#4463: Elections & the CEP : Carey responds to Kozyn (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Henry F. Chip Carey <polhfc@langate.gsu.edu>

John Kozyn writes:

"Others here are more competent than me translating French, but my rough 
reading would indicate that this means that the CEP is the final arbiter in 
any and all disputes regarding the electoral process even in the event of 
_any legal arbitration_. Period. Not the OAS, not the UN, not Canada, not 
France, not the USA, not any NGO, nor any individual. (The pontificating I 
have read here recently is, well... just that)."

And he concludes by saying:

"These elections were not anyone's but the Haitian 
people's. As I indicated earlier and as was reiterated elsewhere above, two 
legal implements cite the CEP as the final authority in any electoral 
dispute. Not any other country - or its emissaries - nor any other foreign 
organization."

Election monitors are human rights monitors.  They observe and comment.  It 
sounds as if Mr. Kozyn is arguing that the CEP cannot be criticized 
and by implications, political assassins cannot be criticized because of Haitian sovereignty.
The CEP is going to get away with committing electoral fraud, only in the sense that no other 
Haitian body may be able to stop it from breaking the law.  The precedents (which were not 
set in 1990 and 1995 as is constantly claimed) were not "accepted" by the 
international community because the CEP did not do what is claimed.


John Kozn correctly notes that Manus's tone has changed.  This is presumably 
because Manus believes that what occurred was far worse than what the OAS 
initially presented.  It is clear that a political explanation has to be offered why FL 
did so much better in the Senate races than the Deputies if fraud is not the correct 
explanation.  More importantly, as we all wait for the OAS report, we have 
the word of Manus and the word of his critics. Maybe there is a political explanation 
and maybe the fraud was only limited to not counting all the ballots.  I will wait and see.  
However, since elections are a human right, and Haiti invited the OAS to observe 
the elections,  the role of the OAS is doubly legitimate.  So, we can wait to see what 
evidence is adduced to see who is telling the truth about how extensive was the fraud.  

What we do know, because the CEP has admited it, is that a majority of seats were 
rigged on behalf of Lavalas by using a counting method other than that stated in the 
1999 electoral law, which would preempt any precedent set before, even though none 
were set.  Frankly, anyone who condones that fraud is not a democrat.  It is totally 
appropriate for the OAS and anyone else to criticize the CEP for 
perpetrating the fraud to which it has already admitted.

******************
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Georgia State University
Atlanta, GA 30303
tel: 404-651-4845
fax: 404-651-1434
POLHFC@langate.gsu.edu