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THERE was a lot of confusion and procrastination before the authorities in Haiti made the official announcement on February 16 that Rene Preval was the victor of the elections held in the first week of February. It was evident to international poll observers present in the country that Preval, who inherited the populist mantle of the ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide, was the overwhelming favourite of Haiti's poor.
This fact was reflected during the initial phase of the count. Some pollsters had given Preval, who had completed a term as President of the country from 1996 to 2001, more than 60 per cent of the vote. Then there was a delay in the counting process and a seeming reluctance to announce the final results. Mysteriously, thousands of ballots cast in favour of Preval were found dumped in shantytowns. Evidently, the game plan was to complicate further the tense political situation.
Under the rules framed by the interim Haitian Election Commission (CEP), the winning candidate had to get more than 50 per cent of the votes. If this hurdle was not crossed, a run-off between the leading candidate and his nearest rival was to be held in two months time.
One of the Election Commissioners, Pierre Richard Duchemin, went on public radio to say that the Election Commission was trying to manipulate the count though Preval received more than 52 per cent of the vote. The second placed candidate, Leslie Manigat, a right-wing businessman close to Washington, got less than 12 per cent of the vote. United Nations officials privately told the media that Preval had in fact got more than 60 per cent of the vote. The CEP took the unusual step of counting invalid votes, around 8 per cent of the total, as votes cast against Preval. Many poor Haitians were not given time to register for the vote owing to the inefficiency of the CEP and the United Nations peacekeeping force for Haiti (MINUSTAH).
Max Mathurin, CEP President, when told about this controversial move, said, "You know how Haiti is. There are a lot of people who really don't have the capacity to vote." The blank votes were eventually subtracted, which left Preval with the required majority.
Haitians in poor areas had trekked for miles and waited for more than six hours in many booths to cast their votes. The Election Commission, backed by U.N. peacekeeping forces, did not allow polling stations in shantytowns, fearing for the safety of the observer force. There were only 807 polling centres for the 3.5 million registered voters. Many booths opened only in the afternoon, citing lack of ballot papers and other material.
At the end of July 2005, the peacekeepers stood aside and watched as the Haitian national police went on the rampage in a shantytown, Bel Air in Port-Au-Prince. Many houses were torched and dozens of people killed. Before that, the peacekeepers had mounted a mission against another shantytown, Cite Soleil, allegedly to hunt down a notorious gang leader. Using helicopters the peacekeepers shot into houses, shacks, a school and a church, leaving a lot of collateral damage behind. No wonder international agencies and the interim government lost their credibility with the people.
With the Election Commission prevaricating, Preval's supporters took to the streets of the capital after Preval told them that their vote was being "stolen". The candidates backed by Washington fared poorly in the elections. Washington is distrustful of Preval, who has inherited the populist plank of his one-time mentor, Aristide. Though the two fell out in the mid-1990s, it was said to be more of a personality clash than of political incompatibility. Those swearing allegiance to Aristide were solidly behind the 62-year-old Preval.
Crowds marched shouting, "Preval, the country is yours. Do what you want with it." Preval urged his supporters to demonstrate in peace and told them to dismantle the roadblocks they had set up and clear the debris. His request was immediately implemented, signalling the hold he currently has over the Haitian street.
Interestingly, Preval did not campaign vigorously in the elections. He barely stirred out of his house in the suburbs of the capital. Most Haitians consider the U.N.-supervised elections as unconstitutional. The vast majority of them have not still come to terms with the Washington-backed ouster of the constitutionally elected Aristide government in February 2004. Washington, which got the backing of the U.N. Security Council, had installed an interim government stacked with people known for their animosity towards the progressive policies of Aristide.
The international community, barring some Caricom (Carribean Community and Common Market) nations, has virtually forgotten the plight of the impoverished nation. The U.N. peacekeeping force headed by Brazilians, which for the first time included a Chinese contingent, was finding it extremely difficult to maintain law and order. Large areas of the capital became "no-go zones" for them. Prior to the elections, the interim regime headed by Gerard Latortue had imprisoned popular politicians associated with the Aristide government and his Lavalas Party, such as former Prime Minister Yvonne Neptune and the Catholic priest Father Jean Juste.
Lavalas refused to participate in the elections because of the continuing repression. Though Preval ran on the ticket of a new party - Lespwa (Hope), there was no doubt that he won on the support of the Lavalas' mass base. Preval has indicated that he would not stand in the way of Aristide returning from exile in South Africa. He said that there are no restrictions on Haitian citizens from either entering or leaving the country. Preval, however, added that he would not tolerate continued violence by some of the armed gangs that have been fighting on Aristide's behalf. Preval, like Aristide, was involved in the struggle against the long-entrenched American-backed dictatorship of the Duvalier family.
The results are yet another setback for Washington in its backyard. The overthrow of Aristide was strongly criticised by Cuba, Venezuela and other Caricom countries. Though Preval has adopted a low profile at this juncture, given his political background and the nature of his support he will no doubt be lining up with Cuba's Fidel Castro, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Brazil's Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva on the world stage.
Before the elections, American Ambassador to Haiti William R. Jones said "there is a gross overrating of the elections" in the country and that after "the usual charismatic candidate" was elected, it was traditional that the new administration proceeded to undo the work of its predecessor. Jones forgot to mention the role of successive American administrations in destabilising Haiti and the fact that the United States was hand in glove with discredited army-backed regimes of the country.
For 200 years the people of Haiti have not been allowed to live in peace or choose their political destiny. When they rose up in revolt against the French colonisers, Napoleon sent a force that is reported to have massacred more than a million Haitians, a genocide that preceded Hitler's massacre of Jews and Gypsies by more than a century and a half.
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