Haiti postpones Sunday's presidential election as violence erupts.

PORT-AU-PRINCE | By Frank Jack Daniel Reuters/World | Sat Jan 23, 2016 12:48am EST       Haiti called off its presidential election on Friday, two days before it was due, over concerns of escalating violence sparked by the opposition candidate's refusal to take part in a process he said was riddled with fraud. Pierre Louis Opont, president of Haiti's electoral council, said the runoff vote was being pushed back for security reasons. But he did not say when the election, already postponed twice before, would be rescheduled. The announcement led to jubilation from demonstrators marching to oppose the election. They danced on the streets of the capital Port-au-Prince, but the mood quickly darkened. Gunshots were fired as protesters clashed with police. The postponement is nevertheless expected to ease unrest after days of protests in the deeply impoverished country of about 10 million people, at pains to rebuild from a devastating earthquake six years ago and to emerge from decades of political dysfunction. Several western nations, fearing a new era of instability in the Caribbean nation, have been assisting Haiti in its election preparations. The U.S. government alone has chipped in $30 million. But opposition candidate Jude Celestin said last week he would not take part in the election, alleging a first round vote in October was rigged to favor the ruling party candidate. "The fact that the electoral council was forced to give up the electoral farce is a victory for the Haitian people," said Jean-Charles Moise, another opposition candidate who said fraud led to his first-round defeat. Hamstrung with weak institutions, Haiti has struggled to build a stable democracy since the overthrow of the 1957-1986 dictatorship of the Duvalier family and ensuing military coups and election fraud. GOVERNMENT CONVENES ON SECURITY The government held an unscheduled cabinet meeting to plan measures to "guarantee public order and the security of lives and property," the prime minister's office said in statement without giving details. In a statement explaining the postponement, the election commission reported that seven election offices and an official's home had been torched and several other offices were attacked, including by armed men. On Friday, thousands marched in the capital for the third time this week. Police fired at a group attacking a man who appeared to have shot at them. The man lay bleeding profusely, but it was unclear how he was injured. Protesters set fire to at least one car. Burning tires billowed black smoke directly below a giant poster of ruling party candidate Jovenel Moise. A man stabbed another poster of Moise with a metal pole. "The direction (outgoing President Michel) Martelly has taken the country is no good," said Rolando Joilcoeui, a community worker standing among the crowds. "We've said 'no' to that regime. The election was a fraud." Swiss-trained engineer Celestin said the government has not remedied cheating in the first round, and called the plans for the second round vote "a farce." Celestin was second in a field of 54 candidates in the October election. He came in almost eight percentage points behind Moise, a banana-exporter and political newcomer running on a platform to modernize agriculture and water management in the flood and drought-prone nation. Moise told Reuters earlier on Friday the vote represented "the will of the people" even if he was the only candidate fully participating. After the postponement, members of Moise's campaign team sat grim-faced at a city hotel. Asked what happens next, one said: "That's the million dollar question." Haiti's newly appointed senators voted almost unanimously to postpone the vote earlier this week, and the Catholic church, business groups and local election observers warned an election under such conditions would not be credible. 'CLEAR TIMELINE' In a statement from the United Nations, the "core group" of countries aiding Haiti that include Brazil, France and the United States among others, said they deplored the violence and reiterated "support for the conclusion of an inclusive and equitable electoral process." U.S. Republican presidential candidate, Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, told Reuters Haiti must lay out "a clear timeline" for a democratic election. Only about a quarter of Haiti's 5.8 million registered voters cast their ballots in the first round. Local observers say a loophole meant thousands of booth watchers employed by parties were able to vote more than once. The Organization of American States also signaled the poll watchers as a major source of irregularities. That anomaly has been largely fixed. Formerly a singer known as Sweet Micky famous for performances on carnival floats, Martelly is constitutionally required to leave office by Feb. 7, when the annual celebration starts this year. However, his five-year term only ends in May, leaving some flexibility, with proposals including a March election. The opposition groups want an interim government set up on Feb. 7 to oversee a new election. After months of upheaval that started with violence and ballot stuffing in an August vote for lawmakers, some Haitians see the delay as a recipe for more uncertainty. "Everything has come to a standstill because of the elections," said out-of-work construction laborer Rodrigue Pierre, holding a hammer on the edge of a hillside cinder-block slum in Port-au-Prince. "We just want a new president."

