April 2001

Elections in Haiti

Oakland, Cal.--Along with over 100,000 others, I witnessed the inauguration of President Aristide on Feb. 7. I want to tell you the news about Haiti has been very much misrepresented.

The bosses have mastered the art of manipulating elections. In March 2000 there were massive demonstrations protesting election manipulations. The U.S. was financing the elections. They hired a Washington firm to organize it. Everyone felt that International Republican Institute (IRI)--a favorite of Jesse Helms--which was banned from Haiti, was doing the organizing.

For example, they were going to require a photo ID to vote. But most of Haiti has no electricity. How can Haiti get photo IDs to 3 million in 30 days! Many times there were not people trained to take those photos. So elections were postponed to May 26. On the day of the elections people turned out en masse and put Lavalas overwhelmingly in power, both the president and parliament.

Suddenly the organization (AID) overseeing the elections said that instead of declaring victory for Lavalas candidates, there should be a runoff election. They made phony charges of voting inaccuracies. There was another round of elections on Nov. 27 for the president and eight of the parliament seats. Aristide's candidates were presenting issues. His opposition was riding on character assassination of Aristide. So they couldn't win!

In smearing Aristide, AID and others are really smearing the movement. They call "riots" any demonstrations against their own machinations. The media really attacked the elections and Aristide after the election. They called for a boycott of the inauguration, calling it a circus. There was a movement to create trouble to prevent the inauguration. There were 20 bombs placed in different parts of Port-au-Prince. Two people were killed, a 7-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy. There were drive-by shootings to discourage people from coming for the inauguration. The international press played up the violence, and the U.S. called for all U.S. citizens to evacuate Haiti.

The opposition did not recognize the election results and selected their own president. They went on a massive campaign to "prove" Aristide's unpopularity. The IRI gave $3 million to stage a "mass" rally, which drew 800 people. On Feb. 3 they called for another "mass" protest, which drew 100 people. It was pathetic. On Feb. 7 their president gave a speech in which he said his program is to bring back the Haitian military. He invited all the military who are abroad to come back. That tells you the whole thing.

When I arrived on Feb. 6, people were rejoicing, painting the streets, putting up Haitian flags, to welcome Aristide into office. I've seen a lot of stuff in the progressive media calling it a personality cult of Aristide. But it is not that. It was a celebration of our struggle. The people were celebrating not just our brother, but our own achievement.

We see very politically mature, sophisticated people who got their training not in words, but from working in the trenches. So huge crowds were there for the inauguration in a demonstration of solidarity and support. The slogan of the people was "we surprised them once again."

The international press said it was shunned by all international delegations. But that is not true. Many countries sent representatives in addition to their full diplomatic corps. The president's talk laid out the program for the next five years. There are 565 communal sections, which are rural and do not have any schools. All the schools and hospitals were in the cities to serve the bourgeoisie. So the topmost issue is building at least one school and one clinic in each of those communities. The second is rebuilding the judicial system. It was a speech of great objectives to be accomplished.

--Pierre L.