Haitian Presidential Candidates

Here is the current list of candidates who have submitted to the CEP

Jacques-Edouard Alexis Yvon Neptune

Axan Abellard Charles Henry Baker

Charles Voigt Chavannes Jeune

Claire Lydie Parent Dejean Belizaire

Duroseau Vilaire Cluny Eric Charles

Francois Turnier Garaudy Laguerre

Gary Guiteau Genard Joseph

Gerard Blot Guy Theodore

Jacques Philippe Eugene Jean Bertin

Jean Hector Anacacis Jean Henry Ceant

Josette Bijou Jude Celestin

Kesnel Dalmacy Lavarice Gaudin

Leon Jeune Leslie Voltaire

Mario Eddy Rodriguez Menelas Vilsaint

Michel Martelly Mirlande Manigat

Olicier Pieriche Raymond Joseph

Rene Saint-Fort Wilkens C. Gilles

Wilson Jeudy Wyclef Jean

Yves Christalin Paul Arthur Fleurival

Jude Celestin

Jude Celestin... candidat INITE aux pr?sidentielles condamn? pour vol et fraude aux Etats Unis

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. JUDE CELESTIN, Defendant, Appellant.


No. 09-1161.


United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.


July 14, 2010.



Before Torruella, Lipez, and Howard, Circuit Judges.


TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.


Jude Celestin was convicted by a jury for bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. See 18 U.S.C. ?? 1344 and 371. He appeals that conviction on multiple grounds.
.

Next, Celestin argues that his due process rights were violated by the government's failure to turn over exculpatory evidence prior to the trial. See Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963).

Finally, Celestin claims that the district court improperly instructed the jury regarding an essential element of bank fraud.

We have carefully considered these claims; finding no error, we affirm.


I. Background


A. Facts[ 1 ]


Burdley Jean, a former employee of Fleet Bank (now Bank of America), devised a scheme to steal money from customer bank accounts using counterfeit checks. Jean targeted several banks in New England, including Fleet, Sovereign Bank, and Citizens Bank. He recruited bank insiders to provide him with customer account information (such as account numbers, balances, and customer names), which Jean used to create counterfeit checks. Jean recruited other individuals to act as "runners" who would cash or deposit these counterfeit checks. All told, conspiracy members wrote bogus checks totaling in excess of $1 million.


Celestin, an account manager at Fleet's South Shore Plaza branch, was one of the bank insiders recruited by Jean. On twenty-two days over a six-month period, Celestin used his unique operator identification number ("OPID") to improperly access fourteen customer accounts, many of which had no relationship to his branch. Shortly after Celestin accessed each account, runners would begin cashing counterfeit checks against the account.


Bank records introduced at trial showed that, on certain occasions, Celestin's OPID access of these accounts was interspersed with access of his own checking account. Celestin's time and attendance records also confirmed that he was working at the bank on the days and at the times when his OPID was used to access the defrauded accounts, with one exception: on October 6, 2004, the records showed Celestin working from 4:45 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. (the bank's late shift, which was his default schedule), but his OPID records showed him accessing accounts from 10:51 a.m. to 12:58 p.m. (roughly, the early shift, which he occasionally worked). Celestin's OPID records showed no activity between 4:45 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. on that day. The bank's computer system listed the evening shift as Celestin's default work time, and bank employees testified that the records would only have reflected a different time if Celestin had manually changed it.


In November 2004, FBI agents visited Celestin's office and questioned him about his role in the scheme. They showed him the OPID records documenting that he had accessed the defrauded accounts. Celestin admitted that he accessed the accounts, but stated that he did so only after the accounts had been defrauded. When the agents presented him with evidence that this was not true, Celestin changed his story. He explained that, at least with respect to one particular account, a representative had given him permission to access the account. Celestin was unable to explain why he had accessed the other defrauded accounts.


...LEGAL DISCUSSION OMITTED
III. Conclusion


For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court's judgment.


Affirmed.

Yvon Neptune

Former Prime Minister under
Aristide -- has the support of the Aristide team in the US

(one of whom writes)

July 23rd, 2008
IACHR Denounces Haitian Government for Political Persecution of Yvon Neptune

By: Joe Emersberger - HaitiAnalysis

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has made public a 60-page denunciation of the political persecution that Yvon Neptune, a former Prime Minister of Haiti, has endured at the hands of the Haitian government for the past four years. "From the beginning, the State failed its obligation to protect Mr. Neptune's right to be heard by a court competent to hear the charges against him, as well as to an effective recourse," the IACHR ruled. It concluded that Haiti has violated 11 different provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights by imprisoning Neptune and keeping the case hanging over his head two years after his release from prison. Whether such high profile and detailed criticism (first made public in June) will finally end Yvon Neptune's legal battles remains to be seen.

The IACHR's binding decision was that the Haitian government must immediately serve an appeals court order that would help end Neptune's four year legal nightmare, but six weeks after the IACHR ruling, the order remains unserved. The IACHR also gave Haiti a year to pay $95,000 USD in costs and damages to Neptune, and two years to drastically improve prison conditions in Haiti. The Haitian government's silence and inaction has prompted Neptune to cautiously speak out about his precarious legal situation.

Yvon Neptune served as Prime Minister of Haiti from 2002-2004 in the democratically elected government of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide. After Haiti's February 29, 2004 coup d'?tat, the unelected Interim Government of Haiti (IGH), backed by the UN Security Council, assumed power for two years and imprisoned hundreds of political opponents, especially officials and supporters of the Famni Lavalas (FL) party founded by Aristide. It also stacked the judiciary and police with its loyalists.

Neptune's plight began on June 27, 2004, when he turned himself in to the police after hearing on the radio that an arrest warrant had been issued against him. He was accused of participating in the "La Scierie Massacre," an alleged attack by Lavalas supporters in the La Scierie neighborhood of St.Marc. Two years after the arrest, the Haitian Appeals Court prosecutor conceded that there was no credible evidence of Neptune's involvement. Nevertheless, Neptune would spend 25 months in prison, including nearly a year in the National Penitentiary which is notorious for its appalling conditions. The case against Neptune collapsed further when subsequent investigations, including one by the United Nations, concluded that the "La Scierie Massacre" was in fact a battle between two armed groups, with casualties on both sides.

