elections

I bet you thought that election coverage was over. Not so fast! Haitian elections are scheduled to take place two Sundays from now, on the 28th of November. Now, you may be thinking, "Here is another potentially interesting blog entry about something that doesn't necessarily have to do directly with my day-to-day life." Today, though, you might be wrong. Here's the long and the short of it:

• National elections are scheduled for November 28th.

• The CEP (Provisional Electoral Council) has excluded several political parties from the elections, including Haiti's biggest and most popular party, Fanmi Lavalas. This would be like excluding both the Republican and Democratic parties!
  

• Insufficient measures have been put in place to ensure that the 1.3 million displaced earthquake victims will be able to vote in the election, as most have not been properly registered.

• New disasters, such as the cholera outbreak and Hurricane Tomas, continue to throw Haiti off balance. As the country deals with these challenges, it is ill equipped to actually ensure fair, free, and inclusive elections for its citizens.

So, what does this have to do with you? The United States (with your tax dollars) is supporting these flawed elections. They have offered millions of dollars so that the elections can take place, even in the face of all of the problems I've just listed above. I, personally, would like to see the elections take place, but only if they are implemented correctly.

I was part of a movement of 120 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who signed a petition and sent it to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a few weeks ago. Recently, the news website Truthout picked up and published our story on its website (I'm quoted in there at some point). A few other sites have picked up the story, too. The article also has a more in-depth analysis of all the problems with the upcoming elections.

What, again, does this have to do with you? You can take the following steps to help support our cause!

1. Go to the online petition and add your name to the growing list. It will send a message to both Secretary of State Clinton as well as your Representative.

2. Call 202-224-3121 to reach the Capitol Switchboard. Ask to be transferred your Representative's office, tell your Congressperson that you want to urge her or him to back the effort as well.

3. Facebook - a time waster no longer! Post the article (easy to remember: http://bit.ly/RPCVs) as well as a link to the petition IN the description (http://bit.ly/haitielection).

4. Send the petition link to five of your closest friends or family and ask them to add their names - it takes less than a minute!

5. Bonus points: Ask if your local paper or other media outlet would be interested in re-printing the article, as it's covered under Creative Commons and there's a version that's designed for print media, too. You can also post this on your blog, or paste the article and petition link into an email to your friends.

That's it! Thanks, as always, for taking the time to check-in and support Haiti.

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In other media matters, my employer was featured in a New York Times article a couple of days ago. The program I direct, Ti Kredi, gets a mention and a link to its website.