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The 2006 Elections in Haiti, to replace the interim government of Gerard Latortue put in place after the 2004 Haiti Rebellion , were Delayed four times after having been originally scheduled for October and November 2005 . The elections finally took place on February 7 , 2006 . {Link without Title} The 129 member Haitian parliament was also elected at this election. According to official statistics, René Préval of the Lespwa coalition led the count for President with 48.8% of the vote, less than the 50% needed to be declared elected on the first round. But on February 16 , following days of protests by supporters of Preval, and meetings between the electoral council and the interim government, it was agreed that Preval would be declared the winner of the election, with a purported total 51.1% of the vote, thus avoiding a second round of voting. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} . Election controversies The election process saw many controversies, including threats to boycott by one of the major political parties, ongoing political violence, and one candidate being declared ineligible despite a Supreme Court decision. The elections took place as Haiti was under the occupation of MINUSTAH , a multi-national U.N. force that has occupied the country since the overthrow of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide . On election day, due to many organizational problems, a shortage of election workers, missing ballots, and extremely long line-ups, the voting hours were extended by at least two hours. {Link without Title} There are many reasons the Haitian elections were delayed. Due to a lack of funding, election officials were not able to meet the voter registration deadline set for early August. In addition there was considerable unrest in parts of Haiti, particularly the Port-au-Prince slums where there were attacks on the new government, and where the U.N. and the Haitian National Police have been accused of committing massacres and targeted killings of anti-occupation protesters and organizers. However, the inability to register voters in the time allocated was the primary reason for the extensions. There was also concern that only 800-900 voting stations will be placed throughout Haiti, in comparison to the many thousands of stations that existed during the previous election. On January 25 2006 , Haiti's election authorities announced that no voting stations would be placed in Cite Soleil, an impoverished city which holds between three and six hundred thousand residents, most of whom are supporters of Lavalas/Aristide. {Link without Title} PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES Among the more known figures were René Préval , a former prime minister and president, and a Lavalas member; Guy Philippe , a former police chief and rebel leader of the 2004 Haiti Rebellion ; the imprisoned priest, Gérard Jean-Juste of the Lavalas party; and Dumarsais Simeus , a Haitian-American industrialist. René Préval Préval is a former president of Haiti who served from 1996 to 2001. He is the second president of Haiti to leave office due to the natural expiration of his term. Préval was in exile during the latter years of the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier but returned to work in charitable organizations after Duvalier's fall. He served as Prime Minister under Aristide during his first term, until the military coup d'état that overthrew Aristide in 1991. In 1996 he was elected president under the Fanmi Lavalas party and served out his term ending in 2001. Under his previous administration Préval was a big reformer, most notably in the privatization of government companies, and will be expected to continue down a similar path if he is to be elected for a second term. His dealings with the IMF have been controversial. The Unemployment Rate In Haiti was quite high under Préval's previous government, but it did fall down to some of its lowest levels since the fall of Duvalier at the end of his term and continued to fall until the Rebellion Of 2004 . During his campaign, he sought to distance himself from any former association with the Lavalas party and ran as a candidate of Lespwa . Preval supports the current occupation of Haiti by U.N. forces, saying they "should stay as long as it is necessary", {Link without Title} in contrast to Aristide and many members of Lavalas who denounce the U.N. forces and accuse them of carrying out a campaign of repression and violence at the behest of the U.S., France, and Canada. Preval has also sought the votes of Lavalas members on the promise that he will not oppose the return of Jean Bertrand Aristide from South Africa but the State Dept of the U.S. does not agree with Aristide returning into the country. Charles Henri Baker Charles-Henry Jean-Marie Baker (b. June 3 1955 in Port-au Prince) is a Haitian industrialist with US residency. He initially billed himself as an independent and has allied himself with the Komba de Chavannes Jean Baptiste and Evans Lescouflair party. Baker is a former member of Groupe 184, a loose federation of business leaders, church officials and NGOs associated with the US federal government funded USAID and NED, opposed to the Jean-Bertrand Aristide government in 2004. Baker is widely considered the candidate of choice of Haiti's wealthy ruling class as well as the favoured candidate of the international business community. Leslie François Manigat Manigat was the first democratically elected president of Haiti, elected in 1988 after the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier 's dictatorship. However the turnout for the election was very low and just a few months later Manigat's government was overthrown by General Henri Namphy . Manigat spent 23 years in exile during the reign of François Duvalier . In 1979 he formed a political party in Caracas with other exiled political opponents called the Rally of the National Progressive Democrats. In 1987 