In July of 2006, two months after a democratically elected government finally took over from the IGH, Yvon Neptune was granted provisional release for health reasons. The presidential election of 2006 was won by Rene Preval in a stunning rebuke to those who backed the coup of 2004, including the UN Security Council. Like Neptune, Preval was a former Prime Minister under Aristide. Repression against Lavalas eased after the election, but the impact of the IGH continues to make itself felt.

The charges against Yvon Neptune remain in force to this day because the Preval administration has refused to serve a Haitian appeals court order that finally dismissed the case in April of 2007. The Preval government told the IACHR that it does not have the power to serve the appeals court order (without clearly specifying who did have the power). The IACHR dismissed the government's argument out of hand. "Officials serve appeals court orders every day." explained Brian Concannon, Yvon Neptune's lawyer before the IACHR, "The government could easily do that tomorrow."

While Yvon Neptune continues to be hounded for his noninvolvement in a debunked "massacre", he is better off than his codefendant, Ronald Dauphin, who is still in prison after four years, with no trial scheduled.

Father Gerard Jean-Juste, another prominent Lavalas activist who became a political prisoner under the IGH, did not have charges against him dropped until June, more than two years after Preval's election.

Why have Lavalas activists been persecuted years after an election that should have put an end to their troubles? A compelling explanation was offered by US journalist and filmmaker Kevin Pina who lived and worked in Haiti for years:

"After initially boycotting the elections, Lavalas finally supports Preval's candidacy in 2006 with clearly stated objectives in mind. First and foremost was to stop the relentless political repression and persecution they suffered after Aristide was ousted in February of 2004. Secondly, they wanted to free all of the Lavalas political prisoners..., lastly but equally important, was their call for the return of Aristide from exile. None of these demands have been fully realized because Preval was eventually saddled with what the UN and the international community tout as a 'coalition government'. This concept of 'coalition' forced Preval to abandon the demands of his electorate...."

Under pressure from the US and its allies, Preval's government appointments included prominent supporters of the coup and the IGH - people like Raymond Joseph, who remained Haiti's ambassador to the US, Maggy Durce, Minister of Commerce, and Marie-Laurence Jocelyne Lassegue, Women's Condition Ministry.

There were also major problems with the elections that were finally held in 2006. Aside from the widespread repression of Lavalas supporters and leaders, compelling evidence of fraud intended to block Preval's victory emerged during the presidential election. A shortage of voting centers, especially in Lavalas strongholds, also imposed major sacrifices on Haiti's poorest voters. At the presidential level these barriers were overcome by Preval's name recognition and the sheer determination of his supporters - who staged massive protests when evidence of fraud surfaced. However, at the legislative level the repressive tactics of the IGH deprived Preval of significant parliamentary support. In fact, Preval was forced to mount a remarkably low key campaign in order to avoid violence against his supporters - something lesser known candidates could not afford to do.

Brian Concannon has argued "IGH holdovers in the executive branch may be less important than the ones in the judiciary." His point is underscored by the fact that Judge Cluny Pierre Jules, who played major role in the persecution of Yvon Neptune, is an IGH appointee who remains on the bench, as does Judge Peres-Paul, responsible for the imprisonment of Father Gerard Jean-Juste.

Aside from IGH appointed judges, the vehemently anti-Lavalas Haitian human rights group, the National Network for the Defense of Human Right (RNDDH), relentlessly pursued Yvon Neptune. Led by Pierre Esperance, RNDDH has received over a hundred thousand dollars from the Canadian government since 2004 while it was still known as the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR). The funding requests to Ottawa explicitly budgeted for the prosecution of Yvon Neptune and his codefendants. During an earlier period NCHR was funded by the US government through its New York office. In March of 2004, the IGH formally agreed to arrest anyone that Pierre Esperance's group denounced as a criminal. The warrant issued against Yvon Neptune listed all the allegations that RNDDH made against him. RNDDH not only opposed Yvon Neptune's provisional release in 2006, it even objected to special medical provisions which were made for him while he was incarcerated. RNDDH did not reply to a request made by HaitiAnalysis for a comment on the IACHR ruling. However, an RNDDH representative was quoted in the July 11 issue of The Nouvelliste, a Haitian Newspaper, stressing that the IACHR did not rule on the truth or falsehood of the allegations made against Yvon Neptune. However, RNDDH have never produced a formal report substantiating its allegations against Neptune and others, or even a list of the names of the alleged victims in St. Marc, despite requests made the head of the UN Human Rights Commission in Haiti

By telephone, Yvon Neptune told HaitiAnalysis that he found the IACHR ruling "encouraging" but that he "would not venture to guess" why the Preval administration has still not served the court order dismissing the case. Neptune recalled a "strange" and "misinformed" public statement that Preval made in September of 2007 in which the President claimed that the Haitian Senate would fulfill its responsibilities over the case. Neptune explained that under the Haitian constitution the Chamber of Deputies must first decide if allegations against a high public official are serious enough to warrant referral to the Senate which then functions as a special court to try the case. If the Preval Administration finally serves the appeals court order dismissing the case against Neptune then the State Prosecutor or any of the plaintiffs could possibly choose to appeal to Haiti's Supreme Court. They would have five days to do so or the case would be closed for good.

Asked if a shift in Preval's loyalties has taken place since the election of 2006, Neptune acknowledged that "many facts raise serious questions" about Preval's commitment to the people who elected him. However, Neptune hastened to add that he cannot answer those "serious questions" with any degree of confidence. Neptune stressed that he has been very isolated from public life even after his release from prison and that he can only use media reports to judge Preval's actions. Is the lingering repression against Lavalas leaders aimed at keeping Aristide out of Haiti? Neptune's answer is that there are certainly people "within the machinery of government" who would resort to that.

Brian Concannon believes that Haiti is slowly rebuilding but that the damage done by the IGH to the judiciary and police will take five to ten years to repair. Asked if the IACHR's decision will finally prompt the dismissal of the case against Yvon Neptune, Concannon replied "I would be surprised if the government does not at least serve the order soon. Then again, I am surprised they didn't do it 15 months ago."

