Third Lavalas faction - are they Fanmi Lavalas?

piporiko Lun 16 Fév 2009 - 22:38

Third Lavalas faction - are they Fanmi Lavalas?

HLLN has previously reported on the Fanmi Lavalas spit where two sectors identifying themselves as authorities for Haiti's largest political party, presented two different slates of candidates to the electoral council (CEP) for the upcoming April 2009 Senate elections in Haiti. Both slates where rejected and after protest asking for inclusion and participation from the US, France Canada, OAS and the differing sides themselves, Haiti's Electoral Council afforded a right to appeal, which expired on Friday, Feb. 13, 2009 without resolution. The intervening authority to act as the sole National Representative of the Fanmi Lavalas party submitted by Maryse Narcisse was rejected by the CEP.

The interesting new development is that a third Lavalas faction (the "Parliamentarians") entered the scene last Friday on Feb. 13, after the appeal time span for candidate submissions to Haiti's electoral board had expired, with their public statement entitled "Rezolisyon Fanmi Lavalas nan kad Patisipasyon" (copied below and signed by Sénateur Yvon Buisreth, Députe Paul Olivar Richard, Députe Boisrond Jean Roland, Députe Pierre Jérôme Valcine, and Députe Jonas Coffy). This third voice, third Fanmi Lavalas faction, was given 72-hours (until Monday Feb. 16, 2009) by Haiti's electoral council (CEP) to provide:

1. A unified list of 12 Fanmi Lavalas candidates, and
2. Proof of their authority as Fanmi Lavalas

Ezili's HLLN has been informed by our folks on the ground in Haiti that they've come up with a list of twelve. The contested three within the 2 Lavalas lists submitted came from Grand'Anse, the West and the North. We are informed that all the candidates on the Maryse Narcisse List have been adopted by the Parliamentarians and the other three from the second slate of Lavalas, the Yvon Neptune/Yves Cristalin faction (Larouse, Doran and Bell), rejected.

The question remains : are these Parliamentarians honest brokers, recognized mediators? Are they Fanmi Lavalas, MIDH or Union Pou Ayiti? They are saying that though they went to the 2006 elections under the Union Pou Haiti banner, the symbol they used and which the people recognized was a "table." "Bò tab la" - the table, is the recognized symbol of Fanmi Lavalas. The logic we are told is they were elected as "Fanmi Lavalas" and so are officially "elected Fanmi Lavalas representatives" and so that's their authority to act on behalf of Fanmi Lavalas.

Will this consensus hold? Or, will the three candidates who are removed sucessfully contest? Better yet, will Maryse Narcisse who claims authority as National Leader of the Fanmi Lavalas political party through an April 2004 power-of-attorney, supposedly executed by President Aristide while in Jamaica, contest these Union Pou Ayiti's candidates' authority as Fanmi Lavalas? (See, L’opposition au Dr Maryse Narcisse au sein de Fanmi lavalas met en doute l’authenticité d’un mandat de Jean Bertrand Aristide qu’elle a déposé au CEP, February 10, 2009, Radio Kiskeya ). The CEP rejected Narcisse's authority as "unauthenticated."

The coup d'etat's division drama continues....or, hopefully will be put to rest today. At this point we hope, it's just put to rest.

This distraction isn't feeding anyone. We know the US and international community, currently running Haiti, will accept these "Fanmi Lavalas" parliamentarians who went to elections when the official Fanmi Lavalas boycotted the elections. We know that it was after the visit of US Ambassador Janet A. Sanderson last Friday that the CEP gave THIS coup d'etat Lavalas faction 72 hours to submit information....

At the end of the day, the three candidates that are excluded may need to accept the turn of events. That is, this time, being outmaneuvered by the US and international community is partly the two warring Lavalas sector's fault for not putting their house in order in the first place and work to get their besieged political party in order for the next turn. It's time to exercise LIDECHIP, that means understanding there's no luxury of a Fanmi Lavalas split not being to the ultimate advantaged of the imperialist agenda. For the people of Haiti, it is smart to simply work with what's in your hands as Haitians have ALWAYS done. Besides, in our opinion at HLLN, elections-under-occupation, as we've constantly said is a LOSERS' gambit.

Folks, you know we here at Ezili's HLLN like to UNDERSTAND what's happening. It's our understanding that the group of parliamentarians who intervene were the minority Lavalas sector who went to the 2006 elections when Fanmi Lavalas, Haiti's most popular political was under siege after the Bush regime change that ousted democratically elected President Aristide of Fanmi Lavalas and the party's supporters were being hunted down and slaughtered by Bush's Boca Raton regime behind US/UN firepower, and so officially Fanmi Lavalas, Haiti's most powerful political party, had boycotted the 2006 elections. Apparently these Fanmi Lavalas parliamentarian folks, now intervening in the name of "Fanmi Lavalas", went to the 2006 elections under the banner of "Union Pou Haiti" with former World Bank's Marc Bazin as their presidential candidate. Our Haiti correspondents relay that Union Pou Haiti is a coalition of MIDH (Mouvement pour l'Instauration de la Démocratie en Haïti) with these minority Fanmi Lavalas parliamentarians.

A quick search on the 2006 elections reveal that:
"...Bazin is a former Minister of Finance and Economy under the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier, and has also served as an official for the World Bank. In the 1990 elections Bazin received 14% of the votes, losing out to Jean-Bertrand Aristide. During the temporary coup d'état that replaced Aristide in 1991, Bazin was selected as the Prime Minister.

Bazin is a conservative politician who has sought to bring foreign investment into Haiti. For the 2006 elections he is running in an alliance with his MIDH (Mouvement pour l'Instauration de la Démocratie en Haïti) party and the popular Fanmi Lavalas.[9] Bazin has been a bitter enemy of Aristide so it is somewhat surprising that this alliance has formed. There is evidence on the basis of Freedom of Information Act requests in the USA that the United States federal budget funded International Republican Institute (IRI) was involved in Bazin's campaign and has more generally been widely involved in organising political parties in Haiti. [10] Fanmi Lavalas officially refused to take part in the elections and very few FL officials supported Bazin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_ge

neral_election,_2006#Marc_Bazin"