By MARIFELI PEREZ-STABLE
marifeliperez-stable.com

Tomas is gathering strength and heading toward Haiti, where the Jan. 12 earthquake left almost two million homeless and most of the rubble in Port-au-Prince has yet to be cleared. Cholera is also making the rounds with some 300 fatalities and almost 5,000 hospitalized so far.

Elections are set for Nov. 28 but some politicians are calling for a postponement. The World Health Organization is working with local health authorities to contain the highly contagious disease. Haitian officials and the Organization of American States insist on the electoral process proceeding on schedule, though if cholera isn’t held in check, it’d be hard to go on as planned.

Well before Jan. 12, Haiti was a failed state; now it barely has a state. Like his compatriots, René Préval reacted in horror at the loss of life and the endless devastation. Never quite comfortable in his role, he didn’t know what to say. Bill Clinton and Leonel Fernández, the Dominican president, reached out to the Haitian people while their president stayed behind closed doors. Haitians were furious.

OUTSIDE ACTORS

Still, Préval is the only nationally elected official left standing. Last March, the chamber of deputies concluded its term; legislative elections were to be held that month but were postponed with the date still pending. If Haitian presidents always had to mind the international community, now outside actors are even more indispensable.

Without them, there’d be no elections, indeed, no hope of rebuilding state institutions. The United Nations and the OAS are helping the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to update the electoral registry, mount a civic education drive, set up voting centers and use reliable electoral software. An OAS task force — with members from the United Nations, the Caribbean Community, the European Union, the United States, Canada and Brazil — is advising Haitian officials on electoral matters.

While many at home and abroad have questioned the CEP’s impartiality, Préval has defended the electoral body. When the council issued the list of certified presidential candidates, Yvon Neptune — running as Fanmi Lavalas, former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s party and Haiti’s largest — was on it. In 2006, Fanmi Lavalas had been barred from participating in the elections, prompting a widespread boycott by its supporters.

Most Haitian politicians have had tenuous links with the citizenry. For one, Haiti’s democratic history dates to 1990 when Aristide was first elected. And the record isn’t great: Aristide was overthrown in 1991, returned to power in 1994 until 1996, then again elected in 2001 only to be turned out once more in 2004. Since then, he has lived in South Africa.

In short, Aristide — no democrat even if twice elected democratically — is beloved by the impoverished majority. His policies increased access to healthcare and education, doubled the minimum wage, instituted land reform and other socioeconomic reforms. For the first time ever, ordinary Haitians trusted their president. Like other populist leaders, however, Aristide didn’t nurture the institutional architecture of democracy.

A QUESTION OF LEGITIMACY

Tomas is still steaming toward Haiti, where a tropical storm warning has been issued. Cholera hasn’t become an epidemic. With a bit of luck, Haitians are set to elect their next president on Nov. 28. Legislative elections should follow early in 2011.

But elections are only a first step: Legitimacy has to be earned daily in a society long seared by misery. Aristide is no model except that his policies gave the poor hope. Never mind him but always think about his followers. Without them, Haiti will never stand up. Yet, political and socioeconomic elites can’t seem to understand that fact.

Even if, in the end, rebuilding Haiti is a Haitian responsibility, the international community serves as guarantor. Aid has been slow in coming, in no small measure, because donors fear their dollars and euros will end up in the wrong pockets. Haitian officials need to earn their trust.

People, it’s often said, get the leaders they deserve. In Haiti’s case, elites have been wholly undeserving of the Haitian people.

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COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG

We are in the same situation as one created by Preval in 1999. He allowed Parliament to expire and went on to rule by decree for 18 months, until pressured by the International Community to cure the situation.

As the Washington Post said…With the stroke of a pen, Preval created a dictatorship.

Now, people are making believe that Preval won the election in 2006 when, in actual fact, he had his 23% increased to 51 percent, by MINUSTAH, to avoid the run-off required by Haiti’s constitution. In other words, his presidency is unconstitutional.

He is now maneuvering to create a run-off situation in which we will see Baker and Manigat as the two involved.  Preval will have eliminated the leader – CEANT – via actions by his Preval-Controlled CEP.

Preval is using a false poll, created by his ally Boulos, that shows Baker/Manigat as leader with Ceant somewhere below the local dog catcher. Actually, Ceant polls something near 42% while baker/Manigat each have something like 8 percent, below Michel Martelly.

Looks like a free and fair election is simply a term that the do-gooder’s mouth, without any effort to actually create one.

Manigat will win and she will be controlled by Preval. He has already paid her several million dollars, given her an armored limousine and 50 palace security people.

The fix is in and no one says a word.