cabaret, two rural towns north of the capital, was only about 25%. The random samples showed Martelly leading Manigat by about three to one. The elections took place despite the fact that the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) never voted to authorise a second round. This illegality was "one of our concerns", OAS/Caricom observer team chief Colin Granderson told journalists the evening before the election. That "concern" about the law didn't stop the election though.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/22/haiti-jean-bertrand-aristide?CMP=twt_gu