Haiti President: We Need International Aid To Hold Elections

BRASILIA, Brazil — Haiti's leader on Monday called for an influx of international aid to organize elections this year as the impoverished Caribbean country rebuilds from the January earthquake that devastated the capital.

President Rene Preval made the comments after meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the close of a meeting of Caribbean leaders. Preval said aid specific to elections is needed from Brazil and the rest of the international community.

Two elections had been scheduled this year before the quake ravaged Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. Legislative elections planned for February were canceled, but no decision has been announced on the presidential contest set for the fall.

Haiti's current constitution bars Preval from seeking re-election. His five-year term ends next February and he has vowed to step down.

Antonio Patriota, Brazil's vice minister for external relations, said his government will consult with the United Nations, the Organization of American States and other countries to support elections in Haiti.

Comments

[diamond83]

10:25 AM on 04/27/2010

He needs money to elect his wife as President. That's the talk in town. His Sl**Ty wife wants to be President now.

[teqminsky]

09:13 AM on 04/27/2010

If there really is going to be the organization of elections, some mechanism, be it quota or whatever MUST insure that women are represented. Women are woefully absent from the political process in terms of elected officials and this is not because of lack of interest or qualifications. Haiti has a plethora of competent women. The political culture as such discourages and sometimes punishes women who get involved. This lack of inclusion must be addressed.

[den1953]

08:35 AM on 04/27/2010

Is Haiti asking to be a US territory or do they just need money?

[escobar]

08:18 AM on 04/27/2010

He means he needs money.
He was placed there after the US got rid of Aristide and demands payment to maintain power.
He will get it.
Nobody in power cares about the people, it is all about control and cheap labor as the land is used by foreign corporations.

[Kevin Atlanta]

08:06 AM on 04/27/2010

Preval and Lula doing a duet for more international money; go figure...

[Snarkyone]

07:57 AM on 04/27/2010

How much more help do these people need! For phucks sake people get your act together we can't save you every other day.

[ZSV]

07:42 AM on 04/27/2010

Where is the roughly .5 billion that was donated right after the disaster ?

[ThatsTheTheWayItIs]

08:35 AM on 04/27/2010

Where is the $15B in cash we loaded into airplanes and dumped into Iraq?
Answer: no one knows where it went; a lot went to insurgents.
But that's different, right?

I've heard the conservative line: the only legitimate purpose of government is killing people. Excuse me: "defense".

That applies here in the US, and of course overseas.
We'd spend a trillion dollars to invade Haiti, but not a billion to help.
Makes you proud to be an American (not).

[ZSV]

09:18 AM on 04/27/2010

I was also referring to the fact that the group with the largest donations decided to send less than 1/4 of the money they received so far, opting to send the rest later.
- after they made a shitload off investing it
- after the American companies get in there to rip them off like in New Orleans

I WILL NEVER DONATE MONEY AGAIN AFTER HEARING THAT THEY
"DECIDED" TO SEND IT LATER WHILE BODIES WHERE PILING UP AND
PEOPLE WERE STARVING IN THE STREETS

ALL FOR MONEY NONE FOR ALL

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

06:28 AM on 04/27/2010

What Haiti needs is a ONE-CHILD policy enforced just as is done in the PRC!

[rougebaisers]

05:55 AM on 04/27/2010

His people are living in wretched squalor and he needs aid for an election? WTF??????

[meslippers]

08:07 PM on 04/27/2010

Preval says Haiti needs aid for an election because they'll need the money to cover up the undemocratic activities of the US/international community in Haiti.
Recent elections were boycotted by "Operation Closed Door" because Preval's electoral council refused to include the largest political party in Haiti which resulted in a 6-11% turnout (depending on the source who reported). Mrs. Clinton however gave her blessing to the incomplete array of candidates. They will need money to continue promulgating the illusion that Haiti is a sovereign nation rather a Republic of NGOs headed by a man who betrayed the trust of his country.

[Siebenstein]

05:16 AM on 04/27/2010

Elections ????????

You are kiddin Mr. President, right?

How about housing and food first?

[cream puff]

02:55 AM on 04/27/2010

Haiti and Mexico are going to have to act like real nations at some point instead of putting their problems on everyone else.

[wdw505]

03:35 AM on 04/27/2010

agreed .......even before the earthquake haiti was a poorly run country.......

[meslippers]

05:24 AM on 04/27/2010

Haiti and Mexico should "act like real nations?"
We invaded Haiti in 1915, rewrote their constitution, reinstated slavery and created an army to ensure this new "order." Ever since we've created their problems or ensured that they remain in the form of dictators we support, economic policies that bankrupted their state, "aid" that flooded their markets with rice and bankrupted their farmers, etc. Not to mention death squad leaders on the US taxpayer funded payroll (Toto Constant and FRAPH, 1991-1994).
Perhaps the US could act like a real nation and educate itself about its own foreign policies and solve its own problems sustainably rather than putting them on everyone else.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

06:24 AM on 04/27/2010

Perhaps, you should come out of your delusory fantacy(sp?) and acknowledge that Haiti has been INDEPENDENT as a nation almost as long as the U.S. but has remained a cesspool of ignorance, corruption, oppression, and OVERPOPULATION for 200 years. Haiti must change INTERNALLY if it is to improve. Taiwan, an island, was undeveloped as little as 100 years ago. Look at it now! Oh, yes, it also was a Japanese colony from about 1895 until 1945....

Most of your so-called arguments are apocryphal....at best!

[goddessNdiva]

08:49 AM on 04/27/2010

Fanned.

Unfortunately, you can teach world history to a people who are ignorant about their own foreign policies.

Bush overthrows the FIRST democratically elected president of Haiti and still some will say that Haiti is an INDEPENDENT nation.

Go figure.

[IGNSTHMD]

02:53 AM on 04/27/2010

how do I help?

[SecretSister]

02:19 AM on 04/27/2010

I hesitate to give my money to "politicians" in Haiti when so many of the Haitian people still do NOT have clean water, food, and shelter yet.

[Siebenstein]

05:16 AM on 04/27/2010

agreed

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

06:26 AM on 04/27/2010

Your money will be quickly recycled to a bank in either Florida, Bermuda, or Panama..... Haiti's "political class" knows no other way.......to finance their escape to permanent exile in luxury....!!!!

[brijo731]

01:51 AM on 04/27/2010

Elections in Haiti?? That is hilarious.

[wdw505]

03:36 AM on 04/27/2010

agreed