CANAAN, Haiti, (Reuters) – Canaan, a 10-month-old tent and tarpaulin settlement of thousands of earthquake survivors carpeting bare hillsides north of Haiti’s capital, has a prefabricated police station, a tin-roof meeting center, tent schools and churches, and even a barber shop.
But, two days before crucial presidential and legislative elections in the earthquake-ravaged Caribbean nation, no one in this sprawling new village founded by Haitians made homeless by the Jan. 12 quake seems to have any idea where they will vote.
If voting stations are planned in Canaan, no one, not even the local police, knows where they will be.
“If there is no voting station, people won’t vote. We need one here,” said Vil Launaise, one of the organizers of the Canaan 2 sector, where nearly 6,000 residents are housed in flimsy blue and gray shelters stretched over stick frames.
Another 6,000 live in similar settlements spread over dusty hills about five miles (8 km) north of Port-au-Prince.
Haiti’s electoral authorities say 11,000 polling stations are ready to open tomorrow across the country — each to serve around 450 voters out of the 4.7 million registered.
As the country heads for the polls in the grips of a cholera epidemic that is killing dozens daily, and amid sporadic political violence, many Haitians are confused about where they can vote, let alone who they will vote for.
“I don’t really know about any of the candidates, but if I can find out, I’ll vote,” said Vanessa Deslica, 39, who lives in Canaan 2 with her two children. “But I don’t know where, nobody’s told me.”
Her complaint is echoed by many of the 1.3 million homeless living in crowded camps in and around Port-au-Prince.
Getting the word out about the elections to a population traumatized by successive calamities this year has been one of the challenges facing Haiti’s electoral authorities, who have also faced questions about credibility and transparency.
Officials have asked voters to look for their polling stations on the Internet or call by telephone to find out — but many destitute Haitians have access to neither.
