Clearly, an election that was so severely flawed and plagued by irregularities cannot be considered legitimate. But even less excusable is the exclusion of the country's most popular political party – the equivalent of banning the Democrats or Republicans in the United States.

This "exclusion will undermine both Haitians' right to vote and the resulting government's ability to govern," wrote 45 Democratic Members of Congress to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on October 7th. They asked her not to provide "funding for elections that do not meet these minimum, basic democratic requirements." These pleas were ignored.

Haiti's first and last democratically elected president, Jean Bertrand Arisitide, was overthrown (for the second time) in a coup that Washington helped to bring about in 2004. According to his own account, he was kidnapped and put on a U.S. plane to Africa, where he remains in exile, in violation of the Haitian constitution and international law.

Three weeks ago Ricardo Seitenfus, the OAS Special Representative to Haiti was removed from his post for publicly criticizing the role of the UN mission and the international community in Haiti. Last week he revealed something even more damning:

At the meeting of Core Group (donor countries, UN and OAS), something that seemed just creepy [was discussed]. Some representatives suggested that President Rene Preval should leave the country and we should think of an airplane for that. I heard it and was appalled.

Washington and its allies, including the people who are currently making decisions about Haiti at the OAS, are pushing these illegitimate elections for the same reason that they overthrew Aristide, and will not let him back into his own country – in violation of the Haitian constitution and international law. These people want to determine who rules Haiti, without allowing the majority of Haitians themselves to decide. There will be resistance to this, as to the dictatorships and foreign occupations of the past. We can only hope that it does not result in similar levels of violence.

This column was published by The Guardian Unlimited (UK) on December 17, 2010.

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