27516: Arthur (news) The elections : 10 things the media don't tell you (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: haitisupport@gn.apc.org

1) The elections on 7 February are not just for a new president. On the same
day, votes will have the chance to select three Senators and a Deputy to
represent them in the Parliament. There are a total of 30 Senate seats (three
for each of the ten departments), and 99 seats in the House of Deputies. Voters
will be given three separate ballot papers.

2) In the elections for Senators for each department, the Senate candidate with
the highest number of votes will serve a six year term of office, the Senate
candidate with the second highest number of votes will serve a four year term
of office, and the Senate candidate with the third highest number of votes will
serve a two year term. When these terms of office expire, a new Senator will be
elected for a six year term.

3) In the elections for President and Deputy, if one candidate scores more than
50% of valid votes cast, he or she will be elected to office. If no candidate
scores more than 50%, the two candidates with the highest percentages of valid
votes will contest a second round run-off on 19 March.

4) In the whole country, there are just over 800 polling centers, containing a
total of 9,000 polling stations. In other words, there are many polling
stations set up in the same locations. The UN peacekeeping mission apparently
insisted on a small number of locations for security reasons.

5) Rene Preval has never been a member of the Lavalas Family party, the party
founded in late 1996 by Jean-Bertrand Aristide. When Preval was elected
president for the first time in the presidential election held at the end of
1995, the Lavalas Family party did not exist.

6) The Lespwa platform, for whom Rene Preval is the presidential candidate, has
only put up 19 candidates for the 30 Senate seats. Lespwa has no Senate
candidates standing in West or North-East departments.

7) Serge Simon, the Senate candidate for the social democratic coalition,
Fusion, in the West department, caused a stir last week when he joined a
pro-Preval rally in Cite Soleil. He told the crowd to vote for Preval for
President and for him for the Senate. (The Fusion presidential candidate, Serge
Gilles, was, to put it mildly, not pleased.)

8) Winter Etienne, who is standing as a Senate candidate for Guy Philippe's FRN
party in the Artibonite department, was a leader of the Cannibal Army. This
Gonaives-based gang was once strongly pro-Aristide but changed sides in 2003
and took up arms against the Lavalas Family government. Etienne's Cannibal Army
murdered a number of police officers during the fighting in Gonaives in early
2004. Under the interim government, Etienne was given the job of director of
the Gonaives port. One report during 2005 stated that Etienne was in hiding
following an attempt to arrest him on corruption and theft charges relating to
activities at the port.

9) Another candidate for the Senate in the Artibonite, standing for his own
party, the LAAA, is interim prime minister Gerard Latortue's nephew, Youri
Latortue. Youri is a former army officer, allegedly involved in the murder of
Father Jean-Marie Vincent in 1994, and more recently head of security for his
uncle during the period of the interim government.

10) The Senate candidate for the North-East department, the location of the new
Free Trade Zone in the town of Ouanaminthe, is Rudolph Boulos, who is standing
for the Fusion party. Rudolph is the brother of Reginald Boulos, the
well-known businessman and media magnate with a strong involvement in national
politics, who is a leading light in the Group of 184 platform. In 1996, Rudolph
Boulos' company, Pharval, distributed medicinal syrups contaminated with diethyl
glycol that caused the death of 62 children.

Charles Arthur

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Forwarded by the Haiti Support Group - solidarity with the Haitian people's
struggle for human rights, participatory democracy and equitable development -
siince 1992




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