ARTICLE - ELECTIONS - BETTER OR WORSE

ELECTIONS IN HAITI: FOR BETTER OR WORSE
(Jamaica Gleaner) - By Robert Buddan

The worst fears seemed to have been realised in Haiti's presidential and legislative elections held on November 28. There was electoral violence, widespread cries of fraud and a majority of the presidential candidates called for the elections to be voided. The results will be announced officially on December 20.

There are really two sharply divided positions on the elections so far. While Haitians are angry, the international community, through the United Nations, the Organisation of American States, and CARICOM seem to believe the elections were good enough for the results to be accepted. They said the elections were flawed but valid and that the magnitude of the electoral problems was not enough to skew the results.

Vital questions like claims of fraud and low voter turnout must, however, be answered because they tell us how credible the elections were and how legitimate the results should be regarded.

Jamaica and CARICOM need to know these things because they need to be sure the elections satisfied the CARICOM Charter of Civil Society, to which Haiti is a party.

Disputes
One Haitian voter put the problem disturbingly. He said the Provisional Election Council (CEP) seemed to have decided before to accept whatever results it got, and that it would make sure to get the results it wanted. If this is true, then it confirms fears that the elections were a mere political tool for a preordained political succession. But Haitians won't accept a result that favours any preordained successor.

Voters reacted on election day to these suspicions. Either the elections were poorly organised or they were rigged to affect the outcome. Either way, Haitians raided ballots in some precincts and dumped the ballots in the streets. They marched in the streets in protest. They threw rocks in some places, forcing voters and election workers to flee. They trashed voting booths and set them on fire. They forced election observers to flee. They forced many voting bureaux to close early. They shouted, "Down with Preval", the president, and "Down with Gaillot", the president of the CEP. They tore up ballots. Some voters boasted of voting many times.

Even the United Nations, which would like to speak positively of the elections, had to express "deep concern at the numerous incidents that marred the elections". The observation of the elections was disrupted in many places. The election observers are not prepared to say there was fraud, or massive fraud. However, they acknowledged that a number of problems marred the elections like late opening of polling stations, confusion over electoral lists, and many organisational problems.

The candidates were very angry. Supporters of top candidates like Mirlande Manigat, Charles Henry Baker and Michel Martelly took to the streets, demanding that the elections be voided. As many as 12 of the 19 candidates had called for peaceful protests against "massive fraud".

A key critic is a candidate who is an ex-prime minister, Jacques Edouard Alexis. He said, "The election is ruined. It needs to be cancelled." Alexis said that power must come from the people. He was implying that there was an attempt to create power for a new president from the top.

Embarrassingly, it appears that even candidates could not vote, or only got a chance to vote with some difficulty, testifying to organisational and administrative problems. Jude Celestin's image did not match the photo that was against his name on the voter's list. He had to vote by provisional ballot. Disqualified candidate, Wyclef Jean, could not vote because he could not find his name on the voter's list. He declared the elections a fraud.

Even some election workers were not able to vote. Sometimes voters were turned away.

Sometimes polling stations were closed with persons still standing in line. Many couldn't find their names on the voter's lists. Haitians complained that there were pre-stuffed ballots. Yet, Dorsinvil Gaillot, the president of the CEP, said defiantly that the elections had been a success.

Democracy and Elections
For democrats, elections put democracy first. A more cynical view is that elections put power first, the power of parties and persons who don't necessarily put people first. In Jamaica, the powerful and the ambitious insisted on elections in the aftermath of a hurricane in 2007 despite its dislocation of thousands of persons.

The philosophy that elections must be held, for better or for worse, can backfire. If the elections are for the worse, then it will draw anger and the new government won't have the legitimacy it needs. In Haiti, elections were held when 1.3 million people were still in tent cities, little of the massive earthquake rubble had been cleared, a cholera epidemic is raging, little of the money requested to fight the epidemic had been provided and less than half of the pledged donations for earthquake recovery had been received.

There has been failure to put people first. Fewer than 10 per cent of $164 million needed to fight cholera had been received. But $29 million had been found for the elections. The people are dying while the political elite and their international allies are fighting for power. This can't make democracy look good.

The United Nations is now saying that the cholera epidemic is spreading so fast that it could infect 200,000 persons in three months. That will have a devastating effect on the second round of elections due in January 2011. If a candidate for the presidency and the legislature does not receive 50 per cent of the votes in November, the two with the most votes have a run-off election six weeks after.

One great irony is that Cuba, criticised for not having 'competitive' elections, has really been putting people first in Haiti. At the end of the day, that is what the people of Haiti want right now. Almost 40 per cent of the sick have been looked after by the Cuban medical brigade. At their rate of treatment, only 700 persons would have died, not 2,000, and as many as 70,000 would not have been infected. While the United States was the top funder of elections, Cuba is the top saviour for cholera-stricken Haitians.

While money to fight cholera is very short, more money will be spent for second-round elections. But Cuba is to send another 300 medical personnel to fight cholera to add to the 965 already there.

Jamaica has chairmanship of CARICOM. It needs to lend its voice to the political and humanitarian crisis. CARICOM played a major role in restoring democracy to Haiti in 2006, through elections, under Jamaica and P.J. Patterson's leadership. Jamaica and CARICOM have, however, been silent on these deeply suspicious elections in our very troubled CARICOM partner country.

Forty-five members of the US Congress had expressed great reservations about the preparations for the elections. Now, a high-level US congressional delegation has asked the US administration not to endorse the elections until claims of fraud have been investigated.

CARICOM should do the same.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona.