Haiti, a country located on half of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, has experienced decades of grinding poverty, with 80 percent of its 10 million residents living on less than two dollars a day.

The former French colony, whose residents still suffer from the effects of colonialism, also experienced another disastrous event, an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale that hit the region on January 12, 2010, leaving more than 250,000 dead and 1.3 million homeless. In addition, several destructive storms and finally an outbreak of cholera have taken the lives of at least 3,000 more people.
In such a chaotic situation, can the recent presidential election in Haiti raise hope among the deprived people of the country or could it be a response to those who have taken advantage of the situation?
Following the earthquake, some media outlets reported that the earthquake happened due to an attack conducted by the United States using the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). However, these reports have never been confirmed. But the fact that the U.S. sent troops to the region under the pretext of providing humanitarian assistance to the quake-stricken people and has maintained a presence there for one year shows the United States’ desire to exercise a degree of control over the country. Some believe Washington’s ultimate goal is to maintain a long-term presence in Central America and the Caribbean in order to pave the way for future interventions in regional countries.
The Haitian general election, originally scheduled to be held on February 28, 2010, was postponed to November 28, 2010, and about 4.6 million Haitians voted for ten senators and all 99 seats of the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies.
A presidential election was also held. A run-off was originally scheduled for January 16, 2011, since no candidate received 50 percent of the votes cast. However, it was postponed until March 20, 2011 because election officials said they could not hold the run-off while awaiting results from re-polling, with results expected on March 31.
The main competition in the presidential election was between the following three candidates:
(1) Mrs. Mirlande Manigat, 70, was the first lady of the country in 1988, the year her husband, former president Leslie Manigat, was ousted from power in a military coup 120 days after he assumed office and forced into exile in Venezuela. Mirlande Manigat, a reformist, was the nominee of the Rally of Progressive National Democrats (RDNP), a right-wing opposition party, at a time when the administration of Rene Preval had been accused of corruption. She won 31.4 percent of the vote.
Mrs. Manigat is also involved in the secret politics of the Haitian government. Mrs. Manigat won a seat in the Senate in 2006 but resigned in protest over a conspiracy that prevented her husband from participating in the second round of the election, which led to the victory of Rene Preval, the current president of the country.
(2) Mr. Jude Celestin, 48, the nominee of the ruling Governmental Unity Party, won 22.5 percent of the vote.
The two candidates took part in the run-off election, which was held on January 16. However, there is no hope for holding a second runoff and the future of Haiti is uncertain.
According to some reports, the second run-off will be held after a delay. The problem is that the executive office will be vacant if no one is elected by February 7, according to Haitian constitutional law. The presidential term in office is five years in Haiti, and the president can be re-elected for another five-year term.
(3) There was another candidate, Michel Martelly, 49, who is called Sweet Michy. Despite his fame, he was only able to finish in third place with 21.8 percent of the vote.
However, the U.S. observers declared that the election was fraught with violations and asked the international community to prevent a validation of this comedy of errors.
There were numerous reports that many ballot boxes were stuffed with invalid ballots in a number of Haitian electoral districts and that a large number of people were not able to participate in the election.
Nevertheless, despite so many complaints about fraud and the calls to cancel the election results, the Haitian election council officially approved the results.
Afterwards, a wave of violence occurred in various parts of the country, leaving four people dead and dozens injured.
Supporters of Michel Martelly were the first group to resort to violence. They claimed that the election results were rigged by Rene Preval in favor of Celestin to ensure that the ruling INITE party remained in power.
Mrs. Manigat stated that the results did not match with reality.
The history of the U.S. presence and interference in Haiti is a long saga.
There was a long and protracted dispute inside the U.S. government about recognizing Haiti as an independent state, until Abraham Lincoln finally decided to officially recognize Haiti as an independent country.
On July 28, 1915, when Woodrow Wilson was the U.S. president, 330 U.S. Marines arrived in the Haitian capital on the pretext of supporting the interests of U.S. companies. This military presence continued until 1934. The strategic location of Haiti led to a great deal of competition between the major powers over control of the country.
The U.S. has been Haiti’s leading trade partner in both exports and imports and the country’s most important foreign donor. The U.S. also has been the main destination of Haitian emigrants. Compared to other countries, the United States has major political and economic interests in Haiti.
The pitiful condition of the large number of Haitians who have no shelter and great concern over outbreaks of cholera and other diseases, the lack of security, the prevalence of murder and robbery, the presence of foreign forces, especially the U.S., Canadian, and French troops, has brought about a situation in which holding a presidential election would only be a mockery of the democratic process.
While the country’s first priorities are security and ensuring that the reconstruction process moves forward, it seems that some foreign powers do not want the country to become stable. Instead, they prefer to pursue their illegitimate interests in an insecure and unstable Haiti.
The U.S. administration has limited humanitarian assistance to Haiti in this complicated situation.
Thus, the main responsibility for any incident, crisis, insufficiency, insecurity, destruction of resources, outbreak of diseases, or weakening of the national sovereignty of Haiti lies on the shoulders of the U.S. as the main cause of all these problems.
U.S., Canadian, and French forces occupied the country after the expulsion of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.
Later, U.S. President Barack Obama justified the presence of U.S. forces in Haiti with excuses such as the need to deliver assistance to the thousands of U.S citizens living in the country and help the poor people of Haiti, as well as the fact that the country is a neighbor of the U.S., but the evidence shows that the main cost of this presence and the inability to form a new government will be paid by the poor people of Haiti, not those occupying the country.