1997-04-07
Haiti's opposition calls for elections to be annulled Eds: RECASTS throughout, UPDATES with opposition call for
(APW_ENG_19970407.0922)
1) Haiti's opposition parties on Monday denounced parliamentary elections as a farce and called upon the government to annul the results.
2) With a feeble turnout _ some polling stations reported no voters at all on Sunday _ Haitians showed their disapproval of politicians and of democracy as it is evolving in their Caribbean nation of 7.2 million people.
3) An observer with the U.S. Republican Party, Utah Lt. Gov. Olene Walker, said Monday she saw election officials tampering with result sheets at two collection centers in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
4) Leading U.S. Republicans have criticized past Haitian elections as well as U.S. policy in Haiti. President Bill Clinton ordered 20,000 American troops to Haiti in 1994 to disband a military regime and restore democratic rule.
5) At stake in the election is an internationally driven program to modernize Haiti's economy that is being challenged by the new Lavalas Family party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Tens of millions of aid dollars are tied to the plan.
6) The election also could strengthen Aristide, who is eligible to run again for president in 2000. Results were expected in about 10 days.
7) Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council shocked people Sunday night by announcing turnout figures of 30 percent and 50 percent in some districts. Foreign observers and reporters who visited hundreds of polling stations estimated turnout at little more than 5 percent of registered voters.
8) Former Sen. Turnep Delpe, co-leader of the opposition National Front for Change and Democracy coalition, urged the government ``to refrain from trying to make the people swallow the adulterated elections.''
9) ``The authorities should show a minimum of courage and annul the elections,'' Rene Theodore, leader of the opposition Movement to Reconstruct the Nation, told Radio Vision 2000.
10) ``They should dismiss the Electoral Council that was so shameless that it declared a 40 percent voter participation in front of all those who witnessed the fiasco,'' Theodore said.
11) Aristide's party was expected to gain a Senate majority in the elections, which included balloting for nine of 27 Senate seats, two seats in the Chamber of Deputies and thousands of officers for 697 local councils.
12) The councils will help choose a permanent electoral council to supervise elections for the next 10 years.
13) Haiti's leading opposition parties have boycotted elections since chaotic legislative elections in June 1995. They say the provisional council is loaded in Aristide's favor, with its three top officials and most government poll watchers and lesser election officials from his Lavalas Family party.
14) In 1990, nearly every voter turned out to sweep Aristide into power during the country's first successful democratic elections, but the army ousted him in September 1991. Military terror ended when 20,000 U.S. troops arrived in September 1994.
15) The June 1995 elections drew less than 50 percent. In December 1995 presidential elections, won by Rene Preval, turnout was less than 30 percent.
16) Lavalas Family senate candidate Yvon Neptune said the council ``must have a solid basis.'' He estimated that in his western district, including Port-au-Prince, 15 percent to 20 percent of those registered voted. Observers estimated less than 5 percent for the district.
17) At a news conference Monday, Utah's Lt. Gov. Walker said she saw officials tampering with vote tally sheets. She also said Haitians should ask themselves whether the elections will produce a non-partisan council.
1997-04-18
Pro-government candidates in Haiti claim fraud By MICHAEL NORTON
(APW_ENG_19970418.1020)
1) Dozens of pro-government candidates claim that supporters of opposition leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide are rigging results from Haiti's recent legislative elections.
2) Senate candidates loyal to Prime Minister Rosny Smarth say they've been shut out of the vote-counting by an elections council that supports Aristide. Official results from the April 6 election are due May 2.
3) At stake is control of Haiti's Senate, the future of a multimillion-dollar foreign aid program and Aristide's own prospects to run for a second term as president in 2000. Aristide opposes the aid program _ which the United States considers essential to Haiti's development _ and could block it if his Lavalas Family party wins control of the Senate.
4) ``The elections were fraudulent. From the top to the bottom, the electoral apparatus has sworn allegiance to the Lavalas Family party,'' Sen. Paul Denis, of the pro-government Lavalas Political Organization party, said Friday.
5) The United States insists the election was clean and fair. But the Lavalas Political Organization says Aristide's poll-watchers intimidated voters at dozens of polling places.
6) Riche Andris, a pro-government candidate in the western town of Jeremie, said hundreds of unregistered voters were allowed to cast ballots.
7) In every polling place ``where we didn't have a party delegate, (Lavalas Family activists) shooed away our supporters,'' Andris said.
8) A Catholic church commission reported ``numerous irregularities and fraud'' in 50 polling places in and near the central Artibonite Valley. Nine senate candidates in the valley have demanded annulment of the election.
9) Alexandre Lavaud, secretary-general of the elections council, says all challenges to the voting will be investigated. Where candidates do not win more than 50 percent of the vote, run-off elections will be held May 25.
10) Lavaud also urged candidates not to declare victory until results are in. But already, the Lavalas Family has said it expects a sweeping victory, and two candidates close to Aristide say they won senate seats in southern districts. The candidates _ former acting police chief Fourel Celestin and former diplomat Yvon Feuille _ were accused of employing heavily-armed bodyguards to intimidate voters.
11) Then-President Aristide was ousted by an army coup in 1991. He returned to power in 1994 after U.S. troops intervened in Haiti to restore democracy. Rene Preval succeeded him in 1996.
12) The U.S.-backed foreign aid program has split the Lavalas political movement that Aristide founded in 1990. It would force the government to trim spending and sell or lease state-owned industries, eliminating thousands of jobs.
13) Prime Minister Smarth, who barely survived a no-confidence vote in the lower house last month, needs legislation to enable disbursement of much of the foreign aid.
14) The elections didn't bode well for his plans. International observers reported only 5 percent of eligible Haitians voted.
15) ``Fundamentally, the people feel or are aware that they have been abandoned and betrayed by their elected officials,'' the Haitian Human Rights Platform, a coalition of rights groups, said in a recent statement.
2000-05-29
Aristide Party Wins Senate Control
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1) Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party has won control of Haiti's Senate, according to partial returns from last week's election, released for the first time Monday.
2) The results of the May 21 vote -- which was delayed at least four times -- suggested strong support for the controversial former priest, who is expected to run for president again this fall.
3) The ballot was widely seen as a last chance for democracy in the impoverished, unstable Caribbean nation of 8 million people.
4) The first results, released Monday by Electoral Council spokesman Jean-Gardy Lorcy, showed the Lavalas Family Party winning 14 of the 27 seats in the Senate.
5) Of the other five seats that were up this election, one was won by independent Luc Fleurinor, two had not been counted as of Monday night and voting was rescheduled in two because of technical problems. The eight seats that were not up for re-election are held by representatives from non-Lavalas parties.
6) Lavalas also won 16 of the 83 seats that were up for election in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies. In another 31 races for the lower house, no candidate won an absolute majority, and a runoff was scheduled for June 25. In most of those districts the Lavalas candidate was leading.
7) The results of several thousand local government positions were not announced.
8) ''We have no totalitarian intention,'' said Yvon Neptune, Lavalas Family spokesman. ''The Haitian people want to get out of the rut of crisis, and we want to implement a project that will change society. We want peace and security, so we can concentrate on the big problems.''
9) Although voting was peaceful, the results seem likely to only deepen divisions here.
10) Gerard Pierre-Charles, the leader of the Struggling People's Organization, the majority party until January 1999, denounced the results as ''the implementation of a totalitarian plan to take over every institution of the country.''
11) Opponents claim fear that Lavalas widely intimidated opposition candidates in the months before the vote, rendering it unfair. They say they will not accept the results and will boycott any runoffs.
12) At least 15 people were slain in political killings in the two months leading up to the balloting.
13) President Rene Preval, an Aristide supporter, dissolved Parliament in January 1999 and appointed a new premier two months later. Most opposition parties accuse Preval and Aristide of collaborating to establish a totalitarian state.