Charles Baker

By RENE BRUEMMER, The Gazette June 5, 2010 12:53 PM

"There are three million farming families in Haiti," Charles Henri Baker, a leading candidate in Haiti's coming elections, told The Gazette. "The textile sector, to which I belong ... could create 100,000, maybe 200,000 jobs. Agriculture can create three million jobs, bring down the cost of living and decentralize the four million people living in and around Port-au-Prince. ... They could go back to their villages and lead positive lives, rather than stay in Port-au-Prince and just barely make a living."

If $1 billion of the $11 billion pledged by international donors was put toward agriculture, the world could "watch Haiti not only feed itself, but export billions," he said.

Haiti might finally get the type of funding Baker espouses in his political platform. After decades during which the country's agricultural base was decimated by political instability and mismanagement, environmental destruction and foreign interference that preached the salvation of free-market economies, the idea of rebuilding the country from the soil up and giving Haiti the means to once again feed itself by transferring resources to farmers is gaining ground.

Much of the impetus comes from January's earthquake that killed upwards of 230,000 people, mainly in the shoddy, multi-storey buildings of the congested capital. Hundreds of thousands fled the city to find shelter in their rural homelands, and are now desperate for work and food.

After decades of poorly managed foreign assistance that has seen Haitians attaining a lower standard of living than they did 30 years ago, there is hope the recent spotlight cast on Haiti's misery can lead to an organized system of managing the aid and finally shifting development away from Port-au-Prince and to the regions where the majority live.

But then there's the reality of a farmer like Roland Hyppolite, an engineer who also has degrees in management and agricultural development. Hyppolite moved back to his homeland of Lascahobas in Haiti's breadbasket Central Plateau region four years ago. He was 52, and decided it was time to leave Port-au-Prince to feed his inner spirit and his country, earn a better salary than he earned as executive director of the Haitian-Canadian Chamber of Commerce and give his five children the happy rural childhood he remembers.

Hyppolite soon discovered, however, that farming in Haiti is not as easy as throwing a few seeds in the ground and watching them grow. There were few customers for his peppers, no decent roads to transport produce to market, no electricity for refrigerated storage. He had to lay off some of his staff of four after his first year. It wasn't until he joined forces with other farmers and had the good fortune to find a Quebec-based distributor on the web, at the one Internet caf? in his town of 53,000, that his future grew less tenuous.

While it can be rewarding - Hyppolite estimates a successful farmer with a hectare of peppers can make $10,000 in a season on the local market, 20 times the average per capita income - roadblocks are numerous.

"You have to have courage" to be a farmer in Haiti, he said last week via cellphone, roosters crowing in the background.

If this is the experience of a former engineer with degrees from universities in Haiti, the U.S. and Puerto Rico who has some savings and land, what hope is there for the millions of destitute peasant farmers who depend on agriculture for survival? And how many Haitians who have had a taste of city life want to return to a countryside where health care and education for their children are non-existent, to toil in the fields?

- - -

Charles Henri Baker is a controversial figure in Haiti. So light skinned he appears white, he is the owner of a garment factory where 750 employees sew medical uniforms that are exported worldwide. Born in Haiti and with a degree in business administration from a Florida university, he lapses frequently into Creole during speeches as if to substantiate the Haitian roots his skin colour puts into question. He finished third in Haiti's 2006 presidential vote, and is seen as a possible front-runner in the elections slated for November. A member of the country's well-heeled business elite that makes up one per cent of its population but controls more than 50 per cent of its wealth, Baker's critics accuse him being a "sweatshop industrialist" who profited from Haiti's cheap labour base and is now pandering to the massive rural vote.

But Baker was also a successful farmer in the 1980s, and his platform of agricultural reform reflects a growing vision for Haiti's rebirth.

"What's essential is agrarian reform which would allow us to make peasants the masters and the managers of their own land," Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, executive director of the Peasant Movement of Papay in the Central Plateau region, told the Toward Freedom grassroots media group in March. "Along with land we need credit, technical assistance and markets to sell our products." Jean-Baptiste and others call for "food sovereignty" that focuses on local food production for local consumption and the protection of local markets with tariffs on food imports.
_________________

Mirlande Manigat

Wife of former Prime Minister, Leslie Manigat -- considered a leading intellectual - Mirlande was a candidate against Preval last time. She is a leader in speaking out on the reality of life for Haitian women.

\UNHCR | Refworld | Haiti: The Assembly of Progressive National Democrats (Rassemblement des dmocrates nationaux progressistes, RDNP) party; the socio-economic and geographic areas of Haiti that support it; the part of the country its elected members

1-* Axan Delson ABELLARD *, Parti ?Konbit Nasyonal pour Devlopman,
2-*Jacques-Edouard ALEXIS *, Mobilisation pour le Progr?s d'Ha?ti,
3- *Jean-Hector ANACACIS *,Mouvement D?mocratique de la Jeunesse Haitienne,
4*- Charles Henry Jean-Marie BAKER *, Resp?,
5- *Dr. Josette BIJOU *, Ind?pendant,
6- *Dr.G?rard BLOT *, Platf?m 16 D?sanm ,
7- *Me. Jean Henry C?ANT *, Parti ?Renmen Ayiti,
8- *Jude C?LESTIN *, Parti? INITE,
9- *Eric CHARLES *, PRNH,
10- *Yves CHRISTALLIN *, Parti Oganizasyon Lavni ? (LAVNI),
11-* Wilson JEUDY *, ? F?s 2010 ? (Force 2010),
12- * Jean Chavannes JEUNE (pasteur*),
Parti ? Alliance chr?tienne citoyenne pour la reconstruction d'Ha?t,
13-*L?on JEUNE*, Parti Konbit Liberation Ekonomik,
14 ? *G?nard JOSEPH*, Parti Solidarit?,
15- *Garaudy LAGUERRE*, Mouvman Wozo,
16- * Mirlande Hyppolite MANIGAT*, Parti ? Rassemblement des D?mocrates Nationaux
Progressistes,
17- *Michel MARTELLY*, Parti ? Repons peyizan ? (R?ponse
des paysans),
18- * Yvon NEPTUNE*, Parti ? Ayisyen pou Ayiti,
19- * Leslie VOLTAIRE*, Plateforme Ansanm Nou Fo.

