Clashes and protests in Haiti after election results

Demonstrators took to the streets after the release of election results; most protests were largely peaceful, but in some outlying towns clashes turned violent with protesters shot and government buildings burned.

|
Dieu Nalio Chery/AP
UN peacekeepers fired tear gas on protesters in Haiti earlier this week on Wednesday.

Several government buildings have been set ablaze in scattered sections of Haiti and one demonstrator was killed in violent protests ignited by the release of final legislative election results, officials said Saturday.

Street demonstrations and clashes between factions troubled several towns around the Caribbean country, though the crowded capital of Port-au-Prince and most other areas of the country of 10 million people were peaceful Saturday.

In parts of northern and southern Haiti, angry partisans insisted that the results released late Friday by the much-criticized electoral council did not reflect voters' will. Presidential and legislative runoffs are scheduled for next weekend amid numerous accusations of fraud and manipulation of results.

Police Inspector Guytho Noel said that an 18-year-old protester was fatally shot when two factions clashed on the streets of the northeastern town of Terrier Rouge. An elections office was torched, flaming tire barricades burned and the windows of a library were smashed, he said. In the nearby town of Ferrier, another elections office burned and the mayor's office was lit on fire. In northwest Haiti, some houses and schools were set ablaze. Police also reported scattered unrest in a few parts of southern Haiti.

The Haitian National Police said it was trying to restore order Saturday.

The long-delayed parliamentary results were released just over week before the Dec. 27 runoffs.

All 10 sitting members of Haiti's Senate last week urged President Michel Martelly to prevent electoral authorities from issuing final results for legislative races until a commission could be set up to verify the integrity of the vote.

This year's balloting is set to determine a new president, two-thirds of the 30-seat Senate, the entire 119-member Chamber of Deputies and numerous local offices.

Gregory Mayard Paul, a spokesman for Martelly's Tet Kale party, noted Saturday that there have never been elections without street protests in Haiti's young democracy. The first genuinely free elections in Haitian history took place in 1990 but the transition to democracy has been rough.

"It will take time for some Haitians to understand that democracy means that some candidates win, other candidates lose. It doesn't mean you should go out and burn tires and destroy things if you are unhappy with the results, but not everyone understands this yet," he said.

While international observers have endorsed results from the first two rounds of elections, an array of rights groups, local election monitors and political factions allege they were so marred by fraud that their validity is in question.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Clashes and protests in Haiti after election results
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/2015/1219/Clashes-and-protests-in-Haiti-after-election-results
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe