Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
(IDB), as his next prime minister. Pierre failed to win confirmation,
however, because many parliamentarians were uncomfortable
with his links to an organization viewed as promoting
Haiti's controversial economic policies. In late 1997, Preval
sent his second nomination, Herve Denis, to the legislative
body for confirmation. Denis, an economist and playwright
with close ties to Aristide, was denied the post as the OPL rallied
against him.
In July 1998, Preval sent his third nomination, Jacques
Edouard Alexis, an educator and minister of national education,
youth, and sports in the Smarth cabinet, to parliament.
Initially, with strong national and international pressure building
for the confirmation of Alexis as a pivotal first step toward
resolution of the increasingly debilitating political crisis, it
appeared that Haiti would finally have a new prime minister.
Once in office, Alexis and his government would face not only
the task of forging the government's role in rebuilding the
nation, but also the challenge of organizing the municipal and
parliamentary elections mandated by the end of 1998. Alexis
was eventually confirmed by the severely divided parliament,
but not until December 17, much too late to organize the elections.
Before the new prime minister completed the required
next steps of the parliamentary ratification process — presenting
his general policy statement and his cabinet—Haiti's political
crisis deepened even further.
On January 12, 1999, President Preval, citing the 1995 electoral
law that identified January 11 as the expiration date of the
term of public officials elected in 1995, issued a presidential
decree dismissing the entire Chamber of Deputies and Senate,
with the exception of the nine senators who had been elected
to six-year terms. On January 22, Preval issued another decree,
converting the positions of elected mayors and communal section
council members, whose terms also expired, into "interim
executive agents" assigned to the Ministry of Interior. The Haitian
chief executive's actions ushered the country into yet
another period of governance by decree, albeit this time by a
legitimately elected president and prime minister who had
been confirmed personally, but whose government had not
completed the confirmation process. Haiti's defunct lawmakers
vehemently protested Preval's decision, citing constitutional
irregularities and calling for the populace to rally to their
cause. Ultimately, however, Haiti's Supreme Court failed to rule
against the president's actions, and ordinary Haitians, "disillu-
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