14) Aristide was elected in 1990 but overthrown in a 1991 army-backed coup. U.S. troops restored him to power in 1994, but Haitian law barred him from seeking a consecutive term in 1995 elections. Since the invasion, the international community has poured more than a billion dollars into this Caribbean nation, one of the world's least developed.
15) More than 2 million Haitian voters -- an estimated 60 percent of the electorate -- cast their ballots in the elections.
16) Still, there were numerous alleged irregularities.
17) Many election stations were staffed exclusively by Aristide partisans, opposition parties complained. They charged that their pollwatchers were expelled from the stations because the electoral council had only validated the identity cards of Aristide poll workers.
18) After the vote, ballot boxes were piled up at the central election office and ballots spilled out in the street, making a recount impossible.
19) Despite the problems, both the National Council of Election Observers and the Organization of American States Election Observation team said the elections were acceptable.
2000-06-02
OAS Finds Flaws Haiti Vote Count
(APW_ENG_20000602.0081)
1) In the latest hitch in Haiti's problem-plagued election, the Organization of American States questioned Friday how the winners were determined.
2) Joining opposition politicians who have cried foul, the OAS said it found flaws in how the winning percentages in the May 21 local and legislative elections were calculated.
3) According to partial returns from the election, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family party seized control of Haiti's Senate, sweeping 16 of 17 seats at stake.
4) ''The percentages attributed to leading senate candidates reveals a very serious error,'' Orlando Marville, chief of the OAS election observer mission, said in a letter to Haiti's electoral council. He asked officials to recalculate the percentage of votes won by all candidates -- a procedure that could force several declared Senate winners to run in a second round of voting.
5) The request was the latest snag in the problem-plagued voting process of an election that was widely seen as a last chance for democracy in this impoverished Caribbean nation of 8 million people.
6) Marville did not deny that most voters cast their ballots for Aristide candidates. But he questioned whether several Lavalas winners obtained an absolute majority of votes needed to avoid a runoff.
7) The election council vice president, Debussy Damier, appeared to agree.
8) ''It seems the council miscalculated the percentages,'' he said. He did not elaborate.
9) Lavalas militant Patrick Norzeus claimed the council was being pressured to reduce the number of first-round Lavalas Senate victories from 16 to six.
10) The opposition Christian Movement for a New Haiti party claimed that the council declared winners in at least eight Senate races where none of the candidates won more than 50 percent of the vote.
11) Party spokesman Ernest Colon said the council apparently counted the votes of only the top four contenders and not the others who ran and may have gotten a few votes. Those missing votes would create an erroneous winning percentage count.
12) One of the declared Senate winners, Lavalas' Yvon Neptune, urged Haitians in a radio interview Thursday ''to be vigilant, so that no one will subtract a single one of the people's votes, so that no one will try to say two and two make five.''
13) Haiti hasn't had a Parliament since President Rene Preval shut it down in January 1999 after an 18-month standoff with opposition senators.
14) Some 145 candidates contested 19 seats in the 27-seat Senate, which has eight incumbent senators. The entire 83-seat lower house was up for election. Partial results show more than 20 Lavalas Family lower house candidates won in the first round.
15) Most opposition parties accuse Lavalas of working to establish a totalitarian state, and they warn they will boycott the second round of voting scheduled for June 25. The opposition says Lavalas intimidated opposition candidates before the election, denying them a level playing field.
16) At least 15 people -- most opposition activists -- were slain in political violence before the election, and about 34 opposition candidates and activists were arrested afterward.
17) Aristide was elected in 1990 but was overthrown in a 1991 army-backed coup. U.S. troops restored him to power in 1994, but Haitian law barred him from seeking a consecutive term in 1995.
18) Aristide is expected to be a candidate again for president in November and is expected to win easily.
2000-06-19
Aristide Partisans Disrupt Capital
(APW_ENG_20000619.0120)
1) Militant supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide paralyzed Haiti's capital Monday, setting a fire outside the U.S. Embassy, trying to burn an American flag and blocking streets to demand the release of last month's election results.
2) Protesters stoned vehicles and set tire barricades aflame. They blocked Port-au-Prince's main arteries with hulks of vehicles, junked refrigerators and large rocks. Shops and schools stayed shut.
3) To the west, protesters also reportedly paralyzed Gonaives, Haiti's third-largest city.
4) Outside the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, demonstrators lit a large pile of debris on fire and chanted anti-American slogans. Haitian police watched but did not intervene. The protesters then moved to the nearby United Nations Plaza, where they lowered an American flag and tried to set it ablaze before police grabbed the flag.
5) ''The United States is a nation of thieves. It has tried to steal our votes, that's why we're burning the flag,'' one protester said.
6) Monday's violence was the second time in a week that Aristide supporters had shut down the capital. On Friday, they threw stones and threatened more violence if election results were not published.
7) Haiti's Radio Galaxie quoted election chief Leon Manus as saying Monday that he refused to give in to pressure from President Rene Preval to sign off on incorrect results. The station, in a report from its correspondent in the United States, quoted Manus as saying that Aristide candidates won only seven Senate seats but Preval had insisted that they had won 16 and that Manus make that official.
8) The radio station did not say where Manus was. He fled to the United States after receiving a death threat.
9) The remaining six members of the electoral council -- minus their president and two members who resigned on Thursday -- promised to publish final results later Monday.
10) The council members have already published mayoral results from eight of Haiti's nine electoral districts. The results gave Aristide candidates control of all the biggest towns and of metropolitan Port-au-Prince, where a third of the country's 8 million people live.
11) To restore constitutional government, Haiti held elections May 21 for the lower house of Parliament and 19 of 27 Senate seats. Preliminary results showed Aristide's Lavalas Family party winning 16 Senate seats and more than 20 of 83 lower house races -- a victory opposition leaders say would set Haiti on the road to a one-party state under Aristide.
12) The United States, United Nations and Organization of American States have challenged the vote-counting process.
13) In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States wants the Haitian government and the country's electoral authorities to complete the vote count in accordance with ''the Haitian constitution and the electoral law.''
14) Under Haitian law, candidates must win a majority to avoid a second round of voting. But officials counted the votes of only the top four contenders and not the others who ran and may have gotten a few votes.
15) Those missing votes created an erroneous winning percentage count, observers say, giving at least eight of 16 Senate seats to Aristide candidates who otherwise would have to face a second round.
16) Despite the objections, a pro-Aristide parliament should be installed by July. Aristide -- who served as president from 1991-1995 -- is expected to win presidential elections in November.
17) Haiti hasn't had a constitutional government since Preval, an Aristide ally, shut down Parliament in January 1999 to resolve an 18-month power struggle with the opposition majority party. Preval then appointed a new premier by decree.
2000-06-20
2000-08-08
2000-08-16
Haiti's Election Results Official
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1) President Rene Preval made the results of Haiti's parliamentary elections official by publishing them Wednesday, despite criticism from an international community that deems the results questionable.
2) The totals printed in the official government publication Le Moniteur confirmed an overwhelming victory by the Lavalas Family party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The party won 18 of 19 seats in the upper house and 72 of 82 in the lower house in May, June, and July balloting, according to official results.
3) The Lavalas Family also won about 80 percent of Haiti's 133 city halls and a majority of urban and rural local assemblies. Aristide is favored to win presidential elections on Nov. 26.
4) The European Union, the United States and Canada have questioned the formula used to calculate winners of races in the first round in May. They have threatened to withhold aid if the results are not revised.
5) The Organization of American States, which monitored the elections, has said it believes some seats won in the first round of voting should have gone to a run-off vote. OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria is to arrive in Haiti on Thursday to meet with local officials about the results.
6) Eight more senators' seats will be up for election in November. An election for one seat in the 83-seat lower house was postponed.
