Severity of Problems in Vote is Disputed - Parti au pouvoir admet possible défaite

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and DAMIEN CAVE - Published: November 29, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — With Haiti on edge after widespread reports of voting irregularities in its presidential election Sunday, the chief of a team of international election observers acknowledged the problems on Monday, but said they did not appear serious enough to invalidate the election.

Colin Granderson, chief of a team of more than 100 observers from theOrganization of American States and the Caribbean Community, told journalists the observers saw what they had reported: voters confused over where to cast ballots and turned away from polling places, names missing from registration lists, and poll workers offering misleading or incorrect information.

Mr. Granderson’s remarks were a sign that some in the international community, which is eager for new leadership and heavily invested in helping the devastated country hold its first elections since the January earthquake and the outbreak of cholera last month, were lining up behind the government’s handling of the balloting.

“Serious as some of the issues were, it does not necessarily invalidate the process,” he said.

Mr. Granderson also rebuked 12 of the 18 candidates for their denouncement Sunday of the election because of what they said was “massive fraud” on the part of President René Préval’s governing party. The candidates made their accusations hours before polls closed and without submitting evidence.

That call, Mr. Granderson said, was “hasty and regrettable.”

The United States Embassy, which put up $14 million to carry out the election, issued a more cautious statement, saying that Mr. Granderson’s assessment was “part of a process and we are currently consulting with our partners in the international community to better understand the details of what the observers saw nationwide.”

Haiti’s national election council has called the voting problems minimal and is proceeding with tabulating ballots, with preliminary results expected Dec. 7. But it seemed clear that popular perception that the election was tainted was growing in a country with a long, sometimes violent history of political turmoil. One radio skit said the entire episode was “like a Hollywood movie, and the title is ‘Ocean’s Eleven.’ ”

The streets of the capital were quiet Monday but for sporadic reports of protests and roadblocks.

But two popular musicians, one on the ballot (Michel Martelly) and another who wished he had been (Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-American singer) raised the specter of civil unrest if their aims, which they said reflected the electorate’s, were not met. Mr. Jean, while insisting he was in Haiti only to vote as a citizen and not to inject himself in politics, called a news conference at which he predicted civil unrest unless there were an independent, international tabulation of the results and an investigation of what went wrong.

“I know that in 24 hours, if a decision is not made and we procrastinate, the country will rise to a level of violence that we have never seen before,” said Mr. Jean, who had been denied a place on the ballot because he did not meet residency requirements.

Mr. Jean, a friend of Mr. Martelly’s, said he would disclose his vote by posting a picture of his ballot on Twitter after the February inauguration.

At the national tabulation center in the capital, many votes from the countryside had yet to arrive by Monday afternoon.

But a spot check of some results at voting centers, while too small to be conclusive for the nation as a whole, suggested Mr. Martelly had a strong showing in some quarters over the candidate of the governing Unity Party, Jude Célestin, Mr. Préval’s choice.

At one voting bureau — one of the many precincts that make up a full polling center — Mr. Martelly beat Mr. Célestin 40 to 1, with Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady seeking to become Haiti’s first elected female president, coming in second with 13 votes.

At another bureau in the same voting center, Mr. Martelly won 53 votes, while Mr. Célestin won only 2. Each of the other candidates had fewer than 10 votes.

A fuller count could not be determined at many voting centers because vandals had torn down tallies, or scratched out the results, particularly for Mr. Martelly and Ms. Manigat.

The posted tallies clearly pointed to a low turnout, typically 10 to 20 percent. “The people are very, very discouraged about elections,” said Gerald Salomon, a former mayor of Port-au-Prince. “When you see that Jude Célestin had three votes or zero votes, it’s amazing,” Mr. Salomon said. “He spent so much money, and he had power behind him, and he still couldn’t do anything. That means the people are rejecting Préval.” If Mr. Martelly wins, or heads into a Jan. 16 runoff as the leader, it would show Haitians’ strong disgust with the status quo, he said. “All the people who have three or four diplomas don’t do anything for the country,” Mr. Salomon said, “so they’re choosing someone who they think can do something different.”

