Bringing "Democracy" to Haiti

[bcholmes]

The political party of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide will be barred from legislative elections scheduled for February 28, Haitian elections officials said on Wednesday.

[...]

"The Lavalas Family party will not be allowed to participate in the next election because the electoral council's legal counsel said the party did not meet all legal requirements," electoral council president Gaillot Dorsainvil told local radio stations.

He did not specify which requirements the party failed to meet.

Ninety-eight of the 99 seats in the legislature's Chamber of Deputies will be at stake in the February election, along with one-third of the 30-member Senate. The vote for the remaining lower house seat will be held at a later date.

[...]

In a rare interview, Aristide confirmed on local Radio Solidarity on Wednesday that he had given authority to Narcisse to register the party, and questioned whether Haitian officials wanted to hold fair and democratic elections.

"That will depend on whether the electoral council wants to organize an election or to make a selection," Aristide said by phone from South Africa. "If they want to organize elections, I encourage them. But if they want to make a selection I urge them not to take that path because it will not serve the country's interests."

— Reuters

Last spring, Lavalas was also banned from Senate elections.

It's such a strange thing: the official narrative (of, say, the Bush administration or the Martin government) is that Aristide lost the support of the people and the people rose up against him (and the US helped give him a ride out of the country for his own protection). One would think that, with that kind of environment, Lavalas would have no chance of winning an election. But it seems clear that there are forces trying to keep Lavalas out of elections. And it's so freakin' transparent.