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Elections in Haïti - Jan Hoet from Haïti
7th of February. This is a historical date for Haiti. Today the long expected elections took place, which had been postponed not less than 4 times. The Haitian population had to vote for a president, senators and some delegates.
Last week, certain media instigated the people with as a result a climate of panic. Was this voluntarily? They made it appear as if the weekend and days around the elections would be filled with anxiety and deeds of violence. The past weekend and the elections went by calm and quietly. I will shortly tell you something about the course of business during the day of the elections:
It is currently 8 am. I am sitting at home behind my computer and I follow the events on my radio. From where I am sitting, I have an extensive overview on the street. They are talking about a sizable participation. As from 6 am already, long rows of voters are joining the queue to get to the polling station. Everywhere there is calmness. There is nearly no traffic. I can hear the murmuring of the long row of people who are waiting (a few hundred metres long!) The polling station is only some steps away from here. The are complaining about the noted delays.
10 am: the elections have actually started around 8.30 am but there are still a lot of polling stations, which are closed and have a big queue in front of them. People are talking about irregularities. Material which did not come on time, people who are sent from one polling station to the other, names which are not on the lists, wrong lists in the wrong polling stations, not enough voting lists etc. There already is a decease. A man around 70 of age who had been waiting as from 6 am already in front of a polling station in Tabarre collapsed under a myocardial infarction. There is information coming from everywhere. The condition is still under control.
11 am: just now, a big group with demonstrating people passed in the street, unsatisfied because they are not able to vote because their polling station is still closed. This is the case for a lot of stations in the periphery of the capital. The elections are getting out of hand . There is still a huge delay in many polling stations. More people start demonstrating. We hear that the population of Cité Soleil, where the elections are still not operational, are ready to start a huge demonstration. The voting counsel shows himself or herself to be incompetent to organise the elections. Or maybe this is voluntarily because they know that their candidates will loose the elections?
11.45 am. A first communiqué from the president of the voting counsel is talking on the radio to assure all voters that they will be able to vote. He tells that all the measures to guarantee the possibility to elect for everybody.
3 pm. The situation seems to be under control.
There is the encouraging news that the voting takes place in a calm climate and that there are no friction worth mentioning. And this in the entire country. In some places there are still some complaints about difficulties for voters not being able to vote but in broad outlines the Election Day is running unexpectedly streamlined.
5 pm the Haitian population showed today that they want to get rid of this long continuous crisis. The people were really determined to use their voting rights and this with an admirable sense for discipline and order. Unexpectedly it became a nearly festively day. Everywhere you can see happy faces and cheerful people No we have to wait what will be the final result of the elections and whether the dictators of this earth will start respecting the will of the majority. If all goes well, we should know within three days what will be the final result for the presidency.
Many people expect a victory for Preval and in case that there will be a second round, they expect a fight between Preval and Leslie Manigat, whose chances increases during previous weeks. Preval will certainly not be the choice of the current dictators and he will have to deal with a tough opposition. The danger of this will be that there is a chance that we will get a new political crisis.
We are hoping for better prospects...
With warm-hearted regards from Haiti
Jan Hoet
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