RonS said:

Now that Wyclef has been disqualified, which of the remaining candidates have the best chance of winning this election?

Click to expand...

Right now the internet buzz from the Diaspora (which cannot vote) is about Jude Celestin, who is Preval's designated candidate - and trying to discern whether he is or is not the Celestin cited in the allegations of fraud.

Most of the others have little name recognition which is all important. Neptune, Manigat, Charlie Baker and Alexis are the best known. Neptune has ties to Aristide and Lavalas and so will be loved and hated perhaps in equal measure.

Unfair and undemocratic
The Miami Herald, BY IRA J. KURZBAN, Posted on Wednesday, 09.08.10




Imagine if the Federal Election Commission in the United States
disqualified the Democratic and Republican parties from the 2012
presidential election and declared that only candidates of minor parties
could run. No one would consider it a fair election, and certainly the
people of the United States would rise up, claiming the election is
unconstitutional and undemocratic.

Yet the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Haiti on
Nov. 28 are just that -- unfair, unconstitutional and undemocratic. The
country's Provisional Electoral Council, which itself is not
constitutionally composed, is refusing to allow the country's majority party
-- Famni Lavalas (Lavalas Family) -- to participate in the election.
Thirteen other legitimate political parties are also being excluded from
parliamentary elections.

The Famni Lavalas Party, headed by former President Jean Bertrand
Aristide, won the last democratic election it was allowed to participate in
by overwhelming margins. In May 2000, when President Ren? Pr?val was in his
first term, the party won virtually all the seats in the lower house of
Parliament, the state houses and local governments. It won most of the seats
in the Haitian Senate and the presidency. Since the February 2004 coup,
Famni Lavalas has been banned from participating in Haitian politics.


The current Provisional Electoral Council, hand-picked by President Pr?val,
has fabricated a new eligibility requirement to disqualify Famni Lavalas
from the presidential elections. This new rule requires that the head of
each party register presidential candidates in person.

President Aristide, however, is exiled in South Africa where a tacit
agreement between many governments keeps him there. While the great powers
have maintained a code of silence concerning Aristide and his right to
return to his own country, they are feverishly working, with the complicity
of the South African government, to ensure that he does not return. At the
same time, the government of Haiti has refused to renew Aristide's passport
to allow him to return to Haiti to register his party.

These political maneuvers are not lost on Haiti's people. While the
mainstream media in the United States focuses on whether Wyclef Jean may run
for president or what Sean Penn thinks of Jean's candidacy, the Haitian
people refuse to play the fool. Indeed, they know the presidential election
that will be imposed on them has nothing to do with democracy.

They will, as they did in 2005, only support a presidential candidate who
will bring Aristide and Famni Lavalas back to the Haitian electoral system.
With Famni Lavalas out of the race, the election will have extremely low
turnout, which international ``authorities'' will predictably say is ``the
best one can expect'' given the earthquake.

The result is a faux election that will have lasting consequences for
Haiti and the international community.

It will undermine the stated goal of the United States and its allies to
achieve ``stability'' in Haiti, and it will undermine the legitimacy and
sustainability of a central Haitian government that is not elected by, but
for, the people.

In a report to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Richard
Lugar, R-Ind., called upon President Pr?val to restructure the Provisional
Electoral Council and ensure the participation of opposition parties,
including Famni Lavalas. Without this, Lugar argued, the November elections
will lack credibility. Lugar warned, ``The absence of democratically elected
successors could potentially plunge the country into chaos.''

Fair, inclusive elections -- that include the participation of Famni
Lavalas and other legitimate political parties and respect for the right of
all exiles to return, including Aristide -- are essential for establishing a
Haitian government with the legitimacy and capacity to effectively manage
the country's reconstruction. Settling for elections that are less than fair
and inclusive might seem expedient in the short term, but in the mid- and
long-term accepting flawed elections will ensure civil strife and political
controversy. It will imperil international community investments in Haiti
while leaving the country vulnerable to the next natural, economic or
political disaster.

If we believe in spreading democracy throughout the world, it is
difficult to understand the code of silence by the United States and other
nations that support the disenfranchisement of the Haitian people by
eliminating the majority party in the election.

Ira J. Kurzban was the general counsel in the United States for the
Republic of Haiti for 13 years during the Aristide and first Pr?val
administrations.

According to a second survey of 5990 people around the country by Brides (?)
as to who they would vote for as President,
the results are as follows:

THIS IS FOR THE WHOLE COUNTRY - there are differences in different depts.

Mirlande Manigat - 23.1%
Charles Baker - 17.3
Michel Martelly - 17.1
Jacques Alexis - 8.1
Chavannes Jeune - 7.8
Jude Celestin - 7.8
Yvon Neptune -2.1
Wilson Jeudy 1.5


(results in French - report is 92 pages)

Mirlande Manigat, Jude C?lestin lead in Haiti's presidential race, poll says
The Miami Herald, By JACQUELINE CHARLES, Posted on Wednesday, 10.27.10



PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Two front-runners have emerged from a field of 19 in
Haiti's upcoming presidential balloting, according to a poll released
Tuesday by the country's business community.

Former first lady and longtime opposition leader Mirlande Manigat and
Jude C?lestin, President Ren? Pr?val's handpicked successor, are
neck-and-neck in the race.

Also, if the elections scheduled for Nov. 28 were held today, Pr?val's
INITE platform would win the majority of 11 seats up for grabs in the
Senate, according to the poll.


Among voters with electoral cards, Manigat had 23.1 percent while C?lestin,
the former head of the government reconstruction agency, was second with
21.3 percent. But for likely voters, the two are closer: 23.2 percent for
Manigat and 22.5 for C?lestin, according to the poll.

``The people who are for C?lestin are more likely to go vote for him than
the people who say they are for Manigat,'' said Reginald Boulos, chairman of
the Economic Forum of the Private Sector, the business group that sponsored
the poll.

