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Vol. 31, Issue 21 QUEENS/LONG ISLAND/BRONX/MANHATTAN May 22-28, 2020
BUSY
POLL
TIME
Several Caribbean countries
prepare for general elections
By Bert Wilkinson
Two Caribbean Community
nations — Suriname and St.
Kitts and Nevis — are scheduled
to vote for new governments in
the next three weeks even as
Guyana, a third member nation,
is in the throes of a bitter recount
and audit of ballots cast in an
unfinished election held more
than two months ago.
In what will be a very busy
year for general elections in the
bloc of 15 nations, Suriname will
on Monday become the second
of seven regional member states
after Guyanese voted on March 2
to face the polls with incumbent
President and former military
strongman, Desi Bouterse under
severe pressure to win a third
consecutive third. The others will
be St. Kitts and Nevis on June 5,
Belize, St. Vincent and Trinidad
by September. The Dominican
Republic, not a bloc member, will
also hold elections this year.
Boutrese, 74, the man who has
staged two military coups and
who was in December sentenced
to 20 years in prison for the
1982 mass murders of 15 political
opponents during military
rule from a 1980 coup, is perhaps
engaged in the toughest fight of
his life as should he lose the presidency
he could well be hauled off
to jail to begin his sentence.
Analysts say that his National
Democratic Party (NDP) which
individually won 26 of the 51 parliamentary
seats five years ago, is
unlikely to perform so well this
time with the economy tanking,
his administration beset by
scandal after scandal including
the currency steadily the theft
and disappearance of $200 million
from central bank accounts
in recent weeks and the steady
weakening of the local currency
against the US dollar.
The COVID-19 pandemic has
NYS Haitian American Legislative Caucus - Assemblymembers Kimberly Jean-Pierre,
Michaelle Solages, Clyde Vanel, Rodneyse Bichotte and Mathylde Frontus.
Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte
celebrates Haitian Flag Day
By Nelson A. King
Brooklyn Democratic Party
Chair Assemblywoman Rodneyse
Bichotte, a Haitian
American, on Monday celebrated
Haitian Flag Day, saying
that the flag is a symbol of
pride for all Haitians and their
descendants.
“On this day in 1803, revolutionary
leader Jean-Jacques
Dessalines tore up a French tricolor
flag and stitched together
Haiti’s first independent flag,”
said Bichotte, the daughter
of Haitian immigrants, who
represents the 42nd Assembly
District in Brooklyn, in a message
to constituents.
“The following year, he led
the first successful slave revolt
in history,” she added, stating
that Haiti gained independence
from France to become
the second country in the
Western Hemisphere, after the
United States of America, “to
free itself from colonial rule.”
“Ever since, Haiti has been
an inspiration to nations
around the world,” continued
Bichotte, whose 42nd Assembly
District encompasses Ditmas
Park, Flatbush, East Flatbush
and Midwood.
According to Wikipedia, the
online free encyclopedia, the
first purely Haitian flag was
adopted on May 18, 1803, on
the last day of the Congress of
Arcahaie, about 80 kilometers
(50 miles) north of Port-au-
Prince, the Haitian capital.
“Haitian lore holds that
the newly-appointed revolutionary
leader Jean-Jacques
Dessalines created the flag by
taking a French tricolor and
ripping out the white center,
which he discarded,” Wikipedia
said. “He then asked Catherine
Flon, his god-daughter,
to sew the remaining bands
together.
“The white pale removed,
the blue was taken to repre-
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