7) Haiti has been without a legislature since January 1999, when Preval locked lawmakers out of parliament, ending an 18-month power struggle with the former majority party over tainted April 1997 elections.
2000-08-28
Haitian Lawmakers Take Office
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1) Fending off international criticism of their election, lawmakers from Haiti's Lavalas Family party took office Monday and cemented former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's control over Parliament.
2) Incumbents from opposition parties boycotted the session to protest the disputed election, which was held in three stages in May, June and July.
3) Senators chose Sen. Yvon Neptune, spokesman of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, to be president of the upper house. Lower house members chose Sainvoyis Pascal, 71, their eldest member, as acting president.
4) Aristide's party won 18 of 19 upper-house and 72 of 82 lower-house seats in the election.
5) An Organization of American States election observation team objected to the method used to determine which Senate candidates should have gone to a second, run-off round. The United States and the European Union have threatened to suspend aid if Haiti does not amend the results.
6) Instead of counting the votes of all candidates for Senate seats, electoral officials only counted the top four contenders. Opposition parties have accused President Rene Preval of having rigged the election to favor the Lavalas Family.
7) ''The senators were elected unconstitutionally,'' said Jean-Claude Bajeux, a human rights activist and election observer. ''The constitution is in jeopardy and with it the civil rights of Haitians.''
8) International financial institutions have put about $400 million on hold until Monday's installation, but it was unclear whether they will accept its legitimacy. About 60 percent of Haiti's $800 million annual budget comes from such.
9) Haiti had been without a legislature since January 1999, when Preval locked lawmakers out of Parliament to end an 18-month power struggle with opposition parties.
2006-02-09
Front-runner said to have early lead in Haiti vote
(APW_ENG_20060209.1140)
1) An official at the party headquarters of presidential candidate Rene Preval said Thursday that he held a huge lead with about 25 percent of votes counted _ a claim supported by some rivals and scattered polling station reports.
2) The electoral commission has not yet released any official results from Tuesday's presidential and parliamentary elections. But the results are also being tabulated by political parties that have representatives at the polls.
3) The 359,000 votes counted so far would be almost 25 percent of the votes cast, according to estimates of voter turnout. Preval had almost 67 percent of those, according to the official at Preval's Lespwa party headquarters in the capital, Port-au-Prince, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to release the data.
4) Earlier, a main rival to Preval _ a one-time protege of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide _ said he feared the former president had made "a clean sweep" in the first round of Haiti's balloting even as slow vote counting dragged on for a second day.
5) Leslie Manigat, a 75-year-old candidate who was president for five months in 1988 until the army ousted him, said early returns from his party's representatives monitoring the count showed Preval with a wide lead.
6) "There is a tiny chance that we will have a second round, but I fear Preval has made a clean sweep of the votes," Manigat told The Associated Press.
7) He said the returns showed himself coming in second, followed by Charles Henri Baker, 50, a wealthy garment factory owner.
8) Though no official results have been released, Manigat's comments were the latest sign that Preval appeared to be heading toward a big, first-round victory.
9) Jacques Bernard, director general of Haiti's electoral council, said Wednesday that only a small percentage of balloting results had reached the capital. Many of the ballot counts were still being ferried from remote polling places by plane, truck and mule.
10) "By Friday night or Saturday noon, we will have a clear idea of the results of the election," said Jacques Bernard, the council's director general.
11) Tuesday's elections were the first since the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a bloody revolt two years ago, and officials said collecting and tabulating the results would take several days. But some polling stations posted unconfirmed local results outside _ and these showed strong early support for Preval.
12) The leading contender among the 33 presidential candidates was Preval, a 63-year-old agronomist and former president widely supported by Haiti's poor masses. Shy and soft-spoken, Preval is the only elected leader in Haitian history to finish his term. He's also a former ally of Aristide, who remains in exile in South Africa.
13) Preval's political adviser, Bob Manuel, said Wednesday that preliminary calculations show the former president having won 67 percent of the nationwide vote, with 16 percent of votes counted.
14) While that could not be verified, unconfirmed results taped to columns at a polling center near the huge slum of Cite Soleil showed Preval winning about 90 percent of the votes there.
15) Across the city in Petionville, home to many of Haiti's wealthiest citizens as well the poor Haitians who serve them, Preval took slightly more than 70 percent of the vote at a polling station, according to posted results.
16) Preval, in his rural hometown of Marmelade, emerged from his family home once, briefly dancing along to a band playing outside and waving to supporters. He didn't speak to reporters.
17) More than 50 percent of Haiti's 3.5 million registered voters were believed to have cast ballots, said David Wimhurst, a U.N. spokesman, adding that a precise figure wasn't yet available. He also said that the United Nations has not received any reports of fraud or other major irregularities.
18) Haitians eagerly awaited the first returns Thursday as scores of U.N. peacekeepers patrolled quiet streets in the capital, Port-au-Prince. The voting, guarded by a 9,000-strong U.N. force, was fraught with early delays but largely free of the violence that has plagued the capital since Aristide fled.
19) "I think no one can deny the legitimacy of this process, because people really participated," U.N. special envoy Juan Gabriel Valdes told Associated Press Television News.
20) However, he conceded that polls opened too late and "some people were not even able to vote."
21) If no candidate wins a majority, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held March 19.
22) The elections were deemed vital to avoiding a political and economic meltdown in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. In the aftermath of Aristide's ouster, gangs went on a kidnapping spree and many factories closed because of security problems and a shortage of foreign investment.
2006-03-11
Haiti's legislative runoff set for April 21
(APW_ENG_20060311.0177)
1) A legislative runoff needed to form Haiti's new government will take place April 21 pending approval from interim authorities, the electoral council said Friday.
2) Scores of candidates seeking 129 legislative seats will participate in the runoff, which is considered the final step in often-delayed elections called to replace former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who fled into exile amid a bloody revolt in February 2004.
3) Officials originally scheduled the runoff for March 19 but later postponed it, citing large-scale street protests in the wake of Feb. 7 elections won by Rene Preval, a former president.
4) The results of the runoff are scheduled for release on April 28, paving the way for the new government to take power, the electoral council said in a statement carried on local radio.
5) Regional elections would be held on June 18 under the proposed electoral calendar, which has been submitted to Haiti's interim government for approval, the statement said.
6) Preval, who received four times as many votes as his nearest rival, was declared the victor after delays in the vote count angered his supporters, who took to streets and accused election officials of trying to manipulate the results.
7) The delayed runoff also forced the postponement of Preval's March 29 inauguration since technically he cannot take power without a sitting parliament. A new inauguration date hasn't been set.
8) Preval's Lespwa Party is considered a front-runner in the legislative race, although observers say he will likely need to forge a coalition government because of the large number of political parties contesting the runoff.
9) Preval, who served as president from 1996-2001, has pledged to restore security, create jobs and attract foreign investment in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
2006-03-15
2006-04-20
Haitians prepare to vote in legislative runoff amid heavy security
(APW_ENG_20060420.1218)
1) After two years of political chaos, Haitians prepared to take the final step in their return to democracy with a legislative runoff Friday intended to restore the first popularly elected government since a revolt ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
2) The race for 127 seats in parliament _ 97 deputies and 30 senators _ features several hundred candidates from more than a dozen parties, ranging from members of Aristide's center-left Lavalas party to former rebels who helped oust him and several center-right, pro-business aspirants.
3) President-elect Rene Preval's Lespwa party is likely to capture the largest number of seats, but will probably fall short of a majority and will have to forge a coalition government, observers say.
4) Preval, a former president who shares Aristide's wide support among Haiti's poor masses, has urged citizens to vote amid fears of a low turnout, but the 63-year-old has done little campaigning for candidates of Lespwa which means "hope" in Creole.
5) Observers say a large turnout would boost Preval's legislative agenda to rebuild the Caribbean nation, which has been battered by gang violence, the closure of many textile factories and high unemployment since the February 2004 uprising that forced out Aristide.
