Haiti's Elections

This is an "informed rumour" from a "usually reliable source"

1) Haiti is preparing for another round of elections on April 19. 12 Senate seats are up for grabs. The UN wants elections. The UN Security Council wants elections. The US wants elections. Bill Clinton wants elections. The Joint Mission Analysis Center of MINUSTAH wants elections.

2) Lavalas is out of the elections. What I'm understanding is that Aristide refused to give over control of the party so he didn't sign off on the list of candidates. On top of that the Lavalas Party split in two (old school v. new school) and gave out two separate lists of candidates. All the Lavalas candidates were disqualified because head of party didn't sign off. If Aristide doesn't want to sign off on the candidates of his own party, then thats his business. It's his party.

3) There are rumors that Lavalas is going to disrupt the elections but the better rumor is that there are those who are going to disrupt the elections and try and make it look like Lavalas (sort of like Group 184 did during the April 2008 demonstrations against the "high price of living")

4) I suspect that people who scheme to disrupt the elections will pay a high price

5) Tracts, or flyers, are being dispersed saying stay home on election day. If you do go out, whatever you get is yours (Sa'w jwenn se pa'w)

6) In an earlier post i mentioned how carnival funds were used in a kickback scheme to finance the Palace's choice for senator. The kickback beneficiary, whose name I won't mention, is running fourth in a poll published by the Boulos newspaper. The poll consisted of 600 people polled. Fourth place equals about 23 votes. First place with about sixty votes (according to the Boulos poll) is Silvio Claude's daughter Marie Denise Claude of the FUSION Party.

7) Word in the "election organizing sector" is that the kickback candidate will win by fraud, even if very few people vote for him. A lot of people won't vote for Mr Kickback simply because Preval wants him to win. The masses feel betrayed by Preval.

8) By the looks of things (posters, billboards, flyers, etc.) Mr Kickback has the biggest advertising budget. He also seems to have the most enemies simply because a lot of his posters, more than any others, are damaged, scraped off or scrawled on.

9) I've heard that the Haitian President and the Haitian Prime Minister will not be in the country for the election.

I call these rumors because i have no way of backing up anything I say.
I just live here...