Saturday, February 28, 2004
Haiti's Electoral Legitimacy �Excerpt from CNN Internatioal Election reports -Analysis
Haiti's Electoral Legitimacy
�Excerpt from CNN Internatioal Election reports -for Haiti
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" ... PresidentialNovember 26, 2000 At stake in this election: Office of president of the Republic of Haiti Description of government structure: Chief of State: President Rene Garcia PREVAL [1995-2000 -Pres Aristide 2000-2005 now] Head of Government: Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard ALEXIS [appointed by the President - now Prime Minister Yvon Neptune] Assemblies: Haiti's bicameral National Assembly (Assemblee Nationale) consists of a 27-member Senate and a 83-member Chamber of Deputies. [Aristide's Lavalas Party has a strong majority in both houses - the opposition feigning electoral irregularities boycotted the 2000 Congressional elections -4 year terms with elections again this year 2004] Description of electoral system: The president is elected by absolute majority vote to a five-year term. [Direct Election by the people - the opposiiton and the old elite wanted an indirect electoral college to diminish the popular majority party - absolute majority establishes an implicit run-off if no candidate receives 50 % of the vote ] All members of the Senate are elected by absolute majority vote to six-year terms with one third being elected every two years. All members in the Chamber of Deputies are elected by absolute majority vote to four-year terms. Results of the election for president: Presidential Candidate: Jean-Bertrand ARISTIDE Party: Lavalas Family Party (FL) Valid Votes Received: 2,632,534 Percent of Valid Votes Received: 91.81% Presidential Candidate: Arnold DUMAS Party: Independent Candidate Valid Votes Received: 56,678 Percentage of Valid Votes: 2.04% Presidential Candidate: Evan NICOLAS Party: Union for National Reconstruction (UNR) Valid Votes Received: 45,441 Percentage of Valid Votes: 1.55% Presidential Candidate: Serge SYLVAIN Party: Independent Candidate Valid Votes Received: 37,371 Percentage of Valid Votes: 1.30% Presidential Candidate: Calixte DORISCA Party: Independent Candidate Valid Votes Received: 36,233 Percentage of Valid Votes: 1.26% Presidential Candidate: Jacques Philippe DORCE Party: Independent Candidate Valid Votes Received: 32,245 Percentage of Valid Votes: 1.12% Presidential Candidate: Paul Arthur FLEURIVAL Party: Independent Candidate Valid Votes Received: 31,100 Percentage of Valid Votes: 1.08% 2.5% of the vote. ... Population and number of registered voters: Population: 6,867,995 (July 2000) Number of registered voters: 3,668,049 (1995) Of Interest: In addition to the presidential election, Haiti also held elections for nine of twenty-seven senate seats. The main opposition group, The Democratic Convergence, boycotted the vote in protest of alleged irregularities in parliamentary and municipal elections in May. The Lavalas Family Party, to which Mr. Aristide belongs, won eighty percent of the available seats in the legislative elections. ... " - end CNN excerpt - bracketed text above is this editor's comment to it additionally and below. Where is the opposition now in mobilizing a civil congressional and presidential campaign - and what did the USA spend money on to organize multi-polarity pluralism in a country where logically by voting enfranchisement -the constituency of the Lavalas Party would be immensely popular? ...Further, all neutral and honest accounts for the electoral process sustain the irregularities as occurring against Lavalas's interest - in favor of 'old guard' terror wielding attempts to bar their vote by limiting voter registration. To save face, only, - it appears - the Opposition -the Democratic Convergence - boycotted the Haitian Congressional elections in 2000 because their results would have mirrored the Presidential vote diffusion. Opposition advocates, receiving US and European monies to organize political opposition, are decrying the lack of a multi-party appearance expected in a democracy -because they are not organizing and seeking the vote or are not successful in winnng the vote -and are falsely crying voter intimidation. What the Opposition seeks is a power distribution which is not democratic and which violates one man one vote principles. Further - the Opposition representing th entrenched wealthy with monies from drug taffickers - whose crime wave favors the destruction of Aristide's apparent ability to govern - (crime will at first increase in a free society) appear to have a surplus of money to buy crime and thuggery - which appears along with outright purchase and payoff to be the only outlet for "opposition party building money" . Not wholly admitted but openly rumoured (beacuse it is terasonous subversion) - the word is out that when Aristide resigns or is criminally ousted -the Opposition (pretending to be just demonstarting -and some are bona fidely are doing just that) will take off the heat of criminal gangsterism - referenced as if they can turn it on and off. The latter assumes they can sustain the 'wild horse' they have purchased with a post order-restored corral. |
// posted by scotty of course @ 11:30 AM 
