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Police fired tear gas at over 2,000 when they tried breaking through a barrier accessing the presidential palace, still largely in rubble from January's quake.
Sebastian Walker said "protests, rock-throwing and popular anger boil over" daily in Port-au-Prince, demanding fair elections. After preliminary results are announced, "they'll likely continue over the course of the coming week."
Nonetheless, UN and international observers endorsed the fraud, urging Haitians accept the outcome. They haven't, nor should they ever, given how unfairly they've again been denied.
Presidential hopeful Jean-Henry Ceant , the only candidate most Haitians support, condemned the "electoral masquerade," saying protests will continue "as long as necessary" for justice. Charles Henri Baker, another presidential aspirant agreed, saying: "We will conduct the battle as long as is necessary. (Initial) results announced on December 7 will not not stop the movement....any president from this process will suffer from a legitimacy deficit."
Haiti's Long Neocolonial History
Besides oppressive centuries under Spanish and French rule, neocolonialism cursed Haiti after revolutionary leader's Jean-Jacques Dessalines' 1806 assassination. Presidents drafted and abolished constitutions at will. From 1949 - 1859, "Emperor" Faustin I suspended Haiti's republic. Debt to France hamstrung the country. Governments controlled agricultural lands. Elites held power directly or through puppet presidents, serving their interests.
Coups and assassination were commonplace. Once the presidential palace was blown up, killing the incumbent. An angry mob hacked another to death. A third was poisoned. Relative stability was rare. America withheld recognition until 1962, during the Civil War under Lincoln. After President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam's assassination, US marines occupied Haiti oppressively from 1915 - 1934 to secure America's business and imperial interests. Washington's man was made president, Phillippie Sudre Dartiguenave (1915 - 1922).
Stenio Vencent succeeded him in 1930, ruling until 1941, solidifying dictatorial leadership. Elie Lescot continued it until 1945. Elitist rule maintained relative stability until Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier established despotism in 1957. His son, Jean-Claude, "Baby Doc" continued it until unseated in 1986. An interim National Council of Government replaced him, governing repressively, including under General Prosper Avril, a period of violence and assassinations.
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