For Imme­di­ate Release:

Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Direc­tor: Stephanie L. Young o:202.226.5312 c:202.731.2621

Con­gres­sional Black Cau­cus Task Force on For­eign Pol­icy and Inter­na­tional Affairs

State­ment on Haiti Elec­tions & OAS Report

Wash­ing­ton, DC – Chair­man Emanuel Cleaver, II and Hon. Don­ald M. Payne, Chair of the Con­gres­sional Black Cau­cus Task Force on For­eign Pol­icy and Inter­na­tional Affairs, released the fol­low­ing state­ment in response to Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clinton’s sup­port of OAS report:

“The Con­gres­sional Black Cau­cus can­not over­look the seri­ous con­cerns that the recent elec­tions in Haiti have posed to its over­all democ­racy. The CBC urges the United States and the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity to uphold the ideals of fair­ness and sup­port a new Haiti elec­tion process that is free and fair, respect­ing the rights of the Hait­ian people.

We are not blind to the com­plex­ity of this issue, as well as the need for a func­tional Hait­ian gov­ern­ment. Our Mem­bers have expe­ri­enced first-hand the denial of vot­ing rights, voter intim­i­da­tion, and other acts of voter dis­crim­i­na­tion. No entity can truly report on the “will of the Hait­ian” peo­ple with­out accu­rately count­ing the unfair cir­cum­stances con­cern­ing the Novem­ber elec­tions. If the United States is going to play a role, pub­lic integrity calls for us to do for oth­ers what we would do for our own cit­i­zens: equal access and equal pro­tec­tion for those who want to par­tic­i­pate in the demo­c­ra­tic process.

On Jan­u­ary 7, 2010, Cheryl Mills, Coun­selor and Chief of Staff to Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton, con­ceded that the United States would con­sider new elec­tions if an OAS report rec­om­mended it. Philip Crow­ley, spokesman for the State Depart­ment, stated that “the first results did not reflect the vote of the peo­ple of Haiti,” and added that, “strong indi­ca­tions that sig­nif­i­cant elec­toral fraud has been recorded and pre­lim­i­nary results dis­closed do not reflect the actual vote of the Hait­ian peo­ple.” Let us not attempt to dis­guise what we already know: the will of the peo­ple of Haiti was not, in good faith, rep­re­sented. We believe that the rec­om­men­da­tion of a new elec­tion should be included in the OAS report, and it should not be endorsed, in its entirety, as it cur­rently stands.

The “will of the Hait­ian peo­ple” is yet to be deter­mined. We urge the Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton to sup­port a rec­om­men­da­tion of new elec­tions for Haiti. We are account­able for those things we say we sup­port as a nation. As part of the very fab­ric of this coun­try, the Con­gres­sional Black Cau­cus calls for a dif­fer­ent mes­sage to be relayed to the peo­ple of Haiti.”

- Chair­man Emanuel Cleaver, II

Chair, Con­gres­sional Black Cau­cus For­eign Pol­icy Task Force

–Hon. Don­ald M. Payne

Chair, Con­gres­sional Black Caucus

http://haitiantoday.com/americas/congressional-black-caucus-calls-for-new-elections-in-haiti