Mr. Martelly, who earlier urged Mr. Préval and Mr. Célestin to leave the country, did not seem prepared to entertain the notion that he may have won.

When asked, in an interview in English with a small group of reporters, if he would accept the results were he declared the winner, he said, “It’s not that I want the presidency that bad,” but added he would consult with advisers before deciding.

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En Haïti, le parti au pouvoir admet une possible défaite aux élections

Publié le 30/11/2010 à 19:39 - Modifié le 30/11/2010 à 20:07 Le Point.fr

Alors qu'Haïti attend les résultats du premier tour de la présidentielle et des législatives, qui ont eu lieu dimanche, le parti du président haïtien René Préval a reconnu mardi 30 novembre qu'il pourrait avoir perdu l'élection. Le conseil électoral provisoire (CEP) chargé de l'organisation des élections avait reçu mardi à la mi-journée 45 % des procès-verbaux des bureaux de votes.

"Nous sommes des démocrates convaincus, Inité est prêt à accepter l'alternance démocratique", a déclaré devant la presse le sénateur Joseph Lambert, coordonnateur du parti présidentiel Inité ("unité" en créole). "Si on rate les élections au niveau présidentiel, on passe à l'opposition ou bien on peut cohabiter avec le groupe qui aurait gagné les élections", a-t-il ajouté.

Le scrutin de dimanche a donné lieu à des incidents qui ont fait deux morts et dix blessés dans tout le pays. Une majorité des 18 candidats à la présidentielle ont exigé l'annulation du scrutin dimanche soir, se disant victimes de fraudes au profit du candidat d'Inité, Jude Célestin

"Coup d'État électoral"

Deux des favoris des sondages, Mirlande Manigat et le chanteur Michel Martelly, qui avaient dans un premier temps exigé également l'annulation du scrutin, ont finalement indiqué lundi qu'ils se ralliaient au processus électoral, donnant l'impression de croire à leur chance de se retrouver au second tour, prévu le 16 janvier. Alors que les résultats des différents départements arrivaient à Port-au-Prince, le conseil électoral haïtien a promis de publier les résultats des scrutins d'ici le 5 décembre. Il se préparait entre-temps à dresser un bilan des incidents enregistrés dans le pays, qui ont conduit à l'annulation du vote dans 56 des 1.500 centres de vote.

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Haitian in the Diaspora will vote in Haiti Election - US - Canada - France

- DIAPORA SYMBOLIC VOTE  -


Qui sera l'élu de la diaspora ?

Le 28 Novembre 2010 pour la première fois les Haïtiens vivant et travaillant à l’étranger auront la possibilité de faire entendre leurs voix dans le processus politique de leur pays natal. 
En effet, un vote symbolique sera organisé dans les centres à forte concentration d’Haïtiens tels que Miami, Atlanta, Washington, New York, Boston, Montréal et Saint Domingue etc... Les votes seront acheminés et comptabilisés dans les locaux de l’organisation Les Amis d’Haïti 2010 (Friends of Haiti 2010) à New York et les résultats seront proclamés le jour même aux environs de 11 :00 PM.
Cet évènement historique sera retransmis en direct sur de multiple stations de Radio et télévision dont Haitian Caraibbean TV, Radio Tropicale – Radio Optimum – Radio Haïti Internationale -  Radio Concorde  et beaucoup d’autres stations qui seront annoncées plus tard visiter www.foh2010.com pour la liste complète des radios et télévisions.
De plus, cet évènement historique sans précédent sera retransmis en direct (live streaming) sur www.minkoze.com &  Tele America
 Pour la liste et localisation des BVD (bureaux de vote de la Diaspora)  de votre Etat, visitez : www.foh2010.com
Les résultats du scrutin seront disponibles sur  www.haitielections2010.com
 
Le candidat  qui aura la bénédiction de la diaspora bénéficiera d’une légitimité à nulle autre pareille. Encouragez les membres de votre famille, de votre église, de votre communauté,  encouragez tous vos amis à  participer à ce mouvement historique.
Se ra se ta …  Se dènye fwa pou nou pa ladann



FOR FULL DETAILS GO TO:
Diaspora Symbolic vote information
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Nu System Grand Premiere - Sat. Nov. 20, 2010

This past Saturday, we were invited to attend the grand premiere of  Nu-System. Practically, a system band formed by most of the original System band musicians. What we saw was practically a revamped System band without their long time star Isnard Doubie. Explanation from the management of Nu-System to be provided below.

