PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti is hot and getting hotter by the minute as election results loom. As if the posters plastered over every available surface weren’t enough, it’s almost impossible to avoid talk of the elections with anyone we meet.
For those unfamiliar with the situation, here’s a really quick recap:
Back in November, Haiti held elections. The ruling party, obviously not convinced it was doing a good enough job to secure re-election, decided to pay people off to get their candidate – Jude Celestin – elected. It almost worked, but the Haitians, annoyed that their popular candidate had been squeezed out of the running, rioted for days and essentially forced the administration to have a do-over. That means Haitians have been in the midst of an election campaign for over five months already, enough to make anyone frustrated, disenfranchised and suspicious.
The popular candidate the Haitians apparently wanted in Celestin’s place was none other than Wyclef Jean’s buddy, and famous Haitian crooner, Michel Joseph Martelly – otherwise known by the moniker Sweet Mickey. I looked him up on YouTube for your viewing and audio pleasure:
Every Haitian we’ve spoken to thus far has told us that Sweet Mickey is their president of choice. Apparently, he’s a man of the people for the people. Martelly is campaigning for decentralization and more housing – all good things on paper, especially for the hundreds of thousands living in refugee tent camps in Port-Au-Prince, but with what money he plans to do this, we can’t be certain. His promises are big, but whether his actual budget will be is highly doubtful.
His posters feature his grinning face, a cow and the words “Peasant’s vote.” But unless he plans to sell the cow for magic beans, plant a beanstalk and steal money from a giant to build Haitians housing, we’re not entirely sure what the plan is.
Still, it seems that poor old former first lady Mirlande Manigat doesn’t seem to stand a chance versus Sweet Mickey’s siren song.
That doesn’t stop people from thinking she’ll win anyway, though, with most telling us they believe ballot fraud is an inevitability. Indeed, the riots are already being planned, because Haitians can be very organized when the mood strikes.
This was also the first time Haitian voters could use an SMS texting system and call center – supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) – to find their polling stations. Which all sounds rather nifty, but no Haitian we’ve spoken to over the past three days has heard anything about it, and most said they had been turned away from their local polling stations and sent to stations too far for them to reach in time to vote. Teething pains or something more suspect? We can’t tell.
We asked people whether they believed SMS voting might have been a viable solution. The idea had certainly been tossed about in the weeks and months leading up to the elections. In the end, it was dropped as being too problematic. Why? Unofficially, because the carriers here are not politically impartial. For instance, second largest Haitian carrier Voila openly supported Martelly’s campaign. He and his band had been spokespeople for the carrier in the past, though the firm says it terminated the contract before the election campaign began.
Our housemates claim they’ve been getting calls for weeks telling them to vote for Martely, although Voila says it would never allow its networks to be used for political campaigning. Perhaps, but perhaps not.
Haitel also can’t claim impartiality. One of their senior executives is Martelly’s nephew. Now imagine using a Haitian carrier to filter votes through, and you’ll see the transparency problem.
Of course, the official stance is that it may be possible, but would require a lot more work to be done in order to solve the problems of authentication, and ensuring those voting by SMS were actually who they said they were and not voting on behalf of someone else, or using someone else’s phone. That’s also a plausible and believable scenario, but the unofficial reason also shouldn’t be discounted.
We put it to our housemate Rohan that most Haitians we’d spoken to had expressed the view Martelly would be swindled out of a win, despite scoring the bulk of the votes. He scoffed, and explained we shouldn’t give it much credence. Why? Well, for a start, because despite his boyish grin and shiny bald head, Sweet Mickey is apparently not so sweet when it comes to some of the people he employees to – ehem – get out the vote.
Intimidation could be a key factor at play here. The second reason is that the Haitians love a good game of Chinese whispers, often repeating things they’ve heard someone else say without having anything to back it up with. Sounds like quite a few journalists we know.
Or, they might have really voted for him. There’s always that option too.
And then there’s the whole Aristide monkey wrench. Without wanting to get into the whole convoluted background, let’s just say the Haitians feel he’s a great guy because the United States hates him. Certainly a logic that worked well for Fidel Castro.
Aristide has the poor people’s love and affection mostly because he keeps demanding reparation money from the French – to the tune of some $76 billion, or something ridiculous. Cue Dr. Evil/Austin Powers moment.
“Aristide was trying to help Haiti, trying to make it a successful country and the West don’t want that,” explained our driver, Nixon. “But surely they do? Why would they send aid and money if they didn’t want Haiti to succeed and stand on its own two feet?” I countered.
“To look good. To look like they care. But they don’t. They just want us to stay poor so they can use us.” – it’s a prevalent sentiment here.
It’s also clear that most Haitians really dislike us foreigners. At best, most locals we run into treat us with a type of haughty arrogance, their eyes full of anger and disdain. Some come up to us on the street and demand money. “Why?” we ask them. “Because you American, so you have to give us money!”
Bottom line, they tolerate us, believe we owe them aid money, and that that’s pretty much all we’re good for. It’s an interesting attitude, but who can blame a people who have been downtrodden and so shoddily treated for so long? It’s bound to make one bitter.
