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 Haitiportal |
General elections were held in Haiti on 29 November 1987, with a second round planned for 29 December. [1] Voters were to elect the President, 77 deputies and 27 senators. However, the elections were suspended due to a massacre of voters.
Among the candidates for president were: [1] [2] [3]
Two candidates were assassinated before the elections; Louis Eugene Athis (Democratic Movement for the Liberation of Haiti) on 3 August, and Yves Volel (Christian Democratic Union) on 13 October. [4] On 2 November 1987, the National Electoral Council barred 12 presidential candidates because their support to the late Duvalier regime. Among the rejected candidates were Clovis Desinor (former Minister of Finance), Lieut. General Claude Raymond (former Chief of Staff), General Jean Baptiste Hilaire, Herve Boyer, Edouard Francisque and other army officers and Cabinet ministers. [5] [6] Other rejected candidates were Clemard Joseph Charles, Alphons Lahens, Hillaire Jean-Baptiste, Jean Julme, Edouard Francisque, Jean Theagene, Arthur Bonhomme, Herve Boyer and Franck Romain.
On 8 November 1987, the date voter registration closed, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), with the assistance of 30,000 volunteers, had managed to register 2,246,000 voters, estimated at 73% of the potential electorate. [5]
The elections were cancelled only three hours after polls opened after troops led by Service d'Intelligence National member Lt. Col. Jean-Claude Paul massacred 30–300 voters on election day. [7] Jimmy Carter later wrote that "Citizens who lined up to vote were mowed down by fusillades of terrorists' bullets. Military leaders, who had either orchestrated or condoned the murders, moved in to cancel the election and retain control of the Government." [8] This became known as the Ruelle Vaillant massacre. [9] [10] [11]
That same day, several media outlets were attacked: Radio Haiti-Inter suffered a grenade attack on its facade and Radio Antilles International was attacked with gunfire. A group of 16 men in army uniforms destroyed the transmitter of Radio Soleil. [5]
The elections were followed several months later by the 1988 elections, which was boycotted by almost all the previous candidates, and saw a turnout of just 4%. [12]
The recorded history of Haiti began in 1492, when the European navigator Christopher Columbus landed on a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean. The western portion of the island of Hispaniola, where Haiti is situated, was inhabited by the Taíno and Arawakan people, who called their island Ayiti. The island was promptly claimed for the Spanish Crown, where it was named La Isla Española, later Latinized to Hispaniola. By the early 17th century, the French had built a settlement on the west of Hispaniola and called it Saint-Domingue. Prior to the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the economy of Saint-Domingue gradually expanded, with sugar and, later, coffee becoming important export crops. After the war which had disrupted maritime commerce, the colony underwent rapid expansion. In 1767, it exported indigo, cotton and 72 million pounds of raw sugar. By the end of the century, the colony encompassed a third of the entire Atlantic slave trade.
François Duvalier, also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician of French Martiniquan descent who served as the President of Haiti from 1957 until his death. He was elected president in the 1957 general election on a populist and black nationalist platform. After thwarting a military coup d'état in 1958, his regime rapidly became more autocratic and despotic. An undercover government death squad, the Tonton Macoute, indiscriminately tortured or killed Duvalier's opponents; the Tonton Macoute was thought to be so pervasive that Haitians became highly fearful of expressing any form of dissent, even in private. Duvalier further sought to solidify his rule by incorporating elements of Haitian mythology into a personality cult.
Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Baby Doc", was a Haitian politician who was the President of Haiti from 1971 until he was overthrown by a popular uprising in February 1986. He succeeded his father François "Papa Doc" Duvalier as the ruler of Haiti after his death in 1971. After assuming power, he introduced cosmetic changes to his father's regime and delegated much authority to his advisors. Thousands of Haitians were killed or tortured, and hundreds of thousands fled the country during his presidency. He maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle while poverty among his people remained the most widespread of any country in the Western Hemisphere.
The Union for a Popular Movement was a centre-right political party in France belonging to the Gaullist tradition. During its existence, the UMP was one of the two major parties in French politics along with the Socialist Party (PS). The UMP was formed in 2002 as a merger of several centre-right parties under the leadership of President Jacques Chirac. In May 2015, the party was succeeded by The Republicans.
Henri Namphy was a Haitian general and political figure who served as President of Haiti's interim ruling body, the National Council of Government, from 7 February 1986 to 7 February 1988. He served again as President of Haiti from 20 June 1988 after the June 1988 coup that he led, until his deposition on September 17, 1988 in the September coup.
