Organizing for America | Posts with the tag fanmi lavalas

Posts with the tag fanmi lavalas

HPP CALLED FOR THE ANNULMENT OF THE ELECTIONS.

By Jacob François - Apr 22nd, 2009 at 3:15 pm EDT

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A PARTICIPATION RATE LOWER THAN THE 5% FORECASTED BY HAITIAN PRIORITIES PROJECT

(HPP). HPP CALLED FOR THE ANNULMENT OF THE ELECTIONS.

http://www.hpp4haiti.com/english_annulment.htm

HAITIAN PRIORITIES PROJECT (HPP) takes this opportunity to thank all of its partners and contributors who helped achieved a careful and precise pre-election poll conducted in record time. Success was achieved despite the difficulties encountered in Haiti to produce reports in a time-sensitive manner. With the information provided to us by the people and our workers, and their respect for democratic principles in relaying and analyzing the facts as the people reported, our survey is by far the closest to the reality of the so-called elections on 19 April 2009.

To our beloved people, we send our applause and eternal gratitude for having once again demonstrated peace, serenity and political savyness. Your show of ingenuity and resilience against this undemocratic election gave a lesson of democracy to the CEP, the government of Haiti, and the international community. This past week has been a testament to the true will and might of the people. HAITIAN PRIORITIES PROJECT simultaneously deplores the attacks of 19 April 2009 against election workers, politicians and the general public. We condemn acts of violence by militants and soldiers, against the people, trying to force them to vote in elections without complying with democratic norms. We say "shame" to those who have tried by flawed polls to influence the election results on behalf of wealthy patrons who completely ignore the welfare of our nation. Shame also to the security forces national and international operating in the country. These individuals who are supposed to be concerned with the safety of the people of Haiti, and the security of its streets proved unable to, despite the few participants in the streets, in order to protect the population against the violence of the enemies of democracy.
Key points
HPP has completed its analysis of the electoral procedures enacted by the senate on behalf of the Electoral College, and the application of the rules in the partial elections of 19 April 2009. It is necessary to report clear and serious cases of violation against articles 97, 121,125, 166 and 203. Detailed data on these issues were presented to the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) prior to the elections. We have verified these violations as being true and the behavior of CEP regarding these concerns was illegal and unreliable based on the aforementioned articles.

HPP has found evidence of abuse by the electoral commission in favor of LESPWA candidates. Corpuscles belonging to the President of the Republic’s inner circle receivedexcessive and inappropriate support through the use of funds made available
and access to materials belonging to the state. They have exerted violence against elected officials and the public. These abuses have been demonstrated by the Senator of FUSION in the Central Plateau, Ms. Edmonde Bauzile Supplice, who claimed to be the subject of death threats. Heavily armed individuals have closed many polling stations.
Candidates for the Senate in the South East, Yves Dérisier (Fusion of Haitian Social Democrats) and Jean Pierre Joseph (Rassemblement National Progressive Democrats) have been officially withdrawn their candidacy from the race on Saturday 18 April 2009. Their withdrawals have been in protest to the decisions of the Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP) that they consider illegal.
The independent candidate Ronald St. Jean announced Thursday his withdrawal from the race because of many loopholes and violations by the establishment and the Electoral College machinery. He denounced the lack of a set of tools which should be the matrix of any serious election such as:

The participation rates are abnormally low across different constituencies eligible
The electoral register should have been available six months before the election, but still is not
The general electoral roll and electoral partial list should be ready for 60 days and 30 days respectively before the election.

These abuses occurred in several regions of the country. Although important in terms of elections and democratic principles, the aggregate number of violations from these irregularities is decisive to the slimmest extent.

Serious irregularities have occurred, and attempts to manipulate voting results are evident. There are major procedural violations. A number of election workers have been involved willingly or forced into acts of fraud. These irregularities also reflect a lack of control over the production of official documents including the accreditation of observers and the documents relating to official travel, which have been used to fraudulently claim the right to vote.

PPH does not in any way prejudge the prerogative given to CEP in making their own decisions, however, the facts at issue, are to submit its analysis in order to inform the public and to provide candidates and political parties an independent and objective   evaluation of the process.