The polls show that while Pr?val and his supporters still control parts
of the base, they are weakened and ``they will have to fight for it,''
Boulos said.

The national poll of 6,000 Haitians had a margin of error of plus or minus
1.27 percent. It began Oct. 13, two days before the launch of the public
campaign during which candidates are allowed to hold public rallies and run
TV and radio ads. The final day of polling was Oct. 20.

This is the second poll released by the Forum, and the third done by the
firm in recent weeks on Haiti's presidential and legislative elections. The
final poll will be released three days before the elections.

It shows that both Manigat and C?lestin -- he at a higher rate -- are the
beneficiaries of an increasing number of previously undecided voters who are
now making up their minds. Undecideds have dropped from 22.4 percent to 7
percent in the poll.

Still, many Haitians remain unexcited about the vote as demonstrated by the
lukewarm atmosphere at many of the public rallies, including one last week
by Pr?val's INITE platform. To date, it has attracted the largest crowds
with more than 20,000 mostly young voters coming to a park in
Croix-des-Bouquets to hear candidates, including C?lestin, a low-key
technocrat who rarely speaks in public.

In a distant third is kompa music star Michel ``Sweet Micky'' Martelly.
Previously tied with industrialist Charles Henri Baker, he leads among
voters in Port-au-Prince despite hundreds of thousand of dollars of INITE
billboards and posters looming over the broken capital.

Still, it remains a two-person race between Manigat and C?lestin. Last
week, Manigat won the endorsement of a group of powerful and well-known
Haitian senators with the network to win her some support in areas where she
is weak.

But observers say it also remains one where the dynamics can change as
candidates appear at more speaking engagements, and alliances are formed.
Also, there are potential spoilers and possible kingmakers, including
Martelly and hip-hop star Wyclef Jean.

Jean, who was banned from running by the electoral council, remains highly
sought after by both camps and has yet to make up his mind.

Also, a closer look at how the candidates are doing in Haiti's 10 regions
shows the struggle on the ground for C?lestin and Pr?val. The platform is
split with some members campaigning for INITE parliamentarian candidates,
but not C?lestin, the party's official presidential choice.

Instead, they are throwing their weight behind former Pr?val Prime
Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis, the assumed heir apparent until he quit the
party in the face of objections to his selection by a number of INITE
senators.

As a result, in places like the rural northern town of Dondon, both
C?lestin and Alexis are tied in first place among voters.

And in the Artibonite, where Alexis is from, there are the ``friends of
Jude'' versus INITE.

Whether the opposition will be able to take advantage of the division and
stop the party from winning both the presidency and parliament remains the
question among candidates and observers.

With the election seemed poised for a second round -- the first since
Haiti ushered in democracy in 1987 -- Boulos said ``it's healthy what's
happening.''

``There is fatigue . . . people want change. This is a natural effect of
politics,'' he said, adding that while Pr?val and his supporters show they
still control the base, ``they will have to fight for it.''

From faceless to favored for Haiti candidate

BY TRENTON DANIEL
tdaniel@MiamiHerald.com


TRENTON DANIEL / Miami Herald Staff
Presidential candidate Jude Celestin is surrounded by supporters at a rally in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, on Oct. 21, 2010.
Until Jude C?lestin showed up in a Port-au-Prince suburb in August to register as a candidate for the presidency, few knew his face.
He isn't one to frequent the posh restaurants in the hills above this capital city. He has the reputation of a loner. He's a reclusive technocrat in a crowded presidential field that includes a music star once fond of performing in drag, a former first lady, a prime minister sacked twice, and an industrialist who helped fan a coup.

The former head of the government's road-building company, he's credited with building miles of roads that reach peasants in isolated villages, but for the most part the job kept him outside the public eye.

However, since President Ren? Pr?val tapped him as his heir apparent in Haiti's Nov. 28 election, C?lestin's profile has risen. He is now considered one of the front-runners.

``He's still pretty much a mystery man to me,'' said Robert Maguire, a longtime Haiti scholar at Trinity University in Washington, D.C. ``If Pr?val didn't anoint him as the hopeful successor . . . I don't think C?lestin would be involved in the election as a candidate.''

But Haitians have begun to learn about him as he hits the campaign trail. At an October rally in the scrappy suburb of Croix-des-Bouquets, thousands showed up. Many wore C?lestin's signature green-and-yellow T-shirts.

``We know the poor are very frustrated,'' said C?lestin, a 48-year-old divorced father of three. ``But we don't want you to remain frustrated.''

He promised his administration would provide education, build technical schools and create jobs. Political stability would be essential to realizing those goals, he added.

A week later, Haiti saw another side of C?lestin when he participated in a televised debate with two rival candidates. In his opening remarks, he introduced himself in the third-person.

``Jude C?lestin is a man who is discreet -- a man not of the media,'' he said. ``What's important to say is he's a hard worker, an investor who invests in Haiti and outside.''

C?lestin and his campaign managers rebuffed repeated requests from The Miami Herald for an interview.

Finally reached on his cellphone, C?lestin said: ``I'm campaigning right now. I'm stopping everywhere to talk to people.''

Those who know him say C?lestin is indeed a workaholic.

Through the years, he has acquired a reputation as a hyper-focused man who often begins the workday before dawn and doesn't leaving his office until night. His industriousness is sometimes a source of amusement.

``Sponsor of my marriage, he arrives late,'' sister Rita Rancy toldLeNouvelliste, a Haitian newspaper. ``He almost led me to the altar in boots and overalls.''

HIS BACKGROUND

C?lestin was born June 19, 1962, the son of a mother from Grand-Gosier and a father from Jacmel -- both coastal towns in southeastern Haiti. Raised in a family of teachers, he grew up in Bois Verna, a middle-class neighborhood in Port-au-Prince known for its gingerbread-style architecture and abundance of schools, and studied at College Fernand Prosper.

FAMILY TIES

The family had ties to the Duvalier dynasty. His uncle, Rony Gilot, is a former information minister under Jean-Claude ``Baby Doc'' Duvalier and the author of two books sympathetic to the bloody Duvalier regime. One is titled The Misunderstood.

In his final year of high school, C?lestin transferred to Centre d'Etudes Secondaires, a Bois Verna school known for its strong mathematics curriculum.

