[lbo-talk] Haiti participation

[Joseph Wanzala]

the 5% figure, whether one accepts it or not is for the 1997 elections, the 
voter turnout figures for the 2000 elections are universally reported at 60% 
or higher. The turnout for both elections nevertheless was negatively 
influenced by real and alleged fraud, and political violence and 
intimidation. It is worth remembering of course that the climate for 
democracy in Haiti was seriously hampered by the US backed anti-Aristide 
coup led by Raoul Cedras after Aristide was brought to power by a popular 
movement. To be sure, that popular movement has been over the years 
corrupted by a combination of hubris and external destabilization, much like 
the ANC and other liberation movements. But the five years that Aristide 
spent in exile, which could have been a positively formative period for 
Haiti were instead a period when the popular movement that brought Aristide 
to power was seriously undermined by the then resurgent Duvalierist elements 
- which now re-emerge triumphant again - courtesy of the US State 
Department.


>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
>Subject: [lbo-talk] Haiti participation
>Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 19:56:56 -0500
>
>Michael Perelman challenged the Council on Foreign Relations' assertion 
>that voter turnout in Aristide's election was 5%. Here's corrorboration.
>
>I interviewed Robert Fatton, author of Haiti's Predatory Republic, on the 
>radio today - it'll go up on the web tomorrow. The publisher, Lynne Reinner 
>Books, made me pay the FedEx bill and still couldn't get it here before the 
>show, so I only just started looking at it. On p. 123, it says, "While in 
>both instances [1997 & 2000] fraud was pervasive and voter participation 
>extremely low (barely 5 percent in 1997), the Clinton administration and 
>the international community characterized the elections as 'free and 
>fair.'"
>
>Doug
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