the first attempt at a democratic election was unsuccessful as 34 people were killed. Elections were moved up to February 1988 and Manigat won with many political parties boycotting. He had the backing of the military but once in office he sought to have a greater control over the military in an effort, according to him, to crack down on corruption. Following the coup d'état by General Namphy, Manigat worked as guest scholar in Washington D.C., Paris, and Geneva. Guy Philippe Philippe is best known for his role in the 2004 Haiti Rebellion which overthrew the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide due to, in part, allegations of election fraud in the 2000 parliamentary elections and other issues. Philippe's involvement can be traced back to 2000 when he was forced to flee to the Dominican Republic . He had been a police chief in Cap-Haïtien when he was accused of masterminding a coup attempt against the Aristide government, which he denies any involvement in (and no proof has yet been uncovered). When unrest turned to rebellion in 2004, Philippe announced that he was joining with coup forces and quickly took a leadership role, which he shared with co-leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain , who is considered a notorious War Criminal by some. After Aristide was removed from the country in a US registered plane, Philippe and his army put down their guns in favor of the UN peacekeeping force. He has also has been accused of drug dealing, and Aristide supporter group claim he is a covert CIA spy, recruited by an agent in Haiti to start the coup. It has been reported that he had secret meetings with opposition groups of Aristide in the Dominican Republic and also with a CIA agent. On for the Front for National Reconstruction (FRN) party. The FRN is also his guerilla group which was involved in the rebellion of 2004. Early in 2005 the FRN became recognized as a political party. Philippe has been critical of the administration of the interim government, blaming them for the slow process of setting up registration centers throughout the country. Early on he was considered a frontrunner in the race but has lately fallen back in the pack. Marc Bazin Bazin is a former Minister of Finance and Economy under the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier , and has also served as an official for the World Bank . In the 1990 elections Bazin received 14% of the votes, losing out to Jean-Bertrand Aristide . During the temporary Coup D'état that replaced Aristide in 1991, Bazin was selected as the Prime Minister. Bazin is a conservative politician who has sought to bring foreign investment into Haiti. For the 2006 elections he is running in an alliance with his MIDH (Mouvement pour l'Instauration de la Démocratie en Haiti) party and the popular Fanmi Lavalas . Bazin has been a bitter enemy of Aristide so it is somewhat surprising that this alliance has formed. There is evidence on the basis of Freedom Of Information Act requests in the USA that the United States federal budget funded International Republican Institute (IRI) was involved in Bazin's campaign and has more generally been widely involved in organising political parties in Haiti. {Link without Title} Ineligible Candidates Gérard Jean-Juste Jean-Juste is a Roman Catholic priest, Liberation Theologian and supporter of the Fanmi Lavalas party in Port-au-Prince. He is well known for his close relations with former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide . Most recently, on at a funeral by police following his return from a trip to Miami in connection with the abduction and subsequent murder of journalist Jacques Roche . While Jean-Juste was at the funeral of Roche, he was assaulted by other attendees before being placed under custody by the police. Jean-Juste was out of the country at the times of both Roche's abduction ( July 10 ) and the discovery of his mutilated, bullet-riddled body ( July 14 ). On July 28 , 2005 Amnesty International named Jean-Juste a " Prisoner Of Conscience ". Father Jean-Juste remained in prison while his files are under review by judges. No formal chages were made against him. He was released for medical treatment in February 2006 . In August officials of the Fanmi Lavalas party as a candidate for president, but they were denied. The provisional electoral council said that electoral law requires candidates to register in person. This situation has continued, whereas some hardline members of the party are still considering boycott, while most of the party now supports Marc Bazin ; though the members of the general population who identify themselves as Lavalas supporters will likely vote for René Préval . On February 7 2005 , Jean-Juste formally endorsed Rene Preval. {Link without Title} Dumarsais Siméus Siméus is a wealthy businessman, owning Simeus Foods in Fort Worth, Texas. in the United States . Originally he is from Pont-Sondé in Haiti, where he grew up working the land for his poor rice-farming father. Eventually they moved to the USA so that Demarsais could go to college, and he eventually graduated from Howard University with an Electrical Engineering degree. Politically, Siméus developed extensive ties to the U.S. Bush administration, including serving on Jeb Bush 's Haiti Task Force and making major donations to the Republican Party . His campaign manager, Robert Allyn , worked on the campaigns for George W. Bush . Siméus declared his intention to run for president of Haiti in September 2005 as the candidate for the Tet Ansanm party. There has been some controversy over whether or not Siméus is qualified to run for president. Under the to the dismissal of the justices, calling it a violation of the separation of powers. Siméus is a popular figure with many Haitians living in the United States and Canada because he is seen as an outsider who has not (as of yet) been infected with the corruption that insiders are already a part of. Indeed this is a major part of Siméus' campaign as he says, "The