Haiti Cancels Presidential Election: Endless Cycle of Corruption and Poverty
Olivier Lecourt, Michiyo Tanabe and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The endless cycle of poverty and corruption continues to blight Haiti and sadly it appears that you don’t have any end in sight. This reality is behind the cancelled presidential elections of Haiti because fraud, political ineptitude and poverty are alienating the people of this nation. Indeed, given the endless mess that so-called democratic chambers are creating, then it is questionable how democracy is helping this nation under the prevailing conditions.
According to the president of the Electoral Council of Haiti, Pierre Louis Opont, security factors were behind the postponement of the presidential election. Of course, for the people of Haiti this isn’t new. However, it does highlight the continuing economic and political malaise of this country.
Vast sums of money from America, Canada and the European Union have been pumped into Haiti over many years but bad governance, corruption, poverty and a limited infrastructure remains. Not surprisingly, many Haitians have continued to migrate in order to escape the endless cycle of poverty and lack of opportunities.
Reuters (France 24) reports “Haiti’s newly appointed senators voted almost unanimously to postpone the vote earlier this week, and the Catholic church, business groups and local election observers warned an election under such conditions would not be credible.”
Prior to the election being cancelled then demonstrations had threatened to further destabilize society and fragment a tense Port-au-Prince. Immediately after the announcement was made then a relative calm could be felt in the capital of Haiti. This calm was soon broken because of clashes with the police. However, despite this reality, it appears that the postponed election will reduce tensions in the short term but not indefinitely unless the crisis is resolved.
The BBC reports “Whoever takes over from Mr Martelly will face the daunting task of reconstructing the country – which was devastated by an earthquake in 2010 and has been forced since to rely largely on international donations and foreign aid.”
http://www.france24.com/en/20160123-haiti-elections-postponed-violence-security
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35388312
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