6) Preval takes power next month and has pledged to restore security and attract jobs.
7) "The people need to vote massively so we can help the country move forward," said Max Mathurin, president of Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council. "We need a high level of participation so this election will be considered legitimate."
8) Under Haiti's constitution, the party or coalition with the most parliamentary seats gets to choose the prime minister, who acts as head of government and appoints Cabinet members and most administrative posts.
9) Parliament also must ratify all foreign loans, making it a key link in Haiti's dealings with the international community.
10) "If you expect Haiti to have any kind of democracy in the future, congress has to play a major role," said Dan Erikson, a Haiti expert with the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue.
11) Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, hasn't had a functioning parliament since 2003, and Erikson said a huge amount of work will be needed to get it up and running after it's installed.
12) "There's no staff. There's very little in the way of physical facilities. This is basically starting from scratch," he said.
13) Some 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers and 3,000 Haitian police will fan out across the country to prevent election day violence. Officials have deemed 37 areas as high security risks and will deploy rapid-response teams to put down any disturbance, U.N. spokesman Damian Onses-Cardona said.
14) Only two candidates won seats in the Feb. 7 first round of elections, which were hampered by late poll openings, delays in distributing ballots and a shortage of election workers needed to handle the crush of voters who jammed polling stations at dawn.
15) Officials said they've added 3,000 more election workers and improved training to ensure Friday's vote goes smoothly.
16) "There were problems in the first round but we've learned a lot of lessons," Onses-Cardona said. "We can expect a good day tomorrow."
17) Still, some Haitians said they weren't planning vote, citing the problems in the first round.
18) "The last time I voted I had to wait too long and people were pushing and shoving. I'm too old for that," said Germine Exavier, a 69-year-old woman who braved enormous lines to cast a ballot in the first round on Feb. 7.
2006-04-22
Low turnout marks Haitian vote for new parliament
(APW_ENG_20060422.0076)
1) Haitians turned out in low numbers to chose a new parliament in an election that should bring democracy back to the impoverished Caribbean nation and determine the level of legislative support for President-elect Rene Preval.
2) The vote contrasted sharply with the frenzied Feb. 7 presidential and first-round legislative election in which throngs of eager voters braved enormous lines to elect Preval, a former president and one-time ally of ousted President Jearn-Bertrand Aristide.
3) Friday's race for 127 parliamentary seats _ 97 deputies and 30 senators _ was billed as the final step in the process of restoring democracy to the hemisphere's poorest nation two years after an armed revolt ousted Aristide. But turnout was low and some election workers sat idle in front of half-empty ballot boxes as they waited for voters.
4) The election will also determine the level of legislative support for Preval, who takes power next month and has vowed to work to bring peace and jobs to the traumatized nation.
5) Preval's Lespwa party was expected to take the most seats, but the 63-year-old agronomist needs to form a coalition government since no party has enough candidates to win a majority.
6) The party or coalition with the most parliamentary seats gets to choose the prime minister, who acts as head of government and appoints Cabinet members and most administrative posts.
7) "I voted for change," said 56-year-old Espira St. Fleur, displaying an ink-stained thumb to prove he voted. "I don't have a job and can't feed my kids or send them to school, so hopefully this government will give us a chance for a better life.
8) Daniel Erikson, a Haiti expert with the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, doubted the apparently low turnout would hurt Preval's legislative agenda, but said the likely prospect of a divided parliament means he'll have to work hard to reach out to rival parties.
9) "Preval's honeymoon (with parliament) will almost certainly be very short," Erikson said.
10) One person was shot and killed in polling violence in the northern town of Grand Saline, said Max Mathurin, president of Haiti's electoral council, without giving further details.
11) In the same town, people broke into two polling stations and burned an unknown number of ballots, U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said.
12) Meanwhile in the capital, voting went smoothly except for isolated incidents of voter fraud and intimidation, officials said. Some voters in the Port-au-Prince slum of Cite Soleil grew angry after being told they couldn't cast ballots because they weren't on the voting list.
13) "Nobody expected (voter turnout) to be higher than the first round, and historically there's not a lot of turnout for legislative elections" in Haiti, said Wimhurst.
14) Haiti has not had a functioning parliament since 2003. Final results were expected within a week.
15) Friday's race included a broad array of candidates, including members of Aristide's center-left Lavalas party, former rebels who helped oust him and center-right, pro-business aspirants.
16) The head of the European Union observation team said unidentified partisans dressed up as election workers intimidated voters at a polling center in the Cite Soleil slum, but called the vote largely fair and free of the problems that plagued the Feb. 7 first round.
17) "Overall, it's a big improvement over the first round," European Parliament member Johan Van Hecke said.
Vote count begins in Haiti legislative runoff
(APW_ENG_20060422.0598)
1) Trucks, helicopters and mules carried vote tally sheets in from remote areas Saturday as election officials began counting ballots for Haiti's legislative runoff.
2) Officials were still calculating the turnout for Friday's vote to choose a new parliament, with early estimates ranging from 10 percent to 30 percent of Haiti's 3.5 million registered voters.
3) The runoff was considered the last step in the often-delayed process to put Haiti back on the path to democracy two years after a violent uprising toppled then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country's first democratically elected leader.
4) Final results are expected within about a week, officials said.
5) "Overall it was a good, peaceful and democratic election," said Damian Onses-Cardona, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission sent to restore order after Aristide's ouster.
6) On Friday, head European Union election observer Johan Van Hecke said the turnout was "extremely weak" _ about 15 percent. An EU spokeswoman said Saturday that early estimate could be revised.
7) About 70 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Feb. 7 elections that restored Rene Preval to the president's office. Officials had predicted a lower turnout for the legislative runoff.
8) "The assessment of the day is positive and we ask the Haitian people to trust us so that the process can work in the long term," the president of Haiti's electoral council, Max Mathurin, told reporters on Friday.
9) Preval's Lespwa party is likely to take the most seats in the 127-seat legislature, but the 63-year-old former president will have to form a coalition since no party has enough candidates to win a majority. Preval, a champion of Haiti's poor masses and a former Aristide ally, takes power May 14.
10) The party or coalition with the most seats in parliament chooses the prime minister, who as head of government appoints the Cabinet and most administrative posts.
11) Despite the low turnout, election observers said the race was generally fair, well organized and mostly free of violence.
12) An official for a small political party was shot to death in a polling dispute in a northern town, and there were isolated reports of voter fraud and intimidation at some polling stations.
13) In the capital, voting went smoothly in most areas, although some people complained they showed up to cast ballots only to be told they weren't on the voter list.
14) A Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping force was guarding the transport of vote tally sheets to the capital of Port-au-Prince, using helicopters, trucks and 200 mules needed to retrieve ballots from remote mountain hamlets.
2006-04-25
Preval's party wins nearly a quarter of legislative seats so far in Haiti runoff
(APW_ENG_20060425.0078)
1) President-elect Rene Preval's party has won almost one-fourth of Haiti's parliamentary seats, according to partial results, boosting his legislative influence as he tries to unite this divided and impoverished country.
2) But the results highlighted that, lacking a majority in the Caribbean nation's senate and lower house, Preval will need to form a coalition to govern effectively.
3) With 98 percent of the votes counted from Friday's senate race, Preval's Lespwa party had won at least 11 of 30 seats, the Provisional Electoral Council announced late Monday.
4) Lespwa was easily beating the second-place Organization for the People's Struggle party, which had taken four senate seats so far.
5) In the lower house of parliament, Preval's party won at least 20 of 99 seats, the council said. Slightly more than half the races had yet to be decided, with more results to be released Tuesday.
6) Preval's party will likely pick up more seats, but the 63-year-old agronomist will still need to form a coalition government to control parliament since neither Lespwa nor rival parties have enough candidates to win a majority.
