Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

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Haiti: Historical Setting
reported. In the area of social reform, President Aristide created
a National Secretariat for Literacy and began land reform.
The June 25, 1995, municipal and parliamentary elections
were contentious. The elections were delayed twice, and the
Provisional Electoral Council reviewed candidates and printed
ballots up to the last minute, leading to a boycott by three political
parties, and a low turnout. Despite UN monitoring, some
fraud occurred, necessitating a rerun on August 13. Except for
Lavalas, which did well, nearly all of the other political parties
called for an annulment.
Presidential elections followed in November. Aristide campaigned
for Rene Preval, his prime minister and friend, until
the last moment, when Aristide himself appeared to consider
staying in office. Thereafter, neither Aristide nor his disappointed
supporters, who had hoped that Aristide would run
again, showed much enthusiasm for Preval. Only 30 percent of
the eligible voters went to the polls, and 80 percent of those
who did voted for Preval on the OPL ticket. Regardless of the
turnout, the election was unprecedented. When Preval took
office on February 7, 1996, for the first time in Haitian history
power was transferred from one democratically elected president
to another.
President Preval (1996- ) is an agronomist, who was a baker
in Port-au-Prince before Jean-Bertrand Aristide selected him to
be prime minister. Viewed as a hard worker, his main appeal
came from his association with Aristide. Over time, however,
the relationship became strained, and Preval's popularity
decreased.
President Preval inherited a daunting array of problems. As
of early 1996, the depressed economy continued to decline
while the astronomical unemployment rate continued to
climb. Inflation had already reached 30 percent and was
expected to increase. In response to these indicators and
because of the new openness and availability of weapons, common
crime was increasing, straining the capabilities of the new
National Police. Foreign assistance had declined drastically
from US$230 million in fiscal year (FY—see Glossary) 1995 to
US$90 million in FY 1996, depriving President Preval of an
external cushion.
Although Haitians carried out an historic transition from
one democratically elected president to another, the future of
democracy in Haiti remained uncertain. Upcoming congressional
elections would give Haitians the opportunity to correct
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