Earthquake Anniversary

Haiti commemorates sixth anniversary of tragic earthquake Miami Herald By Jacqueline Charles January 12, 2016 TITANYEN, Haiti Haiti commemorated the sixth anniversary of its tragic Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake Tuesday with a low-key wreath laying ceremony at the barren mountaintop where many of its dead lay buried in mass graves. President Michel Martelly, donning a white guayabera, and first lady Sophia Martelly arrived shortly after 10 a.m. at Parc Christophe on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, site of an almost completed marble and iron memorial that pays homage to the estimated 300,000-plus dead. After briefly reviewing a black and brown marble headstone bearing his name and the words, 12 January 2010 We Will Never Forget in Creole, Martelly joined Prime Minister Evans Paul. Each laid a wreath of white roses before a gigantic rock that has come to mark the site. This year, the rock was surrounded by long-stem white roses and white candles, several of which spelled out the date of the tragedy. There was no podium speech from the president as in years past or foreign dignitaries. But as Martelly made his way out of the park, he told journalists that today was purposely chosen as “A Day of Reflection,” so that Haitians can remember that they had a responsibility in “the dimensions of what happened.” “We amplified it because we didn’t construct well; we didn’t properly prepare ourselves, we didn’t really secure the people in respect to the construction codes so we could avoid this catastrophe,” he said. “Today, is an opportunity for us to say ‘We’re going to do better; we’re going to do better at all levels, not just in construction but in our attitude.’ ” For months, Haiti has been embroiled in yet another paralyzing political crisis, this one triggered by its violence and fraud-marred Aug. 9 legislative first round elections and the Oct. 25 legislative runoff and presidential vote. Local observer groups and opposition candidates have alleged “massive fraud” and called for an inquiry into the balloting. Opposition presidential candidate, Jude Célestin, who qualified for the second round against Martelly’s presidential pick, entrepreneur Jovenel Moïse, has said he will not participate in the Jan. 24 presidential runoff. He has called on the government to adopt both his conditions for running, as well as a host of recommendations by its electoral evaluations commission that said the vote was plagued by irregularities and fraud. The former head of the Centre National d’Equipement (CNE), Célestin supervised the removal and burial of nearly 300,000 quake dead by his mostly female heavy equipment operators in three different sites at Parc Christophe. The site where the monument is located is the biggest of the burial sites. Célestin was not at the commemoration but this year’s theme, which hung on a back drape, “We were there for one another,” served as a reminder of how Haitians were the first rescuers after the tragedy. Though Martelly tried to shy away from addressing the electoral crisis that continues to overshadow life in Haiti, he called on Haitians to come together, while making a subtle reference to the crisis. It’s time, Martelly said, for Haitians to “prioritize Haiti’s interests over personal interests. It’s not just a question of only winning power but it’s a question of what are you going to do, what plan do you have, is it Haiti that you see first?” “Criticism is easy,” he noted, “but I am asking everyone to look at themselves, and to ask themselves what they can do to bring their stone to the reconstruction of the new Haiti.” According to the International Organization for Migration, the number of Haitians displaced by the earthquake has dropped from 1.5 million to 59,720. Lasting 35 seconds, the quake also injured 300,000. Its death toll - announced as 316,000 by the previous government - remains a matter of debate. “Six years since the country was devastated by the earthquake of January 12; six years since we carried the pain of the sudden death of thousands of our compatriots of both sexes; six years since, we still do not know the exact number of our dead, nor all of their names,” the feminists organizations Kay Fanm and Solidarité des femmes haïtiennes (SOFA) said in a statement. Calling the tragedy, which also killed a number of leading Haitian intellectuals and feminists, a “massacre,” the organizations said, “January 12 was not only the result of a natural disaster, but also the result of inconsistencies in matters of urban planning, construction type, environment.” Tens of thousands of Haitians, they note, continue to live in deplorable, substandard housing. Less than a mile from the memorial site, for example, stands Canaan, a post-quake community with more than 300,000 residents that has come to symbolize the failure of the shortcomings of the reconstruction effort. Of the $12.5 billion pledged by foreign donors to help Haiti rebuild, it remains unclear how much has been disbursed or obligated. At some point, donors stopped distinguishing between regular aid and earthquake aid, say those who previously tracked the funds. Claude Prépetit, a local seismologist, said while Haiti has improved its mapping of its fault lines, the country remains at risk of repeating the tragedy. Tremors were reported on Dec. 30 and Jan. 2. Haitian authorities, Prépetit said, must improve supervision of new construction and do more to educate the population on how to respond to a quake.