7) The party or coalition with a majority of seats picks the prime minister, who as head of government appoints the Cabinet and most administrative posts.
8) In Senate races, the Fusion party finished third with three seats, while the Fanmi Lavalas party of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had two seats. Several smaller parties won four seats, and six races were still undecided.
9) Also winning a seat was the nephew of interim Haitian leader Gerard Latortue, Youri Latortue, who represents a small party in the northwestern Artibonite region.
10) Preval, a champion of the poor and former Aristide ally, will be sworn in May 14 and has pledged to restore security and create jobs after the bloody revolt that toppled the former president, plunging the impoverished country deeper into despair.
11) At least 1 million Haitians _ about 30 percent of the country's 3.5 million registered voters _ participated in the runoff, U.N. officials said Monday, double the initial estimate given by some international observers.
12) David Wimhurst, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, said the turnout represented a "a big step forward" compared with past legislative races in Haiti.
13) Many voters were slow to turn up at polling stations in the early hours of balloting, prompting the head EU election observer, Johan Van Hecke, to call the turnout "extremely weak" and estimate participation at no more than 15 percent.
14) Speaking to reporters Monday, Van Hecke said that estimate was based on "preliminary information," but stood by his assessment that participation was "very low."
2006-05-09
Haitian legislators sworn in and hold first session in new Parliament
(APW_ENG_20060509.1173)
1) Haiti's first parliament in two years was formally installed Tuesday, paving the way for President-elect Rene Preval to take power as he attempts to steer this impoverished and deeply divided nation toward stability.
2) Amid boisterous cheers from supporters, 27 candidates in the 30-seat Senate took the oath of office and donned the national sash, forming the country's upper house of parliament. The ceremony came a day after 86 of 99 deputies were sworn in at the lower house. The remaining 16 legislators will be picked in makeup elections due later this year.
3) Preval, who served as Haiti's president from 1996 to 2001, takes power Sunday but must do so in front of parliament, which hasn't convened since former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a February 2004 uprising.
4) Stephen Benoit, a deputy from Preval's Lespwa party, said the body's biggest challenge will be finishing its four-year term _ something that's never occurred in Haiti's chaotic 202-year history.
5) "That's the first challenge, to last the four years without a coup d'etat, without the president saying you're not going to finish your term," Benoit said after deputies held their first legislative session. "The population is counting on us. We need to deliver and we need to deliver quickly."
6) But getting work done won't be easy.
7) Preval has had to reach out to rival parties for legislative support since Lespwa, which means "hope" in Creole, lacks a majority of seats in parliament, which includes legislators from 16 political parties, including Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party.
8) The party or coalition with the most seats will choose the prime minister, who as head of government will appoint Preval's cabinet and most administrative posts.
9) In a meeting with journalists Tuesday, Preval said he would work to form "cohesion" among Haiti's fractured society, including Lavalas.
10) Rudy Heriveaux, a Lavalas senator, said the party was ready to work for "national reconciliation" but will call on Preval to release dozens of Aristide allies jailed without charge under the U.S.-backed interim government. Among those jailed is Aristide's former prime minister, Yvon Neptune, who is accused of orchestrating killings of political opponent but has yet to be tried.
11) "We are going to ask President Preval to release the political prisoners. That's an absolute necessity," Heriveaux said.
12) He added that Lavalas would also seek Aristide's return from exile in South Africa, something many Aristide supporters have demanded.
13) "They are right to want President Aristide to return to Haiti, but we have to do it with dialogue ... to create the appropriate conditions for all political exiles to return to Haiti," he said.
14) Preval, a former Aristide ally, has said that Haitian law allows Aristide to return, but hasn't said if he would welcome back his one-time political mentor.
2009-02-06
Aristide allies, ex-rebel barred from Haiti vote
(APW_ENG_20090206.1165)
1) Haitian officials will not let members of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party or a former rebel leader compete in upcoming Senate elections, local radio reported Friday.
2) Radio Metropole said at least 40 of the 105 candidates who registered in January to run for 12 open seats were rejected. The election is scheduled for April 19.
3) Several stations published a list of approved candidates online. It was unclear why they were chosen, and electoral officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
4) The electoral council barricaded its headquarters this week to guard against potential protests.
5) Many Haitians still support Aristide, who lives in exile in South Africa but officially remains the leader of his Fanmi Lavalas Party.
6) In recent months, the party has split over management disputes. Rival factions submitted two separate lists of candidates -- but both were apparently rejected.
7) Also barred under the council's ruling is Guy Philippe, whose rebel band helped oust Aristide in 2004. He has been living in hiding and is wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges.
8) About a third of the 30-member Senate has been vacant since early last year.
9) Elections were originally scheduled for late 2007, but they were postponed after President Rene Preval dissolved the electoral council amid infighting.
10) Food riots, parliamentary delays in replacing Preval's ousted prime minister and a string of catastrophic hurricanes and tropical storms led to further postponements.
2009-02-07
Aristide allies, ex-rebel barred from Haiti vote
(APW_ENG_20090207.0100)
1) Haiti's electoral council has barred members of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's popular political party from running in the upcoming Senate election, prompting statements of concern from the United States and Canada.
2) All candidates of Aristide's Famni Lavalas Party were rejected for the April 19 election -- in most cases because their documents lacked the signature of party leader Aristide, council president Frantz G. Verret said Friday. Aristide has been in exile in South Africa since 2004.
3) Lavalas leaders pledged to fight the decision. Electoral officials had assured the party in December that leaders in Haiti could sign for their candidates, said Maryse Narcisse, the head of Lavalas' executive council.
4) "We think these are political machinations," Narcisse told The Associated Press. "Famni Lavalas followed the law. ... I think this is a provocation."
5) The electoral council said its decision is final on all 17 Lavalas candidates and 23 others who were rejected, including former rebel leader Guy Philippe, whose rebels helped oust Aristide five years ago.
6) "These are decisions without appeal," Verret told The Associated Press in an interview.
7) But both Aristide and his party enjoy widespread popularity in Haiti, especially among the urban poor. Haitian police and U.N. peacekeepers blocked traffic near the electoral council's headquarters to guard against potential protests.
8) Prominent members of the international community, who are largely responsible for funding Haiti's elections, called for dialogue.
9) The U.S. Embassy called it "a matter of great concern that a decision was adopted that prevents all candidates of a particular party from participating in the next electoral contest," and called on all involved to "keep the doors open to dialogue and debate."
10) Canadian Ambassador Gilles Rivard also issued a statement of concern.
11) "Elections are a symbol of democracy which must unite, not divide, the population," the statement said.
12) Lavalas party infighting also might have hurt its chances as rival factions submitted two separate lists of candidates -- both of which were rejected.
13) The exclusions leave 65 candidates to contest 12 open seats.
14) President Rene Preval's Lespwa party could benefit from Friday's decision because it had a candidate approved in all 10 departments -- including two in the Artibonite department, where two senators will be elected.
15) The Lavalas party's support was a significant factor in Preval's 2006 electoral victory.
16) Preval was in Washington this week, where he met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and attended a prayer breakfast hosted by President Barack Obama.
17) Verret said the council's deliberations regarding Philippe were confidential. Philippe has been living in hiding and is wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges.
18) Candidates were certified for the election based on documents that proved Haitian nationality, ownership of property in the country and other requirements, along with consultations with national police and Cabinet ministries, Verret said.
19) More than a third of Haiti's 30-member Senate has been vacant since early last year.
20) Elections originally scheduled for late 2007 were postponed after Preval dissolved the electoral council amid infighting.
21) Food riots, parliamentary delays in replacing Preval's ousted prime minister and a string of catastrophic hurricanes and tropical storms led to further delays.