The Event was well organised and attended. The banquet room at the Adria hotel was close to full seating capacity. The $60 admission price included a Cocktail hour, Complete Buffet dinner and Open bar.

The Band made its grand entrance at 11:30 pm, as RockMaster was called upon to make the initial introduction. It was a pretty grandiose entrance as the band dressed in matching outfit entered the room to standing ovation by the public. Then the formal introduction by Roupie before the Band performance started. Two things were unique with the Nu-System presentation. The event started on time with the cocktail hour then the band was on stage as scheduled. Also the appearance of the band with white silk Shirts during the 1st half and returning with red & white (Compas Direct colors) after the break looked impressive. As one guest commented it looked like a Tropicana/Septen style of appearance. Something which can only seen as a compliment.

From comments that  I could hear by konpa critics in attendance and the public in general, there was a universal satisfaction of the bands performance. "Jaz la te sonnin bien".

Here are a few pictures and video from the grand premiere. Comments about the reasons behind the birth of Nu System will be posted below.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Comments from Nu-System management

Now for the reason that there is the split among the founders of the band after 34 years-
I will be fully reporting the statements of Defacto, who is part of the new management of the band. But his initial comments over the phone were as follow:

The musicians of the band had a meeting and taken a vote to dismiss the previous manager of the band. They were not happy with his performance as their manager recently. Supposedly Maestro Isnard Doubie did not attend the meeting and when he was informed of the decisions of the band members, he mentioned that he was not aware of the meeting did not agree with the decision. According to Defacto, the band members wanted him on their side.  But his decision was to side with the prior manager. Supposedly the musicians were disappointed and felt that Doubie was letting them down, so they decided to go ahead without him with the new name for the band "Nu-System".

Again this is from a short phone conversation I had with Defacto. I will get more details and also bring you Maestro Doubie's side of the story.

You are welcomed to leave  comments below. Just use a unique name when commenting.

Haiti Presidential Election - Internet Polling

Scroll to the bottom to vote

Haiti's presidential election is only days away. With all the different polls showing different predictions, We have decided to do our own internal polling of Haitians on the internet and mostly living in the diaspora. With thousands of subscribers receiving our mailings an visitors to our site, we think that we could get a good feel of where the election is headed or at least who the top leaders are.

Even though this poll is a greater reflection of the diaspora preference, it may give an insight of what may actually happen on the ground in Haiti. It can also be an indication of the differences in views between Haitians at home and the diaspora

Your chance to vote Here..

- Note you can only vote once per computer or per IP address
- You cannot change your vote
- You can forward this mailing to your contacts.
- You can also post a personal comment on the comment section
   below using your name and/or email address

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The Woman Who Would Be Haiti's Next President

Reprint of Article on Candidate Mirlande Manigat as reported in:

 Magazine

By Tim Padgett and Jessica Desvarieux / Port-au-Prince Monday, Nov. 15, 2010

The woman who could be the next President of Haiti — and the first female to be elected to that office — doesn't strike you as an insurgent when she walks into a room. But Mirlande Manigat, a smartly dressed, soft-spoken, 70-year-old Sorbonne Ph.D., insists she's after nothing less than a "rupture" with Haiti's dysfunctional political establishment. "Not one that's violent or brutal, but there must be change," Manigat said in an interview with TIME at her campaign's Port-au-Prince headquarters. "We can't leave so many millions of Haitians abandoned anymore."

