Liveblog: Citizen Media on Haiti Elections 2010

Today (November 28, 2010), Haiti goes to the polls in an election that has been fraught with controversy and affected by the ongoing cholera epidemic. We're curating tweets and other citizen media about the events.


6:20pm EST
GlobalVoices: Signing off our Haitian Elections liveblog – keep watching these pages for further coverage. Thanks for following us today!

6:15pm EST
GlobalVoices: From Twitter, two views on presidential candidate—and popular singer—Micky Martelly, who earlier this evening led a march along with fellow candidate Charles-Henri Baker and Wyclef Jean: @carelpedre: “We never liked Preval. The last president we liked was Aristide. Now the people choose Martelly.”; @melindayiti: “People saying Martelly is president, as though #Haiti was just a crowd in the streets of Port-au-Prince. What about the rest of the country?”.

5:54pm EST
GlobalVoices: From Twitter: @metropolishaiti (FR) reports that a “monster” demonstration in favour of Micky Martelly is taking place in the northern city of Cap Haitien; @tanou80 “Huge crowd in front of Epi Dor [fast food joint in Pétion-ville], Micky walking inside the crowd! People are cheering! OMG never seen this!”.

5:42pm EST
GlobalVoices: What we're hearing on Twitter: @jacquiecharles – “Protests in cap-haitien, grand rievere and Gonaives”; @ViveHaiti: A lot of agitation at the CEP, people gathering, police preparing tear gas, MINUSTAH multiplying (translated by @melindayiti); @metropolishaiti (Haitian radio station) reports (FR) that there's a demonstration taking place in front of the National Palace and the situation is becoming increasingly volatile.

5:24pm EST
GlobalVoices: What we're hearing on Twitter: @melindayiti: “In Jacmel [city on the south coast] tires are burning in the streets. An angry mob is now marching to the police station.”

5:17pm EST
GlobalVoices: What we're hearing on Twitter: UN security helicopter circling over the demonstrations. Image by @melindayiti

4:54pm EST
GlobalVoices: After a break, another quick summary of what we're hearing on Twitter: Official close of the polls in Haiti was 4pm EST (about 50 mins ago now); demonstrations taking place in front of CEP's (electoral commission) headquarters, with heavy UN security; growing protests in Gonaives; candidates Michel Martelly and Charles-Henri Baker, along with Wyclef Jean, at the centre of large gathering in Delmas.

3:28pm EST
GlobalVoices: A quick summary of what we're hearing on Twitter: Polling station in Saint Raphael (in north of country between Cap Haitien and Hinche) possibly burned; Wyclef Jean has joined fellow performing artist and presidential candidate Mickey Martelly at demonstration in the streets on Pétion-ville.

3:06pm EST
GlobalVoices: Another quick summary of what we're hearing on Twitter about the Haiti election: Haitians are mobilising for a demonstration; @melindayiti reports that “more UN troop carriers than we could count, guns out, headed to demo” in Pétion-ville.

2:53pm EST
GlobalVoices: So, to summarise a bit: 12 candidates called for the elections to be cancelled on account of allegations of widespread fraud; the CEP, Haiti's election commission, has refused to comply; another press conference to announce the international community's position on the cancellation question soon to take place.


The thumbnail image used in this post is by Rozanna Fang, from the photoset Cap Haitien anti-MINUSTAH movement, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license. Visit mediahacker's flickr photostream.

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