by Kim Ives

On Mar. 9, a Haitian judge ruled that Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) could not disqualify candidates of exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family party (FL) from partial Senate elections scheduled for Apr. 19.

The decision came as thousands of Lavalas partisans demonstrated around the capital during the 24-hour visit to Haiti of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The demonstrators demanded the reintegration of the FL into the elections and the return of Aristide from exile in South Africa.

Last week, the FL brought a lawsuit against the CEP for excluding 12 of its candidates on Feb. 16 on the grounds that registration papers did not have Aristide's signature, a questionable and not previously raised technicality (see Haiti Liberté, Vol. 2, No. 31, 2/18/2009).

The party's lawyers - Jean Tholbert Alexis, Camille Leblanc, Stanley Lafortune and Axene Joseph - brought the complaint before Judge Jean-Claude Douyon on Mar. 3. Neither members nor lawyers of the CEP attended that first hearing. The judge summoned the CEP's President Frantz Gérard Verret and Director General Opont Pierre-Louis to appear in court on Mar. 6.

Instead, the CEP sent its lawyers, Anthony Chérubin and Stanley Gaston. At the hearing, the FL's lawyers argued that the CEP's leadership, not its lawyers, should appear before the judge; Douyon agreed saying he would issue his ruling on Monday.

But Verret and Pierre-Louis did not show up on Mar. 9 so Judge Douyon found in favor of the FL, ordering that the party's candidates be reintegrated into the upcoming elections. "The political rights of the Lavalas have been violated," he said, ordering the "reintegration of candidates of that party, if they each individually meet the legal standards."

Camille Leblanc, one of the FL's lawyers, applauded the decision. "The Provisional Electoral Council had no justification for its arbitrary decision of exclusion, since the Lavalas political organization had fulfilled all the requirements to participate in the Apr. 19 Senate elections," he said.

Meanwhile, on Mar. 4 at the Karibe Convention Center in Pétionville, the CEP met with parties already approved to run in the elections. "We'll use a ballot box to respect the Haitian people and astonish the world," CEP President Verret said.

It was announced that the communal electoral offices (BEC) are being finalized and the election campaign will begin on Mar. 19.

It is unclear whether the CEP will respect Judge Douyon's ruling. Constitutionally, the CEP is the "final arbiter" of all electoral matters, although definition of that jurisdiction has been hotly debated since the independent authority was created 22 years ago. Previous CEPs have ignored court orders.

The large demonstrations around the capital on Mar. 9 likely influenced Douyon's decision. Protesters began a long day at about 7 a.m. when they gathered at the airport to greet Clinton and Ban, who arrived on a special jet carrying business investors, philanthropists, and other VIPS, including hip-hop star Wyclef Jean and AIDS activist physician Dr. Paul Farmer. Tellingly, no Haitian officials greeted the plane, only Hédi Annabi, the head of the U.N. Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH).

The demonstrators had hoped to accompany Clinton and Ban to Cité Soleil but were surprised to learn that their delegation had slipped out another airport exit and were already in the giant slum. The protestors then rushed there only to find that the delegation had moved on to Bourdon, another capital neighborhood.

Undeterred, the huge crowd massed on the Champs de Mars in front of the National Palace, where they waited until the evening when Clinton, Ban and President René Préval held a press conference.

Among the crowd, hundreds bore signs, banners, umbrellas or T-shirts emblazoned with Aristide's image. The Lavalas band "Gwolobo" kept spirits high with festive militant songs from a powerful sound truck.

"We ask Bill Clinton to convey our message back to Barack Obama, to say that since the coup d'état / kidnapping of our president on Feb. 29, 2004, the situation in the country has only worsened," one demonstrator told Haiti Liberté. "We are waiting for the soonest possible return of the President, Dr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide. And if Lavalas is not part of the elections, free and fair elections will not take place."

One of the favorite slogans on signs and in chants was: "Ban Ki-Moon, Ban Aristid." (Ban Ki-moon rhymes with the Kreyol question "Ban ki moun," meaning "Give us who?" to which the response was "Give us Aristide.")

Another popular slogan was "Down with all ingrates," a pointed allusion to Préval who owes his Feb. 2006 election victory to the votes and mobilization of the Lavalas Family base. Préval, who has issued vague warnings in response to Lavalas calls for Aristide's return, was denounced as treacherous and corrupt.

The demonstrators repeatedly broke into chants of "Down with the MINUSTAH!" UN troops have repeatedly clashed with college students in recent weeks. The State University has been the scene of constant anti-MINUSTAH demonstrations for the past month.

A nine-member delegation from the U.N. Security Council is scheduled to visit Haiti beginning Mar. 11 to assess the renewal of the MINUSTAH's mandate which expires in seven-months on October 15, 2009.

"The visit of Clinton and Ban served three purposes," said Ray Laforest of the International Support Haiti Network (ISHN). "First it sought to shore up the wobbling Préval government, which is faced with growing popular misery and fury during this deepening economic crisis. Remember Haiti is where we first saw huge anti-hunger demonstrations last April much like the anti-capitalist protests now rocking Guadeloupe. Secondly, it sought to convince the Haitian people that jobs and international aid are on the way in order to stem the refugee exodus that may result if President Obama grants undocumented Haitians in the U.S. Temporary Protected Status, as he probably will. Finally, it sought to cast in a favorable light the renewal of the U.N. military occupation, which is growing increasingly unpopular in Haiti with every passing week."

The Haitian government "should do more on social-economic development," Ban Ki-moon pronounced at the Palace press conference. The remark was ironic since the U.N. has rebuffed Préval's repeated requests for the MINUSTAH to "turn its tanks into bulldozers" to aid badly needed Haitian development.

"Ban and Clinton pointed their fingers at the Haitian government rather than at the international lenders they are trying to mobilize," Laforest explained. "After last year's storms, the UN sought to get pledges for $108 million in aid. They haven't even managed to get pledges for half of that amount, which explains why such a pathetically small amount of international aid has been and will be actually delivered."

The core of the Ban/Clinton "action plan" is to encourage investment in Haiti's assembly industry sweatshops, and the delegation made the obligatory tour of a factory in the Industrial Park.

Originally, former president Jimmy Carter was scheduled to accompany Ban to Haiti on the propaganda junket. But at the last minute, the Obama administration substituted Clinton, who enjoys some popularity with Haitians for bringing Aristide back to power in October 1994 on the shoulders of 20,000 U.S. troops, initiating a five-year military occupation first by U.S.. troops and then by the U.N.

Ironically, Clinton's reputation as Aristide's ally is unfounded. The Clinton administration ended up at odds with Aristide in 1995 after he dissolved the Haitian Army and refused to carry out neo-liberal reforms, in particular the privatization of key state enterprises like the electricity authority and the telephone company.

Furthermore, the Clinton administration initiated an aid cut-off against Haiti in 2000 after it objected to how votes were tabulated in the May 2000 elections, which the FL swept. Clinton's hostility to Aristide's ensuing election as President in Nov. 2000 was adopted and hardened by the incoming administration of George W. Bush.