HPP requests that all concerned remain calm and ensure that their apprehension of the elections is based solely on a neutral and rigorous analysis of electoral facts. With a rate of less than 5% of qualified individuals who took part in these elections, the CEP, thePresident and the international community can in no way validate these elections.

Participation rate
Official figures should show a national participation rate of less than 5%, or about 25% to 46% less than the turnout in the elections of 25 June 1995 Page 4. http://www.gao.gov/archive/1996/ns96147.pdf In 2006, the participation rate was 30%, based on statements made by David Wimhurst Spokesperson for the UN mission in Haiti. (see haitiprogres) www.haitiprogres.com/2006/sm060426/eng04-26.html
A participation rate this low simply reflects the wish of the people to stop the government of Préval/Pierre-Louis and the international community from reinstituting exclusion in Haiti. It was a strong and vigorous message and mobilization by the Lavalas Party: "PÒT FEMEN, LARI BLANCH. However, offices or polling centers that display higher participation rates than others in their areas deserve further attention. Moreover, if the results of these offices heavily favor one candidate, this could indicate an attempt to manipulate the result of the elections through ballot stuffing or fraudulent votes made in the absence of witnesses or observers.

HPP lead its election observation in accordance with the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and Code of Conduct adopted by the United Nations in 2005. These principles should have been utilized uniformly to abate and nullify this farce election.

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HAITI: Fanmi Lavalas Banned, Voter Apprehension Widespread

By Jacob François - Apr 17th, 2009 at 5:51 pm EDT

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HAITI: Fanmi Lavalas Banned, Voter Apprehension Widespread
By Jeb Sprague*

NEW YORK, Apr 17 (IPS) - Weekend senatorial elections in Haiti are mired in controversy as Fanmi Lavalas (FL), the political party widely backed by the poor majority, has been disqualified.

As the global financial crisis unfolds, U.N. officials in New York City and Port-au-Prince are struggling to defend a troubled electoral process while gathering donor aid.

Meanwhile, a recent study by the Florida-based advocacy organisation Haiti Priorities Project (HPP) has found widespread popular apprehension and disaffection among Haitians ahead of the upcoming senatorial elections.

During eight days in early April, seventy HPP volunteers, 10 from the United States and 60 from Haiti, dispersed across the country. Their goal was to survey how people viewed the upcoming election.

"Only 5 percent of potential voters nationwide say they are ready to go to the polls in order to elect 12 senators for the upcoming elections on April of this year," said the group in a press release. Many of the respondents had never heard of the candidates fielded in the election.

Jacob François of the HPP explained to IPS, "We organised our census primarily through town hall meetings, where organisers spoke to people in groups and individually. From this we tallied the opinions of what was estimated to be 65,000 people out of a population of 8 million."

In February it was announced that Haiti’s Conseil électoral provisoire (CEP) would not recognise candidates from FL in the upcoming senatorial elections. The reason given was that the candidates - listed in two different slates - did not have the signature of the party’s head, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted by the George W. Bush administration in 2004.

FL is in a process of reorganisation that even sympathetic observers have termed "disarray." After the initial failure of the two separate FL slates to gain CEP approval, the factions came together agreeing upon a unified slate. The slate was signed by Emmanuel Cantave - keeper of the party's seals - who has approved FL slates for the past 13 years.

Still, the CEP rejected the list. Its stated objection was that the list lacked Aristide’s signature; giving just days notice, it requested a non-fascimilied signature from Aristide, exiled in Pretoria, South Africa.

U.N. officials initially urged the CEP to include all parties.

Praising the efforts of FL to be included within the electoral process, the U.N. representative for a Security Council delegation, Jorge Urbina, stated that they "were glad to hear from (Lavalas) that they are using every legal instrument in their power to reverse this decision."

In a press release, the secretary general of the Organisation of American States, José Miguel Insulza, stated, "I cannot help but express my concern about the possibility that an important group of Haitian citizens might feel that they are not being represented in this process."