So far, her message is resonating inside the western hemisphere's poorest country, which was ravaged in January by an earthquake that killed some 230,000 people — and is beset now by a cholera outbreak that has claimed almost 1,000. Two weeks before Haiti's Nov. 28 presidential election, voter polls show Manigat the clear front runner in a field of 19 candidates. In the most recent survey by Haiti's independent Economic Forum, released late last week, Manigat significantly widened her lead over President René Préval's hand-picked candidate, engineer Jude Celestin, to eight points, 30% to 22%.

That the government's choice is trailing isn't a surprise: Préval's often AWOL response to the apocalyptic quake has alienated most Haitians from his INITE (Unity) Party. Their frustration with Haiti's corrupt, incompetent political elite, which many feel INITE represents, is a big reason the country was exhilarated by the outsider candidacy of Haitian-American hip-hop star and philanthropist Wyclef Jean. When Haiti's electoral council disqualified Jean's bid in August on residency grounds, the question was where his support, especially among the large cohort of young voters, would shift.

To the surprise of many pundits, much of it seems to have moved from the gold chains of rapper Jean to the pearl strands of matriarch Manigat. (She's also eclipsing Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, himself a Haitian pop-music star, who ranks third in the Forum poll with just 11%.) If so, one reason may well be that "many Haitians feel the time has come for a woman to lead the country," says prominent Haitian historian and political analyst Georges Michel. "So here's Manigat, a well-respected scholar. She takes many of the populist positions that [Jean] had, and they respond to her grandmotherly image. To a lot of them, it seems to inspire confidence and trust." Those qualities will be in loud demand, because Haiti's next President will oversee some $10 billion in reconstruction aid pledged by international donors.

Even though she's a woman, Manigat is by no means a political outsider. She is, in fact, a former First Lady, the wife of former President Leslie Manigat. They met in the 1960s at the University of Paris, where he taught history while in exile — having been condemned to death at home by brutal Haitian dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, who died in 1971 — and she was his student. They married in 1970, living in France, Trinidad and Venezuela before returning to Haiti in 1986 after the ouster of Duvalier's son and successor, dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

In 1988, Leslie Manigat, under the banner of the Assembly of Progressive National Democrats (RDNP), won the presidency in an election marred by military meddling. After only four months in office, he was overthrown in a coup. He ran again in 2006 and finished a distant second to Préval. But although Préval did not win the 50% necessary to avoid a second round, the electoral council never held a runoff — and in protest, Mirlande Manigat withdrew as the RDNP's Senate candidate. "I cannot support illegality," she said of her controversial move.

In that regard, Manigat and her supporters may see Nov. 28 as a chance for revenge, especially since many Haitians believe her 80-year-old husband will be a power behind her throne if she wins. But Manigat insists that she and the RDNP — which she calls a center-left, "capitalist with a human face" party in the tradition of successful moderate Latin American leftists like Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — want to check a venal elite that she accuses of "grave social indifference and insensitivity. It was there before, but after the earthquake it has shown itself in worse ways."

Manigat, vice rector of the Université Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince, tells TIME that along with tackling Haiti's nightmarish inequality via reforms like universal access to public education — only about half of the country's children even attend school — one of her big aims is to make the Haitian state something more than an effete subordinate of foreign NGOs. "There are many NGOs positioning themselves to receive the [$10 billion], yet they want to operate outside of state control," says Manigat. "My government will not operate the NGO way."

Manigat feels Haiti's earthquake recovery "has not really started" — admittedly, rubble removal and the rehousing of some 1.5 million displaced Haitians have been frustratingly slow — but like most of the candidates, she's not specific about how she'd hasten it. She backs changing Haiti's constitution to allow dual citizenship, which could aid the country's reconstruction by tapping into the resources and talents of the vast Haitian diaspora, including more than a million Haitian Americans. But critics, based on some of her teachings of Haitian constitutional law, fear that Manigat could have authoritarian designs to expand presidential powers — which she denies.

Manigat has been helped by the uncharismatic campaigning of Celestin, 48, a relatively unknown technocrat. On the stump in the southern port city of Jacmel recently, he repeated his less-than-electric slogan of "stability and continuity" while touching on criticisms of the Préval government by saying, "We know that there were things that were a little ignored." That has pushed erstwhile Préval supporters like Port-au-Prince carpenter Jourdanie Damler, 35, to Manigat's camp. "The INITE guys have forgotten about us," says Damler. "I'll try Madame Manigat."