2009-03-14
UN tells Aristide party to fight in Haiti election
(APW_ENG_20090314.0855)
1) A U.N. Security Council delegation praised the party of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Saturday for fighting to overturn the disqualification of its Senate candidates, saying it could help avert a potentially dangerous crisis.
2) Haiti's provisional electoral council has barred Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party from participating in next month's Senate elections for largely technical reasons, angering supporters who have threatened to sabotage the vote. Observers fear the council's decision could lead to violence.
3) On Saturday, the U.N. delegation held separate meetings with the electoral council and political parties including Lavalas as part of a four-day visit to the desperately poor Caribbean nation.
4) "The country cannot allow a political crisis," said Jorge Urbina, Costa Rica's representative to the United Nations, who spoke for the delegation at a news conference. "All members of the council were glad to hear from (Lavalas) that they are using every legal instrument in their power to reverse this decision."
5) Elections for 12 of the Senate's 30 seats originally were scheduled for late 2007. But they have been repeatedly delayed by riots, hurricanes and infighting on a previous electoral council, which President Rene Preval ultimately dissolved. As a result, one-third of the Senate has been vacant since last year.
6) The trouble with the Lavalas slate owes to divisions between two rival factions that split over the party's direction after Aristide was ousted by a rebellion in 2004. Each faction submitted its own, separate list of candidates. Both were rejected because of a failure to produce documents signed by Aristide, who lives in South Africa.
7) Lavalas executive council head Maryse Narcisse said legal appeals are continuing and candidates from one Lavalas slate will begin campaigning as scheduled on Monday.
8) Also Saturday, protesters clashed with police in the Central Plateau town of Cornillon to prevent the seating of a local elections board, leading the area's representative in parliament to call for the elections to again be postponed, Radio Kiskeya reported.
2009-04-19
Few turn out in Haiti for delayed Senate election
(APW_ENG_20090419.0933)
1) Clear-plastic ballot boxes were nearly empty and Port-au-Prince's streets unusually deserted Sunday as few voters turned out for Senate elections in which candidates from a major populist party were not allowed to run.
2) The vote had been seen as a key step in the development of Haiti's democracy and in President Rene Preval's bid to retool the constitution and fight poverty. The international community gave the country $12.5 million to coordinate the elections, including $3 million from the U.S.
3) But the vote, delayed since 2007 by political turmoil, hunger riots and storms, drew an extremely low turnout and occasional violence.
4) Supporters of ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose Fanmi Lavalas party was disqualified from the election by Haiti's provisional electoral council, urged an estimated 4 million registered voters not to participate.
5) On Sunday, poll workers napped during long stretches when no voters came by. Some would-be voters carrying government-issued registration cards said they had been turned away by poll workers who said their names were not on registration lists.
6) Others said they had trouble reaching the polls because police had ordered public transportation closed in an attempt to preserve order.
7) "When you see this kind of low turnout, you have to wonder how interested people are in an election," said Edward Joseph, an observer with the Haiti Democracy Project, a Washington-based think tank. He said apathy or fear of election violence could be to blame.
8) A total of 79 candidates were vying for 12 Senate seats. No results were expected Sunday. Most races had multiple candidates and were likely to end in run-offs.
9) Lavalas claimed victory for Sunday's poor showing, crediting a stop-the-vote campaign they nicknamed "Operation Closed Door."
10) "The people believe in Fanmi Lavalas. That is why they did not come out today," James Derozin, a former Lavalas lawmaker, told a reporters as polls closed around 4 p.m. Other Lavalas loyalists vowed to seek Preval's resignation if Sunday's results are accepted.
11) Others in the capital blamed the low turnout on voter apathy after what they said were years of broken promises by elected leaders.
12) "Since I've lived in Cite Soleil, nobody has come through for us. We don't trust anyone. Who are we going to vote for?" said Fritznor Remedor, a native of the oceanside slum who directs a U.S.-supported orphanage at the site of a former gang stronghold.
13) There were several violent incidents on Sunday, though calm generally reigned.
14) Hundreds of protesters raided polling places and dumped ballots in the streets of Mirebalais, halting voting in the central plateau city, police said. They did not know who was responsible for the unrest. One man was arrested after firing guns to intimidate voters.
15) In Cite Soleil, supporters of Preval's Lespwa party smashed the windows of a Toyota Land Cruiser carrying Union party supporter and Haitian folk singer Barbara Guillaume, who said she was bringing food and documents to poll workers in Cite Soleil.
16) Lespwa supporters said she was carrying money and food to bribe voters into supporting her candidate instead. Police fired shots to disperse the crowd, beat the attackers with rifle butts and took them to Cite Soleil's new, U.S.-financed police station, where other Lespwa supporters threw rocks at the building.
17) They were released after their candidate himself, former Lavalas organizer and Cite Soleil native John Joel Joseph, visited the station. Guillaume was held without charges for about an hour and released.
18) Shortly after returning from the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, Preval dropped his vote into a nearly empty clear plastic ballot box at a school in the capital. He said he was waiting for official results to answer questions about turnout.
19) If his candidates win, Preval could see his economic projects and constitutional reform pass congress, where his Lespwa party already holds six of 18 Senate seats.
20) A majority for Lespwa would help Preval win a long-sought reform of Haiti's 1987 constitution, increasing executive powers and allowing presidents to seek consecutive five-year terms. It would also build support for Preval's economic programs, meant to relieve poverty in a nation where 80 percent of people live on less than $2 a day.
21) Preval, who was prime minister under Aristide, was elected president in 2006 with strong Lavalas backing. But many of Aristide's supporters now consider him and others in his party traitors for failing to return the exiled Aristide to Haiti.
22) Lavalas petitioned the electoral council to allow its candidates to run for Senate, but its case was weakened by a split in the party. Council President Frantz-Gerard Verret said its candidates were disqualified because they failed to produce documents signed by Aristide, the party's leader who was flown to exile in Africa on a U.S. plane during a 2004 rebellion.
23) Twelve seats are now vacant after 10 senators' terms expired, one died in a car crash and another resigned.
2009-04-20
2009-04-21
Haiti will likely wait days for election results
(APW_ENG_20090421.0062)
1) Results of Haiti's Senate elections will likely not be known for more than a week despite an apparent low turnout, an election official said Monday.
2) Voting for 11 vacant seats in the 30-member Senate took place across the impoverished country Sunday after a year and a half of delays caused by political infighting, riots and damaging storms.
3) It will take at least eight days to count ballots trucked in from the countryside and determine winners, said Jean-Marc Baudot, a Canadian consultant serving as logistics coordinator for the provisional electoral council's computation center.
4) Baudot said that officials have not been able to gauge the turnout yet, but it appeared to be low, based on the observations of balloting observers and reporters covering the elections.
5) Ballots are being counted at polling places and tabulated at a warehouse computer center guarded by armed U.N. peacekeepers in an industrial park in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
6) Turnout appeared to be extremely low in the capital, where voter apathy and fear of election-day violence were more common than political interest. President Rene Preval declined to comment on the turnout Sunday until official results are calculated.
7) U.S. Ambassador Janet Sanderson, who toured the tabulation center Monday, remarked that "Historically, off-year elections in the United States as well as in other countries tend not to be as well-attended as presidential elections. We'll have to see."
8) The international community gave at least $12.5 million, including $3.9 million from the United States, to help carry out the election.
9) Supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide -- whose still-popular Fanmi Lavalas party was prohibited from running by electoral officials -- had also encouraged citizens to stay away from the polls.
10) The party took credit for the apparently low turnout Sunday.
11) Voting for a 12th seat from the rural Central Department was halted by Haiti's provisional electoral council after demonstrators ransacked polling places and a poll supervisor was shot in the plateau town of Mirebalais. That race will be rescheduled.
12) On Monday, Haitian workers guarded by Chinese police in blue U.N. berets examined, scanned and tabulated the results reported by polling places across the country. The original ballots are archived elsewhere.