By early March, Haitian Judge Jean-Claude Douyon had ruled that the CEP could not disqualify the FL candidates. Concluding that "[t]he political rights of the Lavalas have been violated," he ordered the "reintegration of candidates of that party, if they each individually meet the legal standards."

However, not long after, Judge Douyon was mysteriously removed from his post, and the CEP disregarded his ruling.

In recent weeks, following a visit from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a consensus cemented among government elites to go forward with elections without FL. Criticism of the exclusion ceased.

In late March, U.N. press agencies reported that 100 tonnes of election equipment had arrived in the country, divided into 12,000 voting kits.

CEP and U.N. officials now lay blame at the feet of ousted President Aristide. The U.N.'s Urbina says that FL's exclusion was due to Aristide’s unwillingness to sign.

Some proponents say Aristide, who has been kept from returning to the country, does not wish to give his support to elections under which holdovers from the U.N.-backed dictatorship of 2004-2006 remain and the potential for fraud and vote rigging are high.

Top leaders of his movement have been systematically targeted, in part explaining FL’s internal dissension. The highest former office holder of FL, Yvon Neptune, spent two years in jail, and has a case hanging over his head despite it being ordered dismissed two years ago by a Haitian appeals court, and almost a year since the Inter-American Court of Human Rights told Haiti to halt the case. Another FL leader, Father Gérard Jean-Juste, who spent seven months in jail with untreated cancer, is sick in a hospital in Florida.

At the same time, FL political prisoners, such as Ronald Daulphin, remain in jail after five years without being tried. A justice process for thousands imprisoned and killed under the interim government remains out of sight.

Even so, since Aristide's ouster, a few senators have, without Aristide's endorsement, run in elections claiming to represent FL without any objection made by the CEP. Only in recent months, with violence decreased, has FL come together nationally to participate in elections.

François of the HPP, discussing the U.N. and Haitian government's actions, explains, "They just do not learn. They can’t exclude a major party in Haiti from an election, that's total exclusion. It will undermine the entire process. In addition, the CEP has no business going into the internal affairs of Lavalas."

The tenuous political alliance between Haiti’s President René Préval and FL has collapsed.

Elected in 2006, Préval had the support of the impoverished majority who hoped, through his candidacy, for a return to normality and an end to post-coup repression that left thousands dead.

Once elected, critics say, Préval's administration imposed the priorities of foreign donors and elites. The emphasis today is on garment exportation.

Thousands of Lavalas activists have mobilised against the disqualification, more demonstrations are planned for the weekend.

With the credibility of the upcoming elections badly damaged, foreign donors have attempted to smooth things over with a hastily organised conference pledging aid disbursement.

Speaking to donors and NGOs, whose influence in Haiti is colossal, U.N. Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon explained, "Haiti is at a turning moment...by acting now, we will protect the considerable investment and progress we have made so far."

Meanwhile, grassroots Haitian activists, such as a Ronique, a member of a women’s collective in Cité Soleil, condemn what they claim has been a thwarting of democracy led by Préval, the CEP and the U.N.

"In the matter of elections, basically what you have is a decision to explode Fanmi Lavalas, that is the way we in Haiti see it, that this was a decision by the international community with the complicity of President René Préval to get rid of and exclude Lavalas from the election because everyone knows FL is the majority party in the country," she said in a radio interview.

She added, "People are not enthused, it is a complete silence around this election. You don't see candidates going through the neighbourhoods where the people are suffering. Nobody is interested because they don't see themselves participating in this process."

With sadness in her voice she mentions Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, one of the most internationally recognised FL leaders. He was abducted in late 2007, just after announcing his intention to run in senatorial elections, and remains missing. A leading human rights activist, he worked tirelessly to bring former death squad leaders to justice.

IPS has found that one death squad leader has been living in a luxurious hotel overlooking Port-au-Prince. Louis Jodel Chamblain, a founder of the infamous FRAPH death squad that murdered and raped thousands during the early 1990s, was interviewed by IPS a year ago at the Ibo Lele Hotel. Within earshot, U.N. officials and NGO dignitaries dined and slept.

*Wadner Pierre in Miami contributed to this story.

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