- On April 19, sham elections were held to fill 12 open
seats in the 30-member Haitian Senate, but most Haitians refused to go
along.
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- Earlier in February on procedural grounds, Haiti's Provisional
Election Council (CEP) disqualified Fanmi Lavalas (FL) candidates from
participating, the party most Haitians support.
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- Mass outrage and apprehension showed up in Priorities
Project (HPP) pre-election polls with only 5% of eligible voters stating
an intention to participate.
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- HPP's Jacob Francois told Inter Press Service (IPS):
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- "We organized our census primarily through town
hall meetings, where organizers spoke to people in groups and individually.
From this we tallied the opinions of what we estimated to be 65,000 from
an eight million population." From this sampling, a 5% participation
rate was calculated.
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- Francois added: "They just do not learn. They can't
exclude a major party," and do it on a first time ever procedural
technicality, "that's total exclusion. It will undermine the entire
process. In addition, the CEP has no business (interfering with) the internal
affairs of Lavalas," or taking orders from Washington to do it.
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- Secretary General of the Organisation of American States,
Jose Miguel Insulza, said in a press release:
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- "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."
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- In a pre-election radio interview, one Haitian activist
said:
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- "In the matter of elections, basically what you
have is a decision to explode Fanmi Lavalas (FL)....with the complicity
of President Rene Preval (and the international community)....because everyone
knows FL is the majority party in the country."
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- Meanwhile, the Haiti Information Project (HIP) reported
at 3:00PM on April 19 that "today's senatorial elections (are) a total
failure." Port-au-Prince polling stations "had more election
workers and police than actual voters." Normally busy city streets
were "virtually deserted. A rough exit sampling from journalists (on
the ground) shows that voter turnout may be as low as 3%."
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- Astonishing. Imagine holding a national election and
virtually no one shows up. Because of clear electoral rigging, FL leaders
urged Haitians to support a national boycott. In overwhelming numbers,
they complied by staying home and not voting. Whoever wins, it will be
impossible to call the results legitimate.
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- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
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- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday
- Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
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