13) Since the Port-au-Prince facility is the only place where results are being tabulated, voters will have to wait for ballots to make hours-long journeys over Haiti's washed-out, dilapidated mountain roads and to be brought in by boat from surrounding minor islands.
14) The U.N. peacekeeping mission issued a statement Monday expressing its hope that the Haitian people and political parties will "await calmly the publication of results ... and that any dispute will be pursued through legal channels."
2009-04-28
No winners in 1st round of Haiti Senate election
(APW_ENG_20090428.1291)
1) None of the candidates for Haiti's Senate received the majority vote needed to win outright in balloting this month, leaving 11 vacant seats up for grabs in the runoff election.
2) The 30-seat Senate has been short-handed for 1 1/2 years as elections were delayed by hunger riots, devastating storms and political infighting.
3) Results released late Monday by Haiti's provisional electoral council also showed 11 percent of eligible voters turned out for the April 19 election.
4) The vote was boycotted by supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose Fanmi Lavalas party's candidates were disqualified because they failed to produce documents signed by the exiled party leader.
5) Nine of the 20 candidates advancing to the run-off are from President Rene Preval's Lespwa party, and the party could win seats in each of Haiti's administrative regions. Two other parties had multiple candidates advance.
6) Lespwa currently controls six of 18 seats in the Caribbean nation's Senate. A Lespwa majority would help Preval win support for constitutional reforms to increase executive powers and build support for his economic programs.
7) Voting for one of 12 vacant seats in the rural Central Department was canceled on election day after protesters raided polling places and a poll supervisor was shot. He survived. That vote has not been rescheduled.
8) Some voters also had difficulty reaching the polls because authorities halted public transportation in Port-au-Prince to preserve order. Only about 44,000 ballots were cast in a capital region home to nearly 3 million people.
9) At least four senators have said the election should be invalidated because of the poor turnout and are threatening to vote against seating the winners, Radio Kiskeya reported.
2009-05-07
Some lawmakers allege fraud in Haiti election
(APW_ENG_20090507.0108)
1) Some of Haiti's most powerful lawmakers are calling for last month's parliamentary elections to be thrown out because of allegations of voter fraud and political manipulation.
2) Sen. Youri Latortue, the powerful head of the chamber's justice and security committee, and at least three other senators said this week that they would try to block victors of next month's run-offs from taking office to protest the results.
3) It is not clear what effect the lawmakers' protests will have, but fraud allegations could prove troubling in this impoverished Caribbean country where disputed elections have been the precursor to violence and upheaval in recent years.
4) The long-delayed election to fill 12 vacant spots in the 30-seat Senate was hailed as an important step in Haiti's development as a democracy. But the April 19 first-round voting was marred by low turnout, officially 11 percent, and isolated violence that forced one race to be canceled.
5) Election officials were also widely criticized for barring all candidates from the major opposition party of exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Lavalas, from running on technical grounds.
6) Pierre-Louis Opont, general director of the provisional electoral council, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the second round would likely be postponed from June 7 because of time needed to print and deliver new ballots.
7) The council is investigating 18 formal complaints from six administrative regions alleging ballot-box stuffing, voter intimidation and other irregularities.
8) Many of the lawmakers' complaints involve President Rene Preval's governing Lespwa movement -- a loose confederation of mainly left-wing moderates and former Lavalas members whose candidates advanced to run-offs in every possible race so far.
9) A spate of Lespwa victories in the run-offs would bolster Preval's ability to move constitutional and economic reforms through parliament.
10) Deputy Steven Benoit, an independent member of the lower house, called for an investigation into whether Lespwa candidate John Joel Joseph used fraud to garner 6,266 votes in his native Cite Soleil slum -- nearly half his total, which more than doubled the second-place candidate.
11) By contrast, just 44,000 people voted in the entire metropolitan area of 3 million.
12) The United States, Canada and other donors gave $12.5 million to run the elections, but just 340 international observers monitored 9,400 polling stations in the first round.
2009-06-13
Protests, clashes precede Haiti senate elections
(APW_ENG_20090613.0034)
1) A bystander was killed in a clash between rival Haitian political parties this week, adding to growing concerns about potential violence ahead of next week's Senate elections, police said Friday.
2) Haitian police in the southern city of Jacmel confirmed that a motorcycle-taxi driver was killed as supporters of President Rene Preval's Lespwa movement fought with the opposing Struggling People's Organization, or OPL.
3) The incident is under investigation and it is not clear who fired the shots that killed him, but officials believe the unnamed driver was a bystander, police officer Mario Pierre said. He died Wednesday.
4) Isolated but intense protests by university students also have kept an area in downtown Port-au-Prince awash in tear gas, rocks and gunfire. A 10-year-old boy and at least two protesters have been struck or grazed by bullets as police fired warning shots, and tear gas wafted into an elementary school.
5) Students are protesting budget cuts and curriculum changes at Haiti's state university medical school. As other supporters joined the protest, they demanded that U.N. forces leave Haiti and that President Rene Preval sign a bill the legislature approved to increase minimum wage to $5 a day from less than $2.
6) Soldiers and police from the 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti as well as Haitian national police will be sent to every polling place on June 21 to prevent election violence, U.N. police spokesman Fred Blaise said Friday.
7) Isolated violence was reported in April during the first round of voting for 12 Senate seats. Official turnout was 11 percent. Public transportation was halted that day, making polls unreachable for some, while others chose to stay home and avoid trouble.
8) Elections were canceled in the central plateau region following unrest and the shooting of a poll worker and have not been rescheduled. Partisans also attacked a rival party worker's car in the Cite Soleil slum.
9) Police will beef up security this time around, Blaise said.
10) The elections have been criticized for barring on technical grounds all candidates from exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party.
11) At least four key Senators have threatened not to seat the winners of the upcoming vote because of voter fraud allegations in the first round. Legislators have criticized how Preval's Lespwa movement advanced to run-offs in every race despite numerous candidates.
2009-06-30
Haiti president ' s party picks up 5 Senate seats
(APW_ENG_20090630.0083)
1) President Rene Preval's party won five of 11 contests to fill open Senate seats, according to preliminary results released Monday by the provisional electoral council.
2) Five other parties won one seat each in the June 21 run-off elections. One seat wasn't filled because voting was canceled in the central plateau region after political violence.
3) The result was a good one for Preval, giving his Lespwa party 12 seats in the 30-member body, including the nonvoting presidency. That could give him a boost for planned economic reforms sought by the U.S. and other aid donors and for constitutional changes to increase presidential powers that have been limited in the wake of Haiti's dictatorships.
4) But at least four sitting senators have threatened to try to block the seating of the victors because of extremely low voter turnout in the run-offs and alleged fraud in April's first round.
5) Turnout in the latest voting was even lower than the 11 percent tallied in the first round. No official percentage has been reported for the June 21 elections, but there were 12,640 fewer valid ballots cast than in April.
6) On election day, residents of the capital, Port-au-Prince, cited frustration with leaders who have failed to lift them from poverty as their reason for not voting. Many were angry over Preval's opposition to a $3-a-day increase in the minimum wage. Fear also was high after weeks of protests and political party clashes that left several dead.
7) Another obstacle to getting voters out was a boycott by ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party, whose candidates were barred from running.
8) The low turnout could fuel complaints by the government's opponents that it has stumbled in developing Haiti as a democracy. The 11 Senate seats in play have been vacant for more than a year, with elections postponed repeatedly since late 2007.
9) Another round of legislative elections is scheduled for later this year, but officials say it is likely the balloting will be postponed.
10) Campaigning has already begun for Haiti's 2010 presidential election. Preval, who previously served as president from 1995 to 2000, has said he will not seek a third term.
