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Haiti's Sham Elections: Solidifying Imperial Control - by Stephen Lendman
On November 28, first round legislative and presidential elections will be held. As a previous article explained, democracy will be absent because the nation's most popular party, Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas, and 14 others are excluded, the system rigged to install Washington's favorites.
In a September 8, Miami Herald op-ed, Ira Kurzban, an immigration and employment law expert as well as
Aristide's former legal counsel headlined, "Unfair and undemocratic," saying:
"Imagine if (America's) Federal Election Commission disqualified the Democratic and Republican parties from the 2012 presidential election and declared that only candidates of minor parties could run."
"Yet (Haiti's November 28 elections) are just that - unfair, unconstitutional and undemocratic."
On November 10, Brian Concannon, Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, in the Boston Haitian Reporter headlined, "Haiti's Flawed Elections: They Told Us So," saying:
The November elections "may be the most important in Haitian history," voters to "choose the entire House of Deputies (its lower body) for four years, a President for five years, and one-third of the Senate for six years. These officials (will be responsible for) guiding Haiti's (post-quake) reconstruction for at least four years." What they accomplish "will shape Haitian society for decades." What they won't is deeply worrisome.
Especially since the process is deeply flawed under new eligibility rules, President Preval's hand-picked Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) requiring each party head register presidential candidates in person. Exiled in South Africa, Aristide can't do it, denied permission to renew his passport to return that prevents him. Moreover, the CEP lacks legitimacy, Haiti's Constitution mandating an independent Permanent Council, free from party politics.
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