``He was always a person who was discreet,'' recounted Patrick Pompilus, a former classmate at Centre d'Etudes who is now the school director. The two graduated the same year in a class of 30 to 40 students, Pompilus said.

After high school, C?lestin went on to study engineering in Switzerland, according to his campaign literature, and received a degree in mechanical engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne, a leading institution of science and technology.

But administrators there say they have no record of a Jude C?lestin attending or graduating from the university. Rancy did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.

In 1985, a year before a popular movement ousted Jean-Claude Duvalier, C?lestin returned to Haiti and worked in the then-state-owned flour mill. His ascent was swift. Six years later, he became plant manager.

It was here where C?lestin and Pr?val would first cross paths, according to Le Nouvelliste.

In 1997, during Pr?val's first administration, the two met again. Pr?val was seeking an engineer to develop the Public Works Department. That year, C?lestin began work at the National Center for Equipment, or CNE, the government's road-building agency.

In February 2002, a year after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was inaugurated to his second term, C?lestin left CNE but later returned.

Also in 2002, C?lestin began to invest in South Florida real estate. The three homes he purchased either had liens placed against them or foreclosure problems.

Four years later, in 2006, C?lestin and friend Tania Chihimie, purchased a 5,117 square-foot home for $1.1 million after they secured a loan for $1 million from a bank in Antigua. That home fell into foreclosure and records show the lender is seeking $1.06 million. The house also has $24,590.34 in outstanding Broward County taxes, records show.

C?lestin's campaign referred questions on the Weston property to Chihimie, a businesswoman. She said she took full responsibility for the house.

Meanwhile, C?lestin continued to take on construction projects. Between June 2005 and January 2006, he worked as an engineering coordinator for the United Nations Office for Project Services in Haiti, according to a U.N. spokesman. He helped rehabilitate a school in Gonaives after Tropical Storm Jeanne battered the western port city.

As the director general of CNE, he staffed the agency with a majority of women and oversaw the construction of more than 750 miles of roads, according to his campaign. He also directed the drivers who cleared rubble and trucked bodies to a mass grave north of Port-au-Prince after the massive Jan. 12 earthquake.

But CNE under C?lestin also has stirred controversy.

Some opposition lawmakers have blasted the government for purchasing equipment for CNE without following procedures.

WORK AHEAD

Haiti's next president will be elected at a critical time for the country and will be charged with managing billions of dollars in foreign aid for earthquake recovery, finding housing for the 1.5 million people left homeless in the quake, and dealing with the recent cholera epidemic.

For his part, C?lestin has said he plans to develop Haiti's long-neglected countryside, encourage investment in private healthcare, and shelter the homeless. His campaign says he's a ``proven leader with management and leadership skills.''

But his critics say he has too little political experience to run the country.

``I think Jude C?lestin is a good worker but he's not a personality that can be president of Haiti,'' said Youri Latortue, a senator who is backing candidate Mirlande Manigat. ``Jude C?lestin has no preparation to become president.''

In Haiti's southeast, the native son remains something of an enigma despite the ubiquity of his green-and-yellow campaign banners and posters.

``I really don't know much about him,'' C?lestin supporter Jean Morte Gilles, 35, said in the village of Nan Malgre. ``But that he's from my part of the country is all I need to know.''



Read more: From faceless to favored for Haiti candidate - 11/12/2010 | MiamiHerald.com

Who will be Haiti?s next president?

November 10, 2010 by Allyn Gaestel, Special to the Reporter

Allyn Gaestel, Special to the Reporter
BHR 11-10

The date scheduled for the first round of Haiti?s presidential and parliamentary elections, November 28, is racing towards the island. Simultaneously Cholera is racing across the countryside in the Artibonite, the Central Plateau and beyond, and Hurricane Tomas raced up the Caribbean, lashing the South of the country and cutting off all towns below Leogane from the capital. The Provisional Electoral Council maintains that they are doing everything they can to prepare, and that they are moving ahead on schedule. But serious doubts have been raised about the timetable.

Even before these crises Haiti had many obstacles to legitimate and credible elections. The voter list has not been updated since 2005, so many people who lost their lives in the earthquake are still on the list, which could facilitate electoral fraud. Many Haitians are not registered to vote, or lost their identification cards in the earthquake. For months long lines have snaked out from the National Identification Offices as people tried to fix their paper work?though the lines continued even after the publication of the voter list, and many Haitians seek identity cards to go to the bank or to deal with the police, not just to vote.

With the disqualification of some popular potential candidates, including Wyclef Jean, and low public confidence in the remaining pool to bring the ?change? most campaign for, many Haitians have said they doubt they will vote. Emmanuel, a particularly disgruntled citizen who opted not to give his last name said, ?I?m not going to vote because these elections will do nothing. We need something bigger than what these elections can bring.? Low turnout could undermine the credibility of the outcomes.

Finally, there is low confidence in the Electoral Council (CEP) and many Haitians are convinced that the CEP is under current president Rene Pr?val?s control. Wyclef Jean, angry at being disqualified from participating lashed out to President Pr?val in his song ?Prison for the CEP?: ?Even though you say that the decision came from the Provisional Electoral Council, I know you hold all the cards.? His personal frustration clearly influences his statements, but suspicion about the independence of the CEP is widespread.

Nonetheless Haitians who do choose to vote will have to select among the participating candidates. And while there are 19 candidates on the list, several have shown themselves to be notable and comparatively popular in the race. This is a unique election for Haiti because there is still no clear anticipated victor, said Pierre Louis Opont, director general of the CEP, ?Anyone could succeed, which is different than before. It?s a real head to head, and anyone could break away.?

Candidates in Haiti tend to run on a personal platform. The person is more important than the party, and personal politics often means undefined or loose platforms. A recently released International Crisis Group report on the elections expresses numerous weaknesses, and includes the recommendation that ?candidates should begin to articulate substantive platforms that address national problems (emphasis added).? Alix Filsaim?, a former member of parliament and current president of the national commission for disarmament, explained in an interview at the beginning of the campaign, ?we need to get out of the current framework because it is always responding to a person or a personality and not about a program.?

