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#1896: Crucial vote : Morse comments
From: oloffsonram <oloffsonram@globelsud.net>
Elections are coming and it seems the electoral apparatus is starting
to kick into gear...i see advertisements in the streets, commercials on
the television, and i hear public service announcements on the
radio...there's talk of observers and i've even met a few people who
are in town to organize the event....haiti, being a country of smoke
screens and mirrors, has forced me to look at specific "indicators" to
determine what is going to happen in the near future...my current
"indicator" for the upcoming elections is voter registration... when
some one talks to me of elections i ask them if they have their voter
registration card yet...will the people register to vote?...will the
national voting infrastructure be in place?... here's an analysis, a
sort of devil's advocate to the process:
1)the masses are skeptical of the democratic process...only those on
the inside seem to be enjoying the spoils of democracy(the candidate,
not the voter)...the great majority is still locked out(as jesse
jackson would put it)...a lot of promises, few rewards...
2)no one is going to go out on a limb by endangering their lives or
their family (been there, done that)...if the social climate is tense,
people will stay indoors and not go register...this plays into the
hands of a destabalizer...
3)to this day people are put into and taken out of elected office
regardless of elections, whether they be mayors, senators or deputies...
4) there is no clear cut election issue or cause that speaks directly
to the voter...
5)there is no obvious enemy to vote against...
6)people might want to vote, but they're not really sure who the
candidates are...the people haven't been inspired yet...
7)the apparent divisiveness of the majority party is creating
confusion...
8)not enough job creation...
9)violence, instability, rock throwing, urine throwing, all serve to
derail the process...
i'm not trying to put a damp rag on the initiative, i'm just trying to
figure out what our good intentions might be up against...no sense
blindly going into something that could turn out to be a mess if not
handled properly...
richard morse