Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

—
Haiti: Government and Politics
ration de la Democratic en Haiti—MIDH), led by Marc Bazin;
PAIN, led by its founder's son, Louis Dejoie II; and the
National Cooperative Front (Front National de Concertation
FNC), represented by Gerard Gourgue. The FNC, a loose federation
of parties, community groups, and trade unions that
had previously joined forces as the Group of 57, had the broadest
and most diverse following. It included two well-structured
parties with some national membership—the National Committee
of the Congress of Democratic Movements (Comite
National du Congres des Mouvements Democratiques—Conacom)
and Panpra.
By the 1990 elections, the FNC had expanded its coalition to
include the Unified Democratic Committee (KID, based on the
Creole name) and its charismatic leader Evans Paul, altered its
name to the National Front for Change and Democracy (Front
National pour le Changement et la Democratic—FNCD), and
become affiliated with Jean-Berti and Aristide 's amorphous Lavalas
movement when it persuaded him to be its standardbearer.
Although twelve other parties fielded presidential aspirants
and slates of candidates for other posts, Marc Bazin of the
MIDH was considered the chief rival to Aristide. Bazin, however,
drowned in Lavalas's cleansing flood as Aristide swept to
office. His political ally and KID leader, Paul, captured what
was perhaps the elections' second largest prize: Port-au-Prince
City Hall. The victors of other parliamentary, municipal, and
local offices were divided among the FNCD, MIDH, and other
parties.
Most political party activities shifted out of Haiti following
the 1991 coup d'etat. However, three developments in Haiti
affected the country's political party dynamics. First, in 1991
Sylvio Claude was assassinated, effectively ending the PDCH.
Second, in 1992 MIDH leader Bazin accepted an appointment
as the military government's prime minister, inflicting the
same fundamental damage to his future and that of his party as
Leslie Manigat inflicted on himself and his RDNP when he
accepted the presidency offered by the military in rigged elections
in 1988. Third, in 1993 supporters of Aristide in Haiti
announced the formation of the Lavalas Political Organization
(OPL), headed by political scientist Gerard Pierre-Charles,
peasant movement leader Chavannes Jean-Bap tiste, and agronomist
Yrvelt Chery.
Following the return of Aristide, the OPL became the leading
institution of the Lavalas movement, as Aristide broke with
445