Tonight the results of the November 28th presidential elections were announced. There were 19 candidates, and none of them got more than the 50% of the vote needed to win the election. Mrs. Mirlande Manigat, former first lady (about 20 years ago) political science professor and apparently voodoo mambo (witchdoctor)got 30% of the vote. Jude Celestin, a construction and vehicle businessman got about 22% of the vote. The two of them will be in a runoff election on January 16, 2011. Michel Martelly, known as Sweet Micky, an entertainer who performs rap and Kompas (popular Haitian music) came very close to Celestin with 21%.
There were a lot of rumors of election fraud and then tonight on television there was a police officer (probably someone in charge- but I didn't catch that) reporting on arrests made during the election. An article a few days ago said that the UN was concluding that there was more fraud than they originally thought during the election. I'm not sure what that means, but most people expect a lot of demonstrating (some has already started)tomorrow and in the next few days. Hopefully people will set their sights on a more fair election in January.
This is difficult for our school, but especially Ricky and I as we are trying to finish up the semester early to go to Grace's (our daughter) Senior Art Exhibition and graduation from Biola University. We leave Friday. Ricky has taken 2 finals and has 4 to go.
Please pray for Haiti.
thanks,
Carol
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