Haitian Presidential Elections–October 25, 2015 (Part 2)

We left Soleil and travelled through Aviation past Handicapped Park and coursed up big Delmas to Petion-ville. There were very few cars on the streets and in Petion-ville we were able to park in front of the new Hotel Kinam with their Kenneth Cole shop staring at us from ground level.

Lycée Petion-ville was the voting center just across the street. Earlier in the day President Michel Martelly and presidential candidate Jude Celestin had cast their votes here apparently just 10 minutes apart.

Lycee Petion-ville Voting Center–October 25, 2015 (Photo by John Carroll)

There were many more journalists and TV stations in Petion-ville  than in Cite Soleil and the door to the voting center seemed to have more security than Soleil.  There seemed to be thousands of people looking for their ID number on the wall prior to voting.

There wasn’t much privacy as people voted. Too many people were allowed inside each voting room. But this is not unlike a hospital room in Haiti where a sick person has very little to no privacy.

After an hour we got back in the truck and went to the election center in Canape Vert. People were in lines in the street waiting to get in the center and the sun was high and very hot. We did not enter this voting center and jumped back in the vehicle and headed down Avenue John Brown. 

Canape Vert Voting Center–October 25, 2015 (Photo by John Carroll)

Downtown Port-au-Prince looked terrible and embarrassing. It  was almost abandoned especially in the Champ Mars area. We stopped at the location where the Haitian National Palace had stood for so many years but had been destroyed in the earthquake five years ago.  There was a green fence in front of this area blocking one’s view of where the Palace had been. Hanging on this green fence were posters of 138 people who were running for President in 2015—until 54 of them were culled out to be candidates today.

Previous Location of Haitian National Palace–October 25, 2015 (Photo by John Carroll)

This whole area was quiet and made me sad. I laid down on the sidewalk and poked my camera under the green fence to get a shot of the vacant lot where the National Palace had once stood. Lying here and staring up at the sky,  I thought of the hundreds-of-thousands of moun andeyo who had stood here in their bare feet after being brought here like cattle, given rum and a dollar, and encouraged to vote for Papa Doc as President-for-Life.  I thought of the pageantry and the politicians who had entered this location for decades on their big horses or in their big cars protected by their non-smiling macoutes. And I knew they had been successful in destroying Haiti. Now all one could see through a slit under the fence was a road and green grass.  And everything that had happened–all the fear and bad decisions that had originated here–was buried in tranquility and nothingness. 

Previous Location of Haitian National Palace–October 25, 2015 (Photo by John Carroll)

On Harry Truman Boulevard we saw a group of MINUSTAH soldiers doing nothing. We sped by pathetic St. Joseph’s Market which looked even worse without the throngs of marchandes and their customers and made it out to Tabarre in a matter of minutes. Traveling in Port is so much easier on days like this when people are too afraid to come out. It was glorious. 

In Tabarre we almost literally ran into President Aristide’s motorcade that was bringing him home after he voted at Lycée Jean Vincent. (Pere Jean Vincent was a Catholic priest of  “ti legliz” who was gunned down decades ago in Port–but seems like yesterday to me.)

President Aristide’s Home in Tabarre–October 25, 2015 (Photo by John Carroll)

We stopped at Aristide’s front gate and got out as did hundreds of others singing and dancing Fanmi Lavalas supporters. A MINUSTAH vehicle cruised by filming the crowd in front of Aristide’s home in Tabarre—so I can’t say MINUSTAH did nothing today. 

Fanmi Lavalas Supporter in Front of President Aristide’s Home in Tabarre. “I am hungry!” (Photo by John Carroll–October 25, 2015)

And then it was on to Lycée Jacques voting center in Croix des Bouquets. The security here seemed pretty intimidating with the seated Haitian National Police combined with different levels of SWAT teams…BRI, CIMO, and BOID. (These are all acronyms for various Haitian SWAT teams going from bad, to real bad, to crush-your-face bad.)

Lycee Jacques Voting Center–Croix-des-Bouquets–October 25, 2015 (Photo by John Carroll)

Again, there were too many people allowed inside this voting center. There were UN tents set up in the courtyard where people could get out of the sun and actually vote. But so many people were distracting as they hung around inside the center laughing and totally loving this organized attempt to accomplish one’s civic duties.

The election centers in Haiti mercifully closed at 4 PM. Haitian leaders thanked people for the relative calm. It sure seemed calm to me especially compared to legislative elections on August 9.  Mesi bondye.

But I am sure some “irregularities” occurred. I am sure some intimidation occurred. And where was MINUSTSAH in Soleil at Lycée Soleil voting center? I sure did not see them. And guess who the people in Soleil would have been voting for?

The Miami Herald reported, “United Nations security forces reported that 224 people were arrested, including a candidate for the lower chamber of Deputies and two Haiti National Police officers. Firearms were seized and there were no reported election-related fatalities.”

Now the votes have to be counted and transported. Or do they transport them first? I don’t know. But I do know that this will be pivotal to do this right. 

(Photo by John Carroll–October 25, 2015)

And as the Miami Herald reports,” As the counting gets under way, that will be the true test of how the elections were and whether the election-related violence many envisioned actually takes place.”

John A. Carroll, MD

www.haitianhearts.org

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