Protestors trampling underfoot a large campaign photo of Jude Celestin, handpicked candidate of President Rene Preval for the November 28 presidential election. Haiti's corrupt electoral commission attempted to shoehorn Celestin into office but the vast majority would have none of it as they turned out in massive protests against election fraud.

To hear it all, one would think that the Haitian electoral fraud happened yesterday. In fact, the fraud went down many months ago, when a corrupt electoral comission (CEP) with U.S., Canadian and French financial backing, banned the most popular political party Lavalas from the elections.

People tearing down electoral posters with images of presidential candidate Jude Celestin during a protest against the upcoming elections in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Without exception, all 18 candidates who ran for the presidency were party to the fraud. Should we be sorry that 13 of this gang were double-crossed? Yes, the polling places opened late and closed early. Yes, the ballot boxes were stuffed. Yes, the voters who supported Celestin were not marked in ink to prevent multiple votes. Yes, hundreds of thousands of potential voters failed to receive their ID cards. Yes, many voters, and even one presidential candidate, were turned away from the polls because their names had been scrubbed from the rolls. Yes, MINUSTAH (the UN) displayed Jude Celestin’s banners even while supposedly monitoring the election. Then again, the UN is monitoring the cholera epidemic that it started. So why shouldn’t we expect more kaka?

For months, Haitians have protested against this farce and paid for it with their lives. Over 90% of the potential voters failed to show up at the polls, not for lack of transportation but rather due to their possession of the facts and their native intelligence. Summing it up, if Lavalas cannot participate in the election, then the election is a fraud.

Let us be clear, the people of Haiti are not responding to calls from the gang of crooked candidates. It is the crooked candidates who are attempting to hijack a popular movement.  The anti-election protests we see on Haiti's streets are not "riots":  a term favored by the corporate media.  The Haitians who gather daily to make public their rejection of the fraudulent election are not "mobs".  What we are seeing is an organized nationwide response in the form of a powerful and rapidly developing resistance against Washington's puppet government and the UN occupation. The people's mandate is revolution, and it is permanent.

One of the many election centers destroyed by hundreds of thousands of Haitians who turned out not to vote - but to resist and stop the fraudulent, U.S.-backed elections.

The following AlJazeera video also shows what Haitians really think of the elections.

Read her bio and more essays by Haitian Author,
Dady Chery on Axis of Logic

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