#3613: Privatization of elections by CNO? Stockdale comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Clayton Stockdale <cdstockdale@home.com>

"Foreign observers
were especially supportive of the plan to apply
neutral economic criteria to voter eligibility and
vote counting, rather than political criteria that can
be easily manipulated by Haiti's poor, illiterate
majority.  A highly placed diplomatic source added
that the arrangement should bring needed efficiency to
Haiti's beleaguered electoral process.  "It looks like
they learned something from the registration process,
where the CSP got overextended, trying to provide
services where it was just not viable.  Running the
elections as a business will force the system to stick
to those activities that promise a reasonable return"
\

Am I misunderstanding this, or do they say they are doing the poor a favor
by not letting them vote???  So they "don't don't have to stand in the hot
sun for nothing"?!?

I know in the US, that the electoral college does some of the voting for us,
as we are not a pure democracy, and I guess I don't have a good
understanding of details of Haiti's election process established by their
laws.  But this looks like deprivation of voting rights because one is too
poor or inaccessible.  How does this benefit the rights of each individual
Haitian? I hope Mr. Poincy has his benevolent dictator waiting in the wings,
because Haiti will need him/her in the near future, if this is the way they
will manage elections, until they "can generate a positive outcome".

I may be naive, but I thought each person in a democracy being given a
chance to vote (not register--registration isn't a requirement of the right
to vote) WAS a positive outcome.  And before I am told, I realize that
registration is to prevent voter fraud, and that it is done to try to
protect the rights of all voters to have one vote and have it weigh equally.
But to eliminate voting by the poor *for their own good* even for a short
period, is going too far.

And finally, I don't think it is "the poor majority" who are doing the
political
maipulating of votes.

DS