2009-10-30
Haiti ' s president turns to Cabinet for new PM
(APW_ENG_20091030.1327)
1) Haiti's president turned Friday to a member of his Cabinet to replace the prime minister who was abruptly removed by the Senate in a vote that reflects the country's deep political divisions.
2) Jean-Max Bellerive, the minister of planning and external cooperation, is President Rene Preval's nominee to be Haiti's next premier, Preval said in a statement addressed to parliament.
3) Bellerive, an economist, has held a variety of government posts over the past decade, including as an official in the administration of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was forced from office in a violent rebellion in 2004. Bellerive, in Preval's government, has played a major role in coordinating and courting investment and foreign aid for the country.
4) Preval's nomination must be ratified by the Senate.
5) It was the Senate that voted early Friday to oust Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis amid a power struggle that threatens to undermine the campaign to attract foreign investment to the impoverished country.
6) Pierre-Louis was removed when 18 of 29 senators voted for censure and dissolved the Cabinet.
7) Most of the votes against the prime minister came from President Rene Preval's own Lespwa movement, which took control of the Senate after winning June elections.
8) Critics accused Pierre-Louis of failing to do enough to alleviate poverty, though the vote also reflects a struggle among senators for leadership roles as some position themselves for possible runs for president next year.
9) "She doesn't have social and economic policies. It's the Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank that are making economic decisions," said Sen. Joseph Lambert.
10) Pierre-Louis took office in September 2008 as Haiti was being pummeled by four tropical storms and hurricanes that killed nearly 800 people, left tens of thousands homeless and caused $1 billion in damage.
11) An educator who headed the Haitian branch of George Soros' Open Society Institute, she filled a post that had been vacant for five months after senators dismissed her predecessor during riots over the high cost of food.
12) In the past five years, politically tumultuous Haiti has gone through five prime ministers in addition to ousting Aristide.
13) Pierre-Louis' removal comes as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, a U.N. special envoy to Haiti, has been trying to assure international investors that the country has regained stability.
14) The prime minister alluded to that campaign in a letter to the Senate announcing she would not attend the debate on her ouster.
15) "At a time when efforts are under way for Haiti to join the international community and it has possibilities of investment, national and international, to better the lives of the Haitian population ... my government decides not to participate in this hearing," she wrote.
16) She added, "I leave the senators of the republic to face their responsibility in front of the nation."
17) Her refusal to attend angered some lawmakers. "It is an insult that she decided not to come," said Sen. John Joel Joseph, a member of Lespwa.
18) Pierre-Louis was nominated by Preval, but is not part of the Lespwa movement, which is not a traditional political party but rather an organization that supports the president.
19) The debate over her removal raged for more than nine hours, with senators storming out of the room, accusing each other of carrying weapons and marching up and down the aisle of the narrow chamber as Senate President Kelly Bastien rang a silver bell to call for order.
20) Pierre-Louis' supporters said that procedural errors made the ouster illegal.
21) The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton phoned Preval on Oct. 23, after senators issued their summons to Pierre-Louis.
22) Spokeswoman Mari Tolliver on Thursday declined to give details of the conversation, but said, "We have made it known to the Haitian government that the perception of instability could be very damaging to Haiti at this time."
23) Haiti's U.N. Stabilization Mission also expressed concern, issuing a statement praising Pierre-Louis for her work and saying her ouster "comes at a critical time in the country's political, economic and social stabilization efforts."
24) It urged that a replacement be named rapidly "to avoid any risk of returning to a period of instability" that could harm investment and job creation.
2009-11-26
Haiti bans prominent party from 2010 election
(APW_ENG_20091126.0926)
1) Haiti's electoral council has banned the influential party of exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from next year's legislative elections.
2) The Fanmi Lavalas party, which remains a major party with support from the capital's urban poor, is among 17 groups barred from February's elections because they submitted improper documents. The list includes the Lespwa movement that formed around President Rene Preval when he ran for president in 2004.
3) Aristide, who has been living in exile in South Africa after he was overthrown during a 2004 rebellion, called the decision to eliminate Lavalas "an electoral coup d'etat." He spoke in an interview late Wednesday with Radio Solidarite.
4) Lespwa officials did not answer phone calls seeking comment on Thursday.
5) The Lavalas party boycotted Senate run-off elections in June after the council disqualified its candidates on a technicality, and was barred from 2006 presidential elections.
6) Lavalas executive council head Maryse Narcisse told The Associated Press on Thursday she did not understand why the party was rejected.
7) "We did everything that we were supposed to do," she said. "We were excluded without any reasons, and now we are waiting for an answer."
8) The council approved 53 parties to run in the elections. The vote is now scheduled for Feb. 28, but might be postponed to coincide with presidential elections later in the year. Rejected parties can appeal.
9) Haiti's legislature chose a new prime minister last week as tensions remain high over the presence of 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers, who arrived in the impoverished country after the 2004 rebellion.
10) Jean-Max Bellerive is the sixth prime minister to hold the post since 2004.
2009-12-10
Electoral frustrations threaten Haiti vote
(APW_ENG_20091210.0201)
1) Opposition groups are threatening to disrupt Haiti's upcoming legislative contests over allegations that election officials are stacking the deck in favor of President Rene Preval's party in a bid to boost executive power.
2) Frustrations center on decisions by the nine-member, presidentially appointed provisional electoral council seen as giving an unfair advantage to Preval's newly created Unity party, which in just weeks has absorbed Cabinet ministers, the presidents of both parliamentary chambers and almost half the members of the lower house.
3) Opponents are especially upset over the disqualification of about 15 rival political groups ahead of the Feb. 28 elections, including ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas. Some allege Preval is attempting to load parliament with allies to push through constitutional changes or even seek another term.
4) "The game is rigged," former presidential candidate Evans Paul, a leader of the newly created Alternative coalition, told The Associated Press. "The only way to confront Preval's plan is to mobilize the population."
5) The electoral council has not fully explained the disqualifications or addressed other allegations. A council spokesman declined requests to comment.
6) Paul, who helped lead opposition to Aristide ahead of his 2004 ouster, called for the electoral council to be replaced and some disqualified parties readmitted to the election. Otherwise, he said, opposition leaders will push for demonstrations.
7) "The people have a right to rebel whenever the government is acting anti-democratically," he said.
8) Lavalas supporters have also decried the electoral council's decision. Aristide broke a months-long public silence to criticize his party's exclusion in a radio interview, calling the decision an "electoral coup d'etat."
9) Some supporters have called for a boycott. Lavalas also boycotted Senate elections from which they were excluded earlier this year. Turnout was extremely low.
10) Unity replaces Preval's previous Lespwa movement, a loose organization created to win him the presidency in 2006. Recently converted Unity legislator Guy Gerard Georges, whose previous Union party was also disqualified by the council, said the new party paid members' $1,200 election inscription fee and would likely help finance their campaigns.
11) Most Lespwa members, including Preval, were either former Lavalas activists or had served under Aristide. But over the course of Preval's second, nonconsecutive term, the soft-spoken leader has drifted far from supporters of Aristide who helped push him to victory, and now he has cut ties with his own movement as well.
12) Lespwa members who did not follow Preval to the new party have also been disqualified by the electoral council.
13) If Unity secures majorities in the February election, its members are widely expected to push through constitutional amendments to expand executive powers. The current 1987 constitution severely limited government and executive powers in the aftermath of the decades-long Duvalier dictatorships.
14) "We will have the right and the ability to change the political direction of Haiti," Unity legislator Georges said, calling the current constitution outdated.
15) Some, including Paul, allege the president could be seeking changes so he could run for a third term in elections next year. The president has said he will not run again.
16) Any upheaval could wreck efforts led by Bill Clinton, who was named U.N. special envoy to Haiti this year, to increase private investment, especially in clothing exports, and boost tourism in the deeply impoverished country.