These fundamental flaws are still present, but Haitians still must make their choice. According to a recent poll, Jude Celestin, Mirlande Manigat, Michel Martelly, Charles-Henri Baker, Jacques Edouard Alexis, and Jean Henry C?ant are leading the race.

Jude Celestin?Init? (Unity) (21.7%)
---------------------------
Jude Celestin, Pr?val?s pick to head the Init? (Unity) party has some credibility from tangible successes during his tenure as head of CNE, the national committee that works on infrastructure. Successfully building some roads?including one in the South nicknamed ?Pr?val??may gain him some votes. But the widespread frustrations with Pr?val?s leadership after the earthquake, and the exhaustingly slow recovery effort influences a turn away from the ruling party and towards the opposition. Sporadic protests continue where marchers cry ?aba Pr?val? and denounce his ?blockages to the advancement of all the departments.?
Celestin was unknown on the public political scene before his campaign, but with Init?s massive campaign budget, his smiling portrait gleams at the people from every surface in Port-au-Prince, and dots the countryside. In a recent debate with C?ant and Eric Charles, a less-known candidate, he emphasized the need for ?political stability? to further the reconstruction and develop the country.
Romusco Gregory, an Init? campaign manager in the Artibonite region says the party has a ?strong team.? Gregory said, ?with the continuing suffering of the people after January 12, and now with cholera and the hurricane, we need more time to make things better.?
Celestin claimed to put his campaign on hold when the cholera outbreak struck, and he started running spots on the radio emphasizing public health practices, rather than campaign slogans. But Gregory said the campaign continues and they are just working in other provinces.

Mirlande Manigat- RNDP (National Gathering of Progressive Democrats) (30.3%)
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Mirlande Manigat is viewed by her supporters as a ?serious? candidate based on her academic background and her emphasis on honesty. She is vice-rector at Quisqueya University and has authored numerous books on international relations. She denounces corruption and emphasizes the role of the government in moving the country forward rather than placing blame on international actors.
She is also a strong supporter of incorporating the strengths of the diaspora. She calls for the elimination of the constitutional ban on dual citizenship and for opening the byways to facilitate diaspora engagement with Haiti. In a statement on her website she emphasizes, ?The two Haiti?s, that of the interior and that of the exterior should hold hands.?
Yet for disgruntled voters tired of years of the same political elite trading titles, Manigat does not present a break with the past. Her husband, Leslie Manigat is a former president and long time player on the political scene, and she has called him her main advisor.
Leslie Manigat caused a scandal after the 2006 election when he lost to Pr?val and said ?a dog does nothing but return to his vomit.? While the Manigats maintain this was taken out of context, Mirlande Manigat did not renounce this statement until the current campaign was already underway. This characterization of the people, misunderstood or not, highlights her membership in the political elite, which could weaken her standing among those who want change.
She was also criticized as an unreliable candidate after making it to the second round in the 2006 election for senator for the West department and then dropping out before the second vote, though she apologized to the voters and said she dropped out due to anticipated electoral fraud.

Charles-Henri Baker-Respe (Respect) (7.0%)
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Charles-Henri Baker presents himself as a staunch opposition leader. He condemns the poor leadership that he faults for holding back the country for decades, emphasizing his activism against Duvalier and criticizing Pr?val?s ?total absence of leadership? after the earthquake. He hopes to reinvigorate the presidency to work for the benefit of the Haitian people. His campaign posters scream ?Nou Bouke! (We are tired!)? emphasizing his solidarity with the people.
Along with all the candidates, Baker recognizes the continual daily struggles of the population and plans to make fundamental changes to society. He emphasizes the responsibility of citizens to work for a better life, but also aims to rebuild their confidence in the state.
His pillars are order, discipline and work. As both a successful businessman, and an active member of civil society, he emphasizes his use of his commercial success to create jobs. Employment for Haiti?s widely unemployed population and youth is another central tenant of his campaign.
But Baker is white, and in Haiti?s stratified society this holds much weight. Noirisme, the political movement used by Duvalier to take power back from the Mulatto elite to the Black majority, has been a serious political ideology ever since. Jean-Junior Joseph, a Haitian political blogger said, ?there?s no way they would vote for [Baker], based on the color, but he could have run a campaign like Obama where he opened up the debate on race in Haiti and brought it out of the closet to be discussed. But he hasn?t acknowledged it and that will be his weakness.?

Jacques Edouard Alexis-MPH (Movement for Haiti?s Progress) (5.8%)
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Jacques Edouard Alexis is a well-known political figure in Haiti. An agronomist by training from Gonaive, he is a two time Prime Minister, and has held numerous ministerial positions including Minister of Education, Minister of Culture and Minister of the Interior. He was head of the founding committee of Quisqueya University, the first rector from 1990-1996, and returned to the post from 2005-2006.
He is both exceedingly qualified, and exceedingly representative of the political elite many Haitians have grown frustrated with. His plan centers on finding new homes for vulnerable citizens and those living in tents, reforming the government to facilitate more efficient and effective actions, addressing the sanitation issues egregiously exposed by the recent cholera epidemic, expanding educational opportunities and creating jobs. He presents a well thought out analysis of the issues, without presenting particularly new strategies to address the issues everyone can see.
Alexis? entry into the campaign emphasizes the personal politics in the current campaign. He was a frontrunner to represent Init?, until Celestin was selected instead, some say to have a younger face in a youth-centered campaign that was dominated by Wyclef Jean?s slogan ?jen kore jen (youth strengthen youth)?. When he was rejected from representing Init?, he found another party, MPH to back his campaign.
Alexis most recently retreated from the political scene in 2008 when he was removed from his post as Prime Minister in the face of food riots. The senate held a no-confidence vote and forced him out, saying his attempts to mitigate the problem were too little and too late. Jean-Junior Joseph, the political blogger said, ?if Alexis divorced from Pr?val in 2008 he would be the one standing up now, staying quiet was the mistake he made.? Alexis stands as neither the ruling party, nor a strong opposition candidate.

