Haiti
Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) recently announced that the Lavalas Family, the party of popular former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, won 15 of the 19 contested Senate seats and most of the Caribbean nation's mayoral seats in the elections held on May 21.
But the results are being challenged by the international community and by CEP president Leon Manus, who fled the country fearing for his life. Reports say he had been threatened by senior Haitian government officials.
An election observer mission from the Organization of American States calculated that, without a run-off, the Lavalas family should have won no more than eight or nine senate seats.
The Haitian parliament was dissolved by President Rene Preval in January last year after an 18-month power struggle involving the opposition majority party. Preval, an Aristide ally, has since ruled by decree.
Last month's elections - Haiti's first national vote in more than three years - were expected to pave the way for a democratic society, as well as to free up $500 million in foreign aid which has been held pending free and fair elections.
Aristide, who served as president from 1991-1995, is expected to win a scheduled presidential election in November.
The elections are being viewed as an important test of Haiti's fledgling democracy, after years of military dictatorship and instability.
The U.S. has had a long, difficult relationship with Haiti, a country that was a colony of France until it gained independence in 1804.
From 1915 to 1934, U.S. Marines occupied the country. After these troops were withdrawn, Haiti had problems with the Dominican Republic as well as political problems at home. After François ("Papa Doc") Duvalier was elected president in 1957, he organized a private military force, the Tontons Macoutes, to subdue his opponents and had himself elected president for life. Duvalier ruled as dictator until his death in 1971. He was succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier.
Under the junior Duvalier's rule, things went from bad to worse. In 1986 the people of Haiti protested aggressively and Duvalier was forced into exile. The country remained under military rule.
Aristide won Haiti's first free presidential elections, held in December 1990. In September 1991 a group within the military overthrew Aristide's government and forced him into exile.
The international community suspended aid to Haiti and refused to recognize the new government. Under threat of an American invasion, Haiti's military government agreed in September 1994 to the peaceful deployment of U.S. troops throughout the country. The military leaders resigned soon afterward, and Aristide returned to Haiti on October 15 to form a new government.
A constitution approved by referendum in 1987 incorporated features of the U.S. and French constitutions. It provides for a president who is directly elected for a five-year term. The head of government is the Prime Minister, appointed by the president from among the members of the majority party of the parliament. The parliament consists of two houses, a Senate and a House of Representatives. Senators are elected for six years and representatives for four.
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Elizabeth
Farnsworth examines the five-year mission to restore democracy in Haiti as U.S.
troops pull out of the country. (12/21/99)