#4941: Re: Haiti set to defy / concept flaw (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Clay Kilgore <clay@kilgore.com>

I've been thinking of this since this whole mess with the count 
started, and call me kooky, but wouldn't a possible solution to the 
international scrutiny regarding the acceptability of the 10 
presumably democratically elected officials in question and of the 
counting method used by the CEP  be to include in the November voting 
a question put to the people of Haiti whether they accept the 
counting method and the politicians seated by this method, or whether 
they object to the count and demand an additional run-off for the 
seats in question?

I mean, if the whole thing is about democracy, and what is acceptable 
to people who want to be governed under democractic rules, why is it 
that the voting people who did their part correctly (I was there, and 
they did) are being left out of the equation while the internationals 
tug-of-war with the presently tiny Haitian govt. over an issue that 
could perhaps best be settled by the people affected by the outcome 
of the decision. In my idea of democracy,  a government that is 
democratically responsible doesn't try to answer every question on 
it's own, although wars usually get started the way this is going 
down...  maybe if the people voted on this (and each yes/no vote was 
counted as a real vote), then the global interests would have to 
accept the result of the vote, whether to keep the 10 as they are or 
to have another election to settle it once and for all.

Haiti is a small country with a small, accessible government. Who 
knows, maybe they'd go for it. Maybe a ballot measure riding along 
side a Presidential election would at least feel like another 
possible end to another possible stale-mate. I hope this isn't 
outlandish thinking, as it is my first comment to this group, but I 
have this strong desire to hear someone who lives in Haiti say, 
preferably sometime in the near future,
that things  m i g h t  be getting better.

I'm pretty sure this is what I wanted to say.

Respectfully,
Clay Kilgore
San Francisco, CA