About the authors: James Murphy and Sarah Brownell are Catholic Workers at St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality. Sarah has worked in Haiti on and off since 1998 on water and sanitation technology projects and lived in the Borgne area from 2006-2010. James visited the Borgne area in October during elections and collaborated with Pen ak Pwason (Bread and Fishes), the Catholic Worker Food Program for the Elderly and Disabled in Borgne.
Does the international community really want democracy in Haiti or are we seeking something else?
Back in 2011, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped in during Haiti’s presidential elections, citing widespread fraud. She helped usher in Michel Martelly, the Parti Haitien Tet Kale (PHTK, Haitian Bald Heads) candidate and former pop-star to the presidency. Now, when PHTK is allegedly leading in a contest marred with inconsistencies, the international community has been continually insisting that the election show go on. What are the real motives behind putting and keeping PHTK in power?
During his tenure, President Martelly never held elections at the local level. Instead he allowed parliamentary representatives to replace the sitting mayors of opposing parties with appointed ones. Then, more than a year ago, when the terms of the majority of parliament expired, Martelly ruled by decree. Democracy and fair representation does not seem to be one of his top priorities.
A long time friend, Francius Estimable, assistant mayor of Borgne in 2011, was one of those mayors who was removed. We’ve known Estimable from before he ran for office, back when he was a 4th grade teacher, soccer coach, and Scout leader. Sarah and he worked on appropriate technology, public health and community education projects together. When he was elected as assistant mayor in 2006, he walked tirelessly in the hills outside Borgne to hear the concerns of people at the remote edges of the commune (some live more than 8 hours hike from town). His administration successfully brought paved roads, revitalized the beach, welcomed and supported earthquake survivors, and formed a Sister Cities relationship with Honeoye Falls, NY. When his administration was removed, he returned to working in education and waited patiently for local elections.
After 5 years of delay, local elections were finally held on October 25, 2015 along with the presidential elections. Estimable ran for mayor under the Verite (Truth) party, which did not have a presidential candidate, but had aligned themselves with Jude Celestine. From the beginning, there were issues with the election in Borgne. Voter ID cards were withheld until the last minute, and when they were distributed people found that their polling places were many hour’s walk away. Blank ballots destined for a remote community were burned on the road. James arrived in Borgne a week before the elections and tells the story in his own words:
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On election day, a UN helicopter hovered over the area and UN Peacekeepers were present in Bornge. It was a surprisingly calm and uneventful day. I had been warned to stay away from the election site, but I stopped by on my way home from 6:00 AM mass. Everything seemed orderly. People seemed happy that the day had started peacefully and local turnout was expected to be high. Later that night Estimable received unofficial word that he and the Verite parliamentary candidate had won in a landslide, but they would have to wait for the votes to return to Port-Au-Prince where they would be officially tallied. The town stayed up all night watching the truck that contained the votes to make sure they were secure. When the ballots were sent off to Port-Au-Prince, the general feeling was that they had left the region unaltered. However, somewhere between Borgne and the count in the capital, Estimable’s unofficial landslide victory became a narrow loss. He was not the only local candidate to have inexplicably lost when all information pointed toward victory. The Verite party began contesting the mayoral and parliamentary election results in court. Estimable’s case has not yet been heard, but Verite won the case for the parliamentary seat. Unfortunately, despite the court’s ruling, the official parliamentary election results for Borgne have not been changed.”
On a national level, presidential candidate Jude Celestin allegedly took second place, while the PHTK candidate Jovenel Moise claimed victory. Many Haitians feel Celestin was the clear winner and exit polls suggested Moise actually finished fourth with only 6% of the vote. Celestin declared he would not participate in the runoff and Haitian religious and civic groups have called for independent investigations. The presidential runoff scheduled for January 24th was canceled as protests turned violent.
The United Nations has had a peacekeeping force, which some Haitians see as an occupying force, in Haiti since the 2004 coup-d’etat. The UN’s mandate in Haiti, according to its website, is “to restore a secure and stable environment, to promote the political process, to strengthen Haiti’s Government institutions and rule-of-law-structures, as well as to promote and to protect human rights.” So after more than 10 years working on “good governance,” why was the UN standing by while this election was run so poorly that all but the leading presidential candidate refused to participate in run-off elections, citing massive fraud, and religious, civic, and human rights groups have repeatedly called for investigations? Also, why are the results of court cases not being upheld? The US also put up $33 million for this election and our reputation of promoting democracy is in jeopardy if we continue to push for PHTK to stay in power illegitimately. It possible that the international community felt that PHTK would bring more more stability to the country than the other candidates. But if that was the motive, they clearly were mistaken.
Haiti is a fledgling democracy and has a long history of political manipulation, bribery and intimidation. Irregularities are to be expected in the learning process. However, they should not be accepted, encouraged or blessed by countries that profess to believe in democracy. At the same time we should humbly remember our own struggles with corruption and fraud–just look to Albany and Rochester’s local bidding scandals for some examples!
The people on the ground–those scraping out a living farming in the hills, those struggling for life in the shanty towns and the small middle class working as teachers, nurses, and small business owners–have bought into the idea of democracy. They have been using democratic means to protest these fraudulent elections. Civic groups have denounced the results. Candidates have refused to participate in the flawed process. Election commissioners have resigned in protest. People have held (mostly) non-violent protests in the streets. It does matter who is president of Haiti. It does matter who is mayor of Borgne. It does matter that Haitians see their officials as legitimate and that their voices are heard. Even if “stability” was the motive of the international community, that does not justify manipulating or accepting manipulation of election results. Democracy must be the outcome, and Haitians, recalling the spirit of the revolution, will demand it. The only way out of darkness is with light.