Jean Henry C?ant-Renmen Ayiti (Love Haiti) (8.3%)
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Jean Henry C?ant presents himself as a populist in the line of Aristide. Though he is not officially representing Aristide?s Lavalas party, he shares the same campaign slogan, ?tout moun se moun (every person is a person).? He also is said to be in regular contact with Aristide, and should Aristide speak it is expected he will endorse C?ant.
The Lavalas party, while overtly excluded from the current election, continues to hold significant sway in Haiti. Lavalas supporters have protested the elections almost every day, even after it was clear that the decisions about participants had been finalized. While numerous candidates have ties to Lavalas, supporters call for overt participation of the party, and for Aristide to return from exile in South Africa. If Aristide supports C?ant he could gain significant support.
C?ant emphasizes his humble beginnings, born to a public-market vendor in Croix-des-Missions, and his work with civil society organizations. He is a public notary, with little overt political background, but has mobilized a sizable following in his short history on Haiti?s political stage. In the most recent poll he placed sixth with 7.6 percent of the vote.
But questions about his financial integrity are beginning to emerge. C?ant?s wife, Ginette was personal secretary for Aristide during his last term 2001-2004, and investigations show potential embezzlement of state funds into false company accounts from which the C?ants later withdrew. If these allegations are verified and publicized in Haiti, C?ant could struggle to defend his ability to manage state funds.

Anvann vote?
If the elections are held as planned, Haitians who opt to take to the polls seem likely choose one of the candidates outlined above. Whoever wins has significant challenges ahead addressing the internal daily struggles Haitians face and managing the significant participation of the international community. The candidates and the CEP have a busy month ahead.

Allyn Gaestel is a freelance journalist based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Copyright 2010, Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.

RonS said:

When is it anticipated that the next President will actually take office?

Click to expand...

feb 7,2011

Rebuilding Haiti: Politics in the time of cholera | The Economist
Can an untimely but necessary election break the vicious circle in which the
urgent overwhelms the important?
The Economist, Nov 18th 2010

SO OFTEN in Haiti urgent problems?mudslides that bury towns, storms that
wash houses out to sea or spikes in food prices?and chronic political
instability have conspired to subvert efforts to lay the basis for sustained
development. The earthquake last January that devastated the capital,
Port-au-Prince, was supposed to have changed that. It inspired promises by
world leaders to put Haiti on a more solid footing, backed by pledges of
billions of dollars, and an ambitious, if vague, reconstruction plan from
the government. But the earthquake has made Haiti even more vulnerable:
witness the escalating cholera epidemic that in the past few weeks has
claimed more than 1,100 lives.

Haiti is trapped in an especially vicious circle. More than 1m people still
live in squalid tent camps in or around the capital and their continued
exposure to the elements and disease precipitates emergencies that distract
policymakers from reconstruction and resettlement. A general election due on
November 28th adds another layer of complication. Understandably, Haitians
are more scared of cholera than enamoured of their politicians. A lacklustre
campaign may culminate in an unusually low turnout.

The electoral authority insists that the vote will go ahead. But it cannot
without security and logistical help from Minustah, the United Nations
mission in Haiti. And the UN has itself come under fire over the cholera
outbreak. After a sudden surge in cholera cases in the north of the country,
two people died this week in violent demonstrations against the UN in
Cap-Ha?tien, Haiti?s second city. Six UN personnel were injured in a similar
protest in Hinche. Many Haitians reckon that Nepalese peacekeepers
introduced the cholera virus (it is a South Asian strain). The UN denies
this, and claims that the protests were election-related. In any event, they
halted aid flights and a water-chlorination campaign.

Doctors say that cholera has not yet peaked and is likely to last months, if
not years. Postponing the election would merely prolong a political limbo
that is causing delay or inaction among donors, investors and even
government officials. Candidates have continued to hold rallies and
broadcast radio ads.

For the first time in Haiti?s two decades of patchy democracy, there is no
clear front-runner for president among the 19 candidates, and the contest is
likely to go to a run-off, due on January 16th. That may be between Jude
C?lestin, who runs the state construction agency and is the prot?g? of Ren?
Pr?val, the current president, and Mirlande Manigat, whose husband, Leslie,
was president for four months between two military governments in 1988. Ms
Manigat, who describes herself as of the moderate left and wants to rein in
Haiti?s thousands of NGOs, is ahead in some polling. Mr C?lestin may be hurt
by Mr Pr?val?s low-key response to the quake, which has made him unpopular.

Whoever wins will inherit a country overwhelmed. Cholera?s effects go beyond
the death toll. They are compounding Haiti?s other woes. Farmers and
fishermen in Grand?Anse, a verdant department that was hit badly by a recent
hurricane, have seen sales plummet as customers spurn local foodstuffs.

Potential investors are also being scared off by cholera, even though it can
be easily prevented with good sanitation and clean drinking water (or
treated by oral rehydration). Textile buyers called off a forum scheduled
for this week, according to Gregor Avril of the manufacturers? association.
The International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank, postponed a
meeting to discuss special economic zones. Hoping to quell fears among its
well-heeled clientele, the capital?s fanciest restaurant has emblazoned its
menu with ?Everything is Imported?. All this has prompted government
economists to reduce their estimates for economic growth.

The immediate priority remains taming an epidemic that in the past fortnight
has got out of control. Health workers have struggled to find sites for
treatment centres where cholera patients can be segregated, because of
neighbours? fears of contagion. The mayor of St Marc, where cholera first
appeared, authorised a centre last month. But when M?decins Sans Fronti?res,
a medical charity, prepared to open it, protesters attacked with rocks. The
mayor withdrew his support. As a result, St Marc?s hospital has been
inundated with cholera cases, obliging other patients to go elsewhere. In
Carrefour, a suburb of the capital, the mayor has refused to allow outsiders
to seek help at its treatment centre, despite cajoling by national
officials.

Aid workers hope that local leaders will start to see treatment centres as
an asset. The government has at last begun a concerted campaign to educate
Haitians about cholera and its treatment. This has included Mr Pr?val?s
appearance on a four-hour television programme?the most his people have seen
of their reclusive president in years. Fighting cholera, like
reconstruction, needs a legitimate and effective government. Irrelevant
though it may at first seem, the election matters too.