politics of the last 200 years has failed. The status quo has created a cycle of poverty and violence, illiteracy and economic failure in Haiti, hurting our people, breaking our spirit, threatening the lives and futures of our brothers and sisters. In the past we have had politics of division ahate, poverty and greed, politics that tear things down... now Haiti needs to make a change, heading in a new direction of unity, hope and prosperity." Due to the issues with getting on the ballot, Siméus has not had the opportunity to develop a clear strategy in his campaign, but he has touched on issues of economic recovery, providing clean water, and better health care for all. Siméus is the only known candidate who used the internet to promote his candidacy, using a web blog operated at his official site. His company Simeus Food International formerly known as TLC Beatrice Food was bought by private US investment banks that sought to capitalize on the classification of the company as a minority-owned business, he does not own a majority stake in the company , nor does he run the daily operations, he is kept as an honorary Chairman. He has publicly called for the executive members of the US installed Boniface-Latortue administation to be arrested for not letting him participate in the elections after the Haitian Court of Appeals has ruled that he was to be reinstated in the candidate roster. Gerard Latortue sidestepped the ruling by a decree that calls for a commission on nationality to meet the legal standards in the Haitian constitution that bans foreign or candidates with double nationality as is the case of Dumarsais Simeus and George Samir Mourra who are both US citizens by natuaralization process. He did not support any of the running candidate since his political partner Gerard Gougues had dropped out of the race to support him, their party Tet-Ansam is a minory party in Haiti. Other notable candidates
DELAYS Elections in ; they were to take place on January 8 and February 15 , 2006 , respectively. The election is being postponed yet again but a date has not yet been announced, although February 7 , 2006 is reported to be the likely date for the first round. The municipal elections which were originally set to be held on December 11 , 2005 , have been postponed to March 5 , 2006 . When announced officially, they will be the fifth set of election dates for a new government since July. Originally, the hand-over of power to the elected government was set for February 7 , 2006 , but this date has also been pushed back, without an official new date being given. 2006 .]] The first round of presidential elections was last scheduled to take place on sometime this week on whether the elections will stay as they current are or delayed further. Meanwhile, a group of 20 parties, members of the National Council of Political Parties, have demanded the removal of Latortue, to be replaced by a national coalition government in charge of organizing the elections 90 days after taking office. {Link without Title} RESULTS Partial Presidential Results Allegations of vote manipulation Although Preval's vote count was initially over 60% of the total -- in an election marred by declarations of invalid votes, allegations of fraud, errors and the discovery of perhaps thousands of ballots dumped and burned in Port-Au-Prince -- election officials of the interim government ordered a halt to the publication of full election results pending an inquiry into possible electoral fraud. {Link without Title} As the provisional electoral council announced that Preval's vote count had slipped below the 50% required to avoid a second round of voting, thousands of his supporters marched through Port Au Prince in protest at what they claimed was an effort to manipulate the vote count and suppress support for Preval. At least two of the nine electoral council members, Pierre Richard Duchemin and Patrick Fequiere, have also alleged that the vote tabulation was being manipulated. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} Of the 2.2 million ballots cast, roughly 125,000 were declared invalid. A further 4% of the ballots were blank but were nonetheless added to the count, thereby lowering the percentage of the vote a candidate receives. {Link without Title} During the protests, at least one man was killed and many others wounded during clashes between U.N. forces and Preval supporters. Witnesses claimed that Jordanian soldiers, who are serving as part of MINUSTAH, shot at the protesters. U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst at first denied that the U.N. soldiers had fired any shots, but then later said that the soldiers fired two "warning shots" into the air. {Link without Title} Talking publicly for the first time since the voting took place, Preval said "We are convinced there was massive fraud and gross errors that affected the process,". Soon after, many hundreds (possibly thousands) of charred ballots were found in a Port-Au-Prince garbage dump. {Link without Title} On February 14 2006 , the interim government ordered a halt to the publication of full election results pending an inquiry into the alleged electoral fraud. {Link without Title} Opinion Polls Two opinion polls were taken in November 2005. The first to be released was the poll was taken by a political consulting firm, The Democracy Group, on behalf of the National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians, a group for the restoration of democracy in Haiti, of which Dumarsais Siméus is a member. CID-Gallup NOAH-TDG LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS The first round of legislative elections took place concurrently with the presidential election. The second round of legislative elections was scheduled for March 19, 2006, but the government of interim president Boniface Alexandre announced on March 16 that it would be postponed until April 21. {Link without Title} FOOTNOTES EXTERNAL LINKS |
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