Just want to let everybody know that we're safe amid the elections violence. The vote results that came out last night were viewed with great skepticism, to say the least. Martelly (alias "Sweet Mickey" with the support of Wyclef Jean) came in third place by less than 1% and will miss the second round. His supporters (mostly the youth) are furious, since they believe the current president's chosen successor bought his way into second place. First place has gone to Manigat, the former first lady front-runner.
We happen to live only a couple of blocks away from the Electoral Committee's headquarters, so quite a few protests have been in our area. For the last 24 hours there have been tires burning, rocks thrown and tear gas cans fired. As I write this however, things appear much quieter. We were told to stay indoors all day today, but we're hoping the restrictions will be lifted for tomorrow. I have several photos and videos to upload, but unfortunately the internet service is extremely week. Look for more soon.
Obviously everybody's hoping the violence will end as soon as possible. Haiti cannot afford the clean up, the economic disturbance, or the threats from the international community to halt aid.
This Globe and Mail article (click here) does a good job of telling the story. It quotes a University of Montreal expert commenting on the election results: "This is probably the worst-case scenario".
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