#4907: More positions on election situation (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

Elections:  Massac, Preval, Feuille, Preval, Neptune, Alexis, Charles, 
popular organizations, neighborhood groups, Corbett list contributors, 
opposition candidates:

President Rene Preval:  "… we will do everything to preserve our rights and 
for our institutions to be respected."

A group of former opposition candidates from the Group of Convergence, 
MOCHRENAH, MPSN and MRN declared their approval of the results of the 
elections  urging a speedy seating of the 47th legislature to normalize the 
situation and begin the work the people voted for them to do. They urged all 
to respect the will of the voters. Damis Jean Kelly, a former candidate for 
deputy from MRN said the leaders of the opposition and the international 
community should reconsider their position. 

Yvon Feuille (Senator-elect Fanmi Lavalas): "I doubt seriously that the 
United Nations or the OAS will overstep their boundaries to satisfy the 
interests of certain Haitian political sectors who are calling for the 
freezing of international assistance to Haiti."
           
Popular Organization: "Orlando Marville [head of OAS electoral mission to 
Haiti] can't stop the Lavalas from coming down."  "Orlando is a foreigner 
from the international community.  We are Haitians.  We love Lavalas, we ask 
them to stop putting their mouths in Haitian affairs, we are elders in our 
own house."

Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis:  "We must take our destiny into our 
hands and show that we are responsible for our country." 

Asselin Charles, spokesperson for Prime Minister:  "I stress again that the 
electoral council according to the Constitution is a supreme authority in 
electoral matters and the sole judge where election results are contested…If 
we are in a democracy, there must be respect for institutions, and the 
government can't interfere and try to influence the electoral council in any 
way whatsoever."  "The Haitian government is confident that the elections 
will not affect membership with CARICOM, and expects Haiti to be voted in 
without any hesitation."

Neighborhood group/Konbit for Croix-des-Bossales: "The people you hear 
calling us chime [thugs] today, we voted them in '91…K-Pim (Evans Paul), 
Serge Gilles, Victor Benoit -- we voted for them."

Yvon Neptune, Senator-elect Fanmi Lavalas: "There are two or three 
politicians who have not only been threatening the Lavalas Family for a long 
time but now they are threatening to overthrow the government and to make 
President Préval leave, dissolve the CEP, and annul the elections... They 
want to create a mess, to destabilize the country, destabilize the 
government... We have heard their declaration planning to go all over the 
country creating confrontations and asking for the bone-breaking, repressive, 
coup d'état-making army to be restored in the country."  "Fanmi Lavalas will 
never allow a coup d'etat against the Haitian people!"

Corbett list contributor (with consent) Thor Burnham : "I was recently in a 
country in the Americas where voting problems were widespread. The chief 
electoral officer was publicly vilified for poor organization, lack of 
ballots, and the fact that workers didn't show up to the balloting stations. 
Polling times had to be extended, and a bomb threat closed another polling 
station. Many people didn't get to vote at all. Where was this fiasco? It was 
the 1999 provincial election in Ontario, Canada. And yet, Canada, with its 
all too smug holier than thou attitude has seen fit to declare Haiti once 
again inept. (never mind the large scale fraud that permeated the 1995 
secession referendum) And I don't remember Haiti publicly condemning it for 
its election problems.

" By the way, the recent election in Mexico is another case in point. Widely 
hailed as an example of democratic achievement, there were many problems. I 
was in Oaxaca in the zocalo on the night of the election. A fairly large 
crowd assembled outside the election offices demanding ballots....apparently 
the IFE ran out of ballots, so hundreds of people did not get to vote. They 
stoned the building and tried to break down the door. But, Fox is pretty much 
a status quo neo-liberal, so no one got too excited, which was confirmed when 
he backed down on his promise to pull the army out of Chiapas...after all, it 
is a question of national sovereignty. I don't remember reading a deluge 
(pardon the pun) of Washington Post articles condemning the elections in 
Mexico, but they certainly trot out the rhetoric for Haiti, don't they?" 

Corbett list contributor (name withheld): "Susan Scott Krabacher who is the 
Founder of the Mercy & Sharing Foundation was a part of the US delegation and 
witnessed the entire election process in May. She also agrees that it was a 
spectacular event. The Haitian people came out despite any fears they had and 
voted. They WALKED to the polls, waited sometimes for many hours and placed 
their votes in an incredibly peaceful manner. The country should be proud of 
this accomplishment and the scrutiny should stop. If you are not part of the 
solution, chances are you are part of the problem. Let's stop mincing words 
and start being productive people!"
 
Corbett list contributor (with consent) Dr. John Judson: "Congressman Conyers 
is absolutely correct. Those of us who were there on May 21 all agree that 
the process was peaceful and that turnout was tremendous -  better in fact 
than US non presidential elections. It is time for everyone to accept the 
fact that the people of Haiti did as good a job as any reasonable person 
could expect with their elections. The elected officials  need to be accepted 
by all and seated so that the country can begin to move  forward again…We 
should all encourage our elected congressmen to speak out as did Congressman 
Conyers."

Father Yvon Massac (Fanmi Lavalas) denounced hypocrisy of international 
community regarding Haiti's elections and accused some of  international 
community of trying to impose a prefabricated democracy on Haiti as if there 
are two democracies: one for the rich and one for the poor.  Massac pointed 
out that the funds the international community is threatening to cut are 
those that have already been frozen for a few years because the Haitian 
parliament had not passed necessary legislation.  Haiti has been paying 
interest on these international loans as if it were already dispersed despite 
not being able to use the monies yet.