Welcome to Graham and Tania's chronicles of our adventures, travel and life in general. Graham and Tania are currently in Bogota, Colombia. We hope that every post captures our reflections on where we are and where we are heading.
10pm last night: This fire was lit in a dumpster less than an hour after the election results were announced.
11am this morning: Freelance photographers that live in our building prepare to get on their mototaxis to get closer to the action. We saw other media wearing vests and helmuts. They looked completely in their element - and high on adrenaline. They must live for this stuff.
1pm this afternoon: The crowds started getting more organized. This group was mainly interested in making noise, but others were more focused on throwing rocks at UN Peacekeepers that were stationed a couple of blocks away.
3pm this afternoon: By now, there was an ongoing game of cat-and-mouse between the UN Peacekeepers and the protesters. Here you see people looking up the street where rocks and tear gas are being exchanged.
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".
Election signs next to a camp just around the corner from our appartment
The elections dance is a complicated one with many steps and many partners. Like a good ol’ square dance, it requires a “caller” on the microphone giving specific instructions to make sure people don’t smash into each other or trip over their own feet. In Haiti, there has never been a caller which has created jousting on the dance floor and then a run for the microphone itself. If you can’t dance you might as well yell to try and make the others dance to your steps.
Counting ballots
Haiti’s elections “happened” last Sunday – and there has been debate ever since over how well they went. The candidates, international observers and the elections board have been issuing statements left, right and center to try to control public opinion.
For the candidates, the most important objective is to create a perception that they will make the final round (the top two will advance). In a country where everyone is skeptical of the vote counting, it is crucial to make the population believe you won – that way, if the “official vote” comes out against you, you can rely on your followers to take to the streets and demand an annulment of the vote.
Manigat and Sweet Micky sneaking out on the other candidates (LeNouvelliste.com)
This tactic was wonderfully demonstrated by a circus act on the afternoon of the vote. One of the nineteen contenders, Michael Martelly (see my blog on “Sweet Micky” from a couple of months ago), managed to gather fourteen main candidates together to call for the cancellation of the elections due to fraud by the current President’s hand-picked follower, Jude Celestin. All of these dissidents gathered at a fancy hotel for a nice photo-op where they all denounced the ballot stuffing, premeditated violence and voter list rigging that had been reported at several stations. Together they could have perhaps stood strong. The problem, however, is that it often pays to defect. Of all people, this defection was precipitated by Wyclef Jean (the famous singer who had been banned to stand for president), who put his weight behind “Sweet Micky”, but added that the voting process should continue. Martelly conveniently agreed and quickly left the meeting to head downtown with a handful of supporters claiming that he was leading the polls. Realizing she had been duped, another top candidate (Mirlande Manigat) quickly distanced herself from the group of fourteen (now twelve) saying that she also thought the ballots should be counted. Basically, the three candidates who believe they are at the top are all out on their own, having left the pack of bitter discontents to dig up technical laws to try and overturn the counting.
So that was exciting – but what about the international community who is supposed to certify the elections? Well, the international observers from the OAS have admitted that although there were substantial irregularities, the process was “good enough” to go ahead. But then the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon got even tougher, saying yesterday that the election irregularities “seem more serious than previously thought.” Finally, the UN peacekeeping chief Edmond Mulet appeared to threaten an international withdrawal if “popular will isn’t respected by the electoral council” (Haitian columnists have been perplexed ever since about what he means by “popular will”). But all in all, the UN is calling for the elections to continue in the most peaceful manner possible.
March 2010 photo Mulet, Preval and Ban (zimbio.com)
Add more fun to the mix: It is now coming out that the UN might have pressured Martelly and Manigat to accept the election. The UN lecture undoubtedly was based on two points. First, that the elections were “good enough” without widespread violence. Second, the international community has no appetite to shell out another $30 million to finance a second try.
And so the microphone gets passed around and the partners dance to their own tune on the dance floor. The preliminary results of the first round should be announced mid week. Look for a fresh round of positioning from all the candidates. After all, democracy is only the best form of government if you win the vote.
Late last Friday, the electoral commission finally the delivered the news that everybody was expecting: Wyclef Jean, the presidential front-runner, would not be participating in the November election because he had not fulfilled the constitutional requirement of living in Haiti for the last five years. Wyclef’s supporters have behaved rather well since the disappointing announcement, but they are not expected to give up the fight to get their candidate back on the list.
In fact, it turns out that Haitians seem to be particularly fond of supporting politicians who are barred from running for office.
Graffiti reads "Have a good trip home Jean-Claude Duvalier"
“The old support the Duvalier regimes and the young support Aristide” said my driver yesterday in a matter-of-fact voice. Though this is a bit of a simplification, it is true that these figures still loom large over politics today. But of course nobody can cast a ballot in their favour.
The result seems to be that the vast majority simply don’t vote. Time and time again Tania and I have asked our Haitian friends and colleagues whether they are planning to vote. It’s as if we’re challenging them to walk to the other side of the island – they give you a perplexed and painful look. Jean-Pierre, a supervisor for the Cash-for-Work program at Tania's NGO said, “I’ve never voted because it may be dangerous to vote. Also, why would I stay outside in long lines under the sun?” Others we talked to just conclude that their vote makes no difference, whether it be because the election could be rigged, or because all presidents do the same thing: push the country further back in time.
Though Haitians will continue to pine for past dictators and disqualified hip-hop artists, they are now also beginning to look through 19 candidates who they will actually have the chance to elect. The most entertaining figure of this bunch is undoubtedly the other singer-turned-politician, Michael Martely, better known as “Sweet Mickey”.
Martely is considered a pioneer of Haitian kompa music, which began as a fusion of Afrolatin Jazz and African folklore rhythms. Apparently, his performances were full of obscenities and social political satire which used to cause quite a stir. His career began with the hit single “Pa Manyen” (Don’t Touch) in 1989 (see video) and he went on to churn out a new album almost every year during the 90s. Running out of steam, he settled to Florida in 2006 with his wife and their four children. It’s still not very clear why he wasn't restricted by the residency requirement that ousted Wyclef. It seems like the Hip Hop Fugee-Gangster was outmaouvered by the self proclaimed “Bad Boy President of Kompas.”
Nobody really thinks he has a chance at the presidency, but for the millions of Haitians who have nothing good to say about politics, at least “President Sweet Mickey” might give them something to smile about.... temporarily.
