Haiti
More on Haiti
By Joseph Guyler Delva
The United States should only support November elections in Haiti if they include all eligible political parties, a group of U.S. lawmakers said, warning they saw signs of flaws that could be a "recipe for disaster."
In a letter sent this week to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the members of Congress said failure to hold free, fair and inclusive presidential and legislative elections on Nov. 28 could endanger Haiti's governance and reconstruction after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.
Forty-five members of Congress have urged US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to support free, fair and inclusive elections in Haiti next month.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters and her colleagues say they are concerned that the exclusion of over a dozen political parties in Haiti's 28 November presidential and legislative elections is "undemocratic and unconstitutional".
Those left out are said to include the Fanmi Lavalas party of exiled former president Jean Bertrand Aristide.
US lawmakers are urging Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to make it clear that Washington will withhold funds for elections in Haiti next month if they are not going to be free, fair and inclusive.
The US State Department said Friday it would respond later to the letter from Maxine Waters and 44 other members of Congress.
In the letter published Thursday, the lawmakers expressed concern about the run-up to the November 28 presidential and parliamentary elections in Haiti, the first since January's devastating earthquake.
by Betty Pleasant
Editor's Note: Wave Contributing Editor Betty Pleasant spent three days (Aug. 30-Sept. 1) in Haiti with members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Global Mission. This is the third in a series of reports on the people and places she saw while visiting the earthquake-ravaged nation.
Haiti — a country created by Africans who were kidnapped and enslaved by Spain and France in the 17th and 18th centuries — has always been a land of extreme deprivation and misery caused by White people, Black people and people of both colors: mulattos.