Since no candidate is likely to win 50% of the vote in the first round, the race will probably come down to a Jan. 16 runoff (less than a month before the Feb. 7 inauguration). Some wonder how Haiti can even conduct a credible election given the lingering quake chaos and cholera epidemic. Manigat says the vote "has to happen" for Haiti to move forward, but after the 2006 dispute, she adds, she and the RDNP "will be vigilant against fraud trickery." This grandmother won't tolerate it.

Obama too smart, too black for declining America

Interesting article. Published On Fri Sep 10 2010 - Toronto Star By Richard Gwyn Columnist Barack Obama has to be one of the smartest, eloquent, calm and cool and psychologically well-balanced (think of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Richard Nixon) American presidents of modern times. He’s also one of the toughest, although he neither sounds it nor looks it. Shrewdly, and surprisingly candidly, an aide has recently described him as “the most unsentimental man I’ve ever met.” Ruthlessness comes easily to Obama, that’s to say, which is what it took for him to beat a presidential nomination rival as tough as Hillary Clinton. And yet his popularity is dragging down toward 40 per cent and by all the omens his Democrats are about to get trounced in the November congressional elections. Obama does have some serious problems. He’s black. Unquestionably, a lot of Americans hate their national leader being black, and, worse yet, a black who is the smartest man around. It’s a variant, incomparably uglier, of the widespread loathing of John F. Kennedy for making people feel bad by being so handsome and sophisticated, sort of a presidential Clark Gable. Then there’s the economy. The lack of jobs is serious and perhaps even more so is the widespread insecurity among those who do have jobs. A double-dip recession is a real prospect. Yet the truth — admittedly a near-irrelevancy in politics — is that Obama headed off a near-depression caused by Bush and corporate greed and arrogance and stupidity, and by his stimulus package brought the economy back at least to consciousness. Included in this was financial regulatory reform and reform of the auto companies (it’s working unexpectedly well). Also health-care reform. Now he’s attempting a second stimulus package. It’s been blocked by the Republicans, who are insisting that planned tax cuts be extended to the wealthy (incomes above $250,000) as well as to the middle class. This blockage of a second stimulus is being cheered on by the populist Tea Party movement. Go figure that, other than that many Tea Partiers undoubtedly can’t stand the fact that he’s black. This is the point. Obama’s problem, which indeed is sizeable, doesn’t reside in himself, although he needs to learn the art of faking sincerity that Clinton , with his “I feel your pain” pitch. was so good at. Obama’s problem resides in America . It’s become a near-dysfunctional society. The Tea Party, which is a genuine grassroots movement, confirms it. It stands for “freedom.” No more big government. No more meddling in people’s lives. But instead, Sarah Palin. That a sizeable number of people should want Palin for president is irrefutable evidence their society has gone dysfunctional. She’s a third-rater, except in demagoguery (and in faking sincerity). Paris Hilton would do the job as well, probably better. Why should this be so? My guess is that Tea Party members and a lot of others, including that Florida evangelical minister who wanted to burn the Qur’an, even though it would have put a lot of American soldiers at risk, have actually got onto something important. That something is that the U.S. today is clearly in decline. This shouldn’t be exaggerated. Americans have an astounding capacity for resilience. Once there was humiliation in Vietnam . Once all the experts were saying Japan was about to become No. 1. Both are now history. The U.S. will always be powerful and wealthy. But it will never again bestride the world like a colossus towering above all others. It will be, rather, a big guy in a crowd. America’s conceit of “exceptionalism,” or of being better than anyone else and fundamentally different from all other societies and countries, can no longer be sustained. It’s exhausted its quota, a very large one indeed, of bright, confident mornings. Obama’s problem thus is stark and simple: He’s the right guy at the wrong time. Richard Gwyn's column appears every other Friday. gwynr@sympatico.ca