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Haitians Await Results of Election Amid Chaotic Voting Conditions
Freed Haitian Priest Gerard Jean Juste on His Imprisonment
and the Haitian Elections
Last Tributes to Coretta Scott King: Maya Angelou, Rev. Lowery,
Pres. Jimmy Carter, Bernice King Remember Civil Rights Pioneer
Haitians Await Results of Election Amid Chaotic Voting
Conditions
Haitians await the outcome of the first presidential election
since the U.S.-backed ouster of Jean Bertrand Aristide two
years ago. Voters were frustrated by voting stations opening
late and other major problems, leading to crowds storming
polling stations and voting continuing late into the night.
We get a report from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
There were no polling stations Tuesday in the Lavalas stronghold
of Cite Soleil, home to at least 200,000 people. Voters swarmed
out of that poor neighborhood as well as Bel Air and other
areas to discover that voting stations had failed to open,
election officials had no ballots, registration lists were
incorrect and lines stretched for blocks. Angry crowds stormed
the gates of the voting stations. At least four people died,
including a police officer who was killed by a mob after fatally
shooting a voter.
In many polling centers, vote counting continued late in
the night. Doors remained open far longer than planned in
order to accommodate voters still lined up outside. Thousands
of armed UN troops were deployed to watch over the election
process, which has been delayed four times since October.
Official results are expected on Friday.
Voters in Haiti were choosing a new president, as well as
a 129-member parliament. The frontrunner in the election is
an ally of Aristide named Rene Preval. He served as Aristide’s
first prime minister and succeeded Aristide as president in
1996. However Preval never joined Aristide’s political
party Lavalas. He has said he would not prevent Aristide’s
return to Haiti. A factory owner named Charles Henri Baker
is polling second. He was a leader of the anti-Aristide Group
of 184 and is the only white candidate in the race.
- Andrea Schmidt, independent journalist currently in Haiti.
She reports from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Freed Haitian Priest Gerard Jean Juste on His Imprisonment
and the Haitian Elections
As Haitians await the election results, Haitian Catholic
priest Father Gerard Jean Juste, temporarily released from
prison after more than 6 months in a Haitian jail, speaks
on the election, his arrest and jail conditions, and the leadership
and future of Haiti.
Last week Father Gerard Jean Juste was temporarily released
from jail in Haiti in order to be treated for leukemia and
pneumonia. Hundreds of religious, political and human rights
leaders and 50 members of the U.S. congress had called on
the interim Haitian government to release him.Amnesty International
had labeled him a "prisoner of conscience." On Monday,
Father Jean Juste announced his support for Rene Preval.
- Gerard Jean Juste, freed from prison in Haiti
Last Tributes to Coretta Scott King: Maya Angelou,
Rev. Lowery, Pres. Jimmy Carter, Bernice King Remember Civil
Rights Pioneer
An estimated 10,000 people attended the funeral of civil
rights pioneer Coretta Scott King in Georgia, including four
U.S. Presidents, prominent activists, artists, political leaders,
musicians and public figures. We play excerpts of Bernice
King’s eulogy, the Reverend Joseph Lowery, Maya Angelou,
and former President Jimmy Carter speaking. [includes partial
transcript]
Among the mourners were family members and friends as well
as four U.S. presidents. Former presidents Jimmy Carter, George
Herbert Walker Bush, and Bill Clinton joined President Bush
and fourteen U.S. senators. Also in attendance was Maya Angelou,
Oprah Winfrey and Stevie Wonder.
King died January 30th at the age of 78 after seeking treatment
in Mexico for ovarian cancer. She had just recently suffered
a debilitating stroke and heart attack.
Throughout the 40 years following the assassination of her
husband, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King
was an outspoken opponent of injustices ranging from capital
punishment to apartheid in South Africa. She was also a vocal
advocate of women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights,
and HIV/AIDS prevention. In 2003, King also spoke out against
the war in Iraq.
At yesterday’s funeral, both Former President Jimmy
Carter and the former head of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, Reverend Joseph Lowery, made pointed criticism
of the Bush administration’s policies. They cited the
war in Iraq, civil liberties transgressions and accused the
president of ignoring the plight of the U.S. poor.
President George W. Bush was one of the first of the 39 speakers
to take the podium at yesterday’s funeral.
He was followed by Reverend Joseph Lowery, who co-founded
the Southern Leadership Conference with Dr. Martin Luther
King. He made a subtle attack on the Bush administration’s
war on Iraq and cuts on social programs.
- Reverend Joseph Lowery, speaking at Coretta Scott King’s
funeral.
The poet, writer and activist Maya Angelou spoke at the funeral
yesterday. She was a good friend of Coretta Scott King.
- Maya Angelou, poet, writer, activist.
President Jimmy Carter spoke after Maya Angelou. In his speech
he made reference to government spying that the Kings endured
and continued racial injustice evidenced by the Hurricane
Katrina disaster.
Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Coretta and Martin
Luther King, delivered the eulogy. She began by talking about
the day her mother died.
- Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Martin and Coretta
Scott King, delivering the eulogy at her mother’s
funeral.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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