Sunday, March 05, 2006

Reflections on Monitoring the Haitian Presidential Elections

Reflections on Monitoring the Haitian Presidential Elections

The presidential and legislative elections held in Haiti on February 7, 2006
were momentous and another big step in the process towards democracy in
Haiti after Jean Bertrand Aristide was forced out of office in 2004. These
elections were held after several lengthy delays and many were starting to
lose hope that they would even happen. However, on voting day, the Haitian
people turned out in much greater numbers than expected and overwhelmed the
greatly unprepared electoral officials.

Generally speaking, I was impressed with how the elections went off and was
quite happy that there were no major incidents of violence ­ as many,
including the interim government had predicted. From my perspective, and
those I monitored with (organized by the Réseau National de Défense des
Droits Humains (RNDDH - http://www.rnddh.org) the election was, in general,
free and fair. It gave me a very good insight into the process behind the
scenes and also the strong desire of Haitians to move on into a new period
in their history. It was a very long day for the team of monitors I worked
with, from 5 in the morning until past 10 at night running around to
numerous polling stations to check out the situations there. We were also
able to participate in the monitoring of the counting of votes at one
station. The significant size of the turnout, and even some of the scenes
of people forcing their way into election stations are signs of hope for me.
I had friends and family write to me saying they had seen the ³riots² and
³utter chaos² on the streets and in the voting stations. This was not what
I saw. Yes, it was chaotic, but not chaos out of a desire to create
disorder. It was chaotic in that people wanted to vote and were having
challenges in doing so. They needed to vote ­ and nothing was going to stop
them.

Despite these hopeful signs, there were also many irregularities and signs
of fraud. Ballot boxes full of ballots found in the dump outside of the
city; certain voting centres attacked and burned down, and then closed off
for voting; many people not finding their names on the voter lists and thus
being turned away; intimidation and undue influencing of voting, especially
by party representatives in the voting centres. Perhaps the largest issue
of all was the way in which the election was finally decided. Preval did not
have the requisite 50% + 1 of the vote in order to avoid a run-off vote.
Many of his supporters mobilized and took to the streets to demand that
Preval be declared President, which, in fact, was the end result. It was
clear that Preval would have a won the second round of voting and in order
to avoid chaos and further division, the international community proposed
that the blank ballots be distributed proportionally among the candidates,
which pushed Preval¹s percentage of the vote over 50% - and he was declared
President. I am uncomfortable with the solution because it flaunted the
constitutional process for the election, but the result, in the end, would
have been the same. So, democracy took a hit, but at the same time, the
country can move forward.

Preval has a major challenge before him. He has to respond to ³the masses,²
those living in the poor slums who came out en masse to vote for him. Many
in these slum areas have been blamed for much of the instability and
certainly have been involved in kidnapping and other acts of violence.
Preval also has to respond to the elite classes of Haitian society who did
not support him, and who have also contributed to much of the instability
the country has faced since the ouster of Aristide in early 2004. If he can
respond to the needs of both of these groups of people, while bringing
stability and security, he will be supported. If not, there is a great
chance that either group will try to undermine his presidency and drag him
down.

I, for one, remain positive and hopeful. If I can¹t derive hope from the
process and the future, and how God will use this experience for his good,
then there is no sense in my remaining in Haiti to do the work that brought
me here (reforestation). Now that the process is mostly over, many Haitians
also have a renewed sense of hope. These are all steps in a long journey,
and so let us continue to pray that it be a blessed one.

Matt van Geest
MCC Haiti

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