Celestin says ‘No’ to Haiti presidential runoff

Miami Herald January 7, 2016 Haiti presidential candidate Jude Célestin says he will not be participating in this month’s runoff elections. “The 24th is out of the question,” Célestin told the Miami Herald on Thursday. “[President Michel] Martelly will have to do an election with just one candidate.” Célestin’s announcement came as two top U.S. envoys departed Haiti for Washington on Thursday after failing to convince him to run, and as the U.S. State Department issued a statement welcoming Martelly’s executive order scheduling the presidential and partial legislative runoff for Sunday, Jan. 24. “We look forward to the completion of the electoral process and encourage all Haitians to participate peacefully and calmly in the vote,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said. Meanwhile, the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States in Haiti called the establishment of a date a “step in the right direction,” while urging the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to factor into its preparations the recommendations of an elections evaluation commission to allow for a competitive process. But 17 days before the balloting, Célestin said he doesn’t see any efforts being made to improve transparency in the final round by enacting the sweeping changes ordered by the five-member commission. “The commission issued a report on the irregularities and fraud in the election,” he said. “It asked for among other things, a political dialogue. We don’t see that happening, or any of the other recommendations that the commission asked for. I also asked for a list of conditions and so far, nothing.” Martelly issued his executive order late Wednesday, the same day the two top U.S. envoys arrived in Port-au-Prince to address the unraveling political crisis triggered by the Oct. 25 presidential and legislative elections. The day before, CEP President Pierre-Louis Opont reversed himself on the impossibility of guaranteeing a newly-elected president in time for Martelly’s Feb. 7 departure from office. The U.S. officials, Ambassador Thomas Shannon, counselor of the Department of State, and Haiti Special Coordinator Kenneth Merten, spent two days in Haiti meeting with key political leaders, including Martelly, Prime Minister Evans Paul, Célestin and government-backed runoff candidate Jovenel Moïse. They had hoped to convince Célestin during their two-hour encounter to participate in the runoff. The former head of the state construction agency, Célestin qualified for the second round with 25 percent of the vote against top finisher Moïse with 32.8 percent. But he calls the results “a ridiculous farce,” and has demanded an inquiry into the balloting to address allegations that the vote was marred by vote rigging and ballot stuffing in favor of Moïse. He has also demanded as a condition for his participation, sweeping changes to the electoral machinery including resignations of those accused of fraud, and 30 days to campaign. Moïse, a banana exporter, has dismissed the fraud allegations . He said the voting irregularities that were uncovered by the commission are the result of poll workers’ incompetence. In a meeting with members of the commission, he pointed out that he and his supporters were also victims of Election Day violence on Oct. 25, and during first round legislative balloting on Aug. 9. Rosny Desroches, spokesman for the five-member commission charged with evaluating the Oct. 25 vote, said he was disappointed that Martelly did not adopt the commission’s recommendations to improve transparency in the runoff. He noted that only one person has resigned so far, Catholic Church representative, Ricardo Augustin. “We can’t keep playing with elections like this, where we have people who aren’t qualified, or who are defending a particular candidate or their piece of the pie,” said Desroches. “More than 80 percent of the tally sheets we examined had problems.” Desroches said he had hoped a dialogue with the opposition would have taken place before a new election day. “We need to have a political dialogue so we will know how we’re going to manage in the coming weeks, and the next few years in this country,” he said. Martelly defended his decision in an address to the nation. He accused the opposition of blocking the elections and of lying about the fraud “because the results weren’t what they wanted.” He also rejected the idea of Haiti being ruled by a transitional government after his departure, saying “on the 7 of February I, President Martelly, will hand over to another president who will emerge from this election.” In the spirit of compromise, he said, he agreed to remove the local elections for 7,000 contested seats in 570 municipalities in the runoff. The race has attracted 35,000 candidates. Martelly agreed to form the commission last month, forcing the scheduled Dec. 27 runoffs to be postponed. It’s damning report noted that the elections were marred by serious irregularities, including erroneous and missing voter registration numbers. The electoral council, it said, lacked credibility to continue with the process and a deeper verification by elections experts was needed to address local observers’ and opposition allegations of “massive fraud.” The report’s findings showed that there was a high presumption of fraud, and the commission recommended going after elections officials involved in perpetrating the fraud. “It was only after a lot of pressure [that the Martelly administration] accepted to organize elections that the democratic sector sees as a masquerade, a mess of a selection so that it can hold onto power with a click of friends,” Célestin said in a statement earlier this week. “We are waiting for the government to take its responsibility and put the commission’s recommendations into application without delay.” Haiti’s “Core Group” of countries led by the United States, has made it clear that they want a second round and that the constitutionally mandated Feb. 7 date for presidential handover must be respected. That push has fueled a nationalistic sentiment in Haiti where opposition parties and democratic groups have started to meet among themselves to find “a Haitian solution,” and are pushing back on any foreign intervention. “We cannot accept foreigners coming to create a situation that is upside down,” said opposition leader Anthony Dessources of Fanmi Lavalas political party, saluting Célestin’s resistance while continuing his party’s demand for an inquiry into the vote. “How can they expect for the people to accept to go to elections under these conditions?” Still, given the international community’s statements and this week’s high-level visit, Haiti analyst Robert Fatton said it’s clear that Célestin was, and is, under massive and contradictory political pressures. “One can only imagine given past history, how intense the pressures must have been on Jude Célestin to say ‘Yes,’ ” said Fatton, who teaches political science at the University of Virginia. Given Célestin’s decision not to run, Fatton said, “it is impossible to see how an election on January 24th can be credible. “If it were to take place without Célestin, the new president would assume power with a serious lack of legitimacy and the political crisis would persist and probably escalate within a few months,” he said.