Eight to Fifteen Percent!!!

I'm just coming in from visiting numerous voting polls in Port-au-Prince where UN sources tell me the numbers are as low as 8 to 15% voter turnout. Not a line to wait in at any polling station and election workers with their heads down on the voting tables. By 11 am it seemed as if everyone and anyone who intended to vote had done so and now people were just mulling around. Some deputy and senator ballot boxes were nearly empty.

Order was none existent and I couldn't help but suspect that the lack of attention given to the process left the door open for voter intimidation. I stood by numerous voting booths (tables with flimsy cardboard partitions) and as just about anyone who could look over the shoulder of another voter was doing so. And often a discussion ensued, "Poukisa wap vote pou li?" (Why are you voting for him/her?). "You should vote for that person?"

These may be perceived as mild and harmless persuasions but nobody knows what can happen after you leave the polling station and go back to your home. These gatherings where sometimes broken up by a police officer sauntering by suggesting people not do that. Or from their chairs, CEP/Election workers would lean over and ask weakly that those who voted please move on. Of course no one ever listened to them and they didn't bother to repeat themselves.

In the end the day will pass without trouble. It will be reported as a peaceful but poor turnout. And the impact if felt will be a long way from this day and the reasons for Haiti's troubles will not be associated with this non-event.