Jean Léopold Dominique was a Haitian journalist and activist for human rights and democracy in Haiti. His station, Radio Haiti-Inter, was the first to broadcast news, investigative reporting, and political analysis in Haitian Creole, the language spoken by most Haitian people. On 3 April 2000 he was assassinated as he arrived for work at Radio Haiti-Inter. An extensive though turbulent investigation failed to officially identify and bring to justice the primary perpetrators, who remain at large.
Gérard Jean-Juste was a Roman Catholic priest and rector of Saint Claire's church for the poor in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was also a liberation theologian and a supporter of the Fanmi Lavalas political party, as well as heading the Miami, Florida-based Haitian Refugee Center from 1977 to 1990.
General elections were held in Haiti on 7 February 2006 to elect the replacements for the interim government of Gérard Latortue, which had been put in place after the 2004 Haiti rebellion. The elections were delayed four times, having originally been scheduled for October and November 2005. Voters elected a president, all 99 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of Haiti and all 30 seats in the Senate of Haiti. Voter turnout was around 60%. Run-off elections for the Chamber of Deputies of Haiti were held on 21 April, with around 28% turnout.
The Christian Movement for a New Haiti is a political party in Haiti.
The Rally of Progressive National Democrats is a political party in Haiti.
Parliamentary elections were held in the Republic of the Congo on 24 June 2007, with a second round initially planned for 22 July 2007, but then postponed to 5 August 2007. According to the National Commission of the Organization of the Elections (CONEL), 1,807 candidates stood in the first round for 137 seats in the National Assembly. The ruling Congolese Labour Party and parties and independent candidates allied with it won 125 seats, while two opposition parties won a combined 12 seats.
General elections were held in Haiti on 17 January 1988, after the 1987 general election had been cancelled due to an election day massacre of voters either orchestrated or condoned by the Haitian military. The elections were boycotted by most candidates who had contested the previous elections, and while the official voter turnout figure was stated to be around 35%, observers and foreign officials estimated it to be no more than 10%, with some putting it at lower than 4%.
General elections were held in Haiti on 22 September 1957. Former Minister of Labour François Duvalier won the presidential election running under the National Unity Party banner, defeating Louis Déjoie, as well as independent moderate Clement Jumelle, who had dropped out on election day in a cloud of suspicions that the army was monitoring the election in favour of Duvalier. Former head of state Daniel Fignolé, considered a champion of poor blacks, was considered ineligible as he had been forcibly exiled months before the election, allegedly kidnapped.
Haitian cinema includes the films and filmmakers of Haiti. The Haitian diaspora is active in the industry. Oppressive dictators and economic struggles have limited production.
Service d'Intelligence National was a Haitian intelligence agency created by the US Central Intelligence Agency after the 1986 overthrow of Jean-Claude Duvalier, at the height of the Anti-Duvalier protest movement. The unit, staffed by officers of the Armed Forces of Haiti, "engaged in drug trafficking and political violence". The CIA provided half a million to a million dollars per year to train SIN in counter-narcotics, but the group produced no intelligence and instead used their training against political opponents.
The Anti-Duvalier protest movement was a series of demonstrations in Haiti from 23 May 1984 – 7 February 1986 that led to the overthrow of President Jean-Claude Duvalier and the Duvalier dynasty regime and the readoption of the original flag and coat of arms of the country.
Antoine Adrien was a Catholic Priest and liberation theology advocate who served as Father Superior of the Holy Ghost Order in Haiti. He also served as Director of the "Petit Séminaire Collège Saint-Martial", attended primarily by children of the country's elite. Adrien was expelled from Haiti in 1969 by the Francois Duvalier regime which accused the Holy Ghost Order of harboring communists working to overthrow the regime.
The Duvalier dynasty was an autocratic hereditary dictatorship in Haiti that lasted almost 29 years, from 1957 until 1986, spanning the rule of the father-and-son duo François and Jean-Claude Duvalier.
Yves Volel was a Haitian lawyer, activist, and presidential candidate. He was assassinated in 1987 while running for office. He was the leader of an offshoot of the Haitian Christian Democratic Party, led by Sylvio Claude, known as the Christian Democratic Rally.
The National Unity Party is a political party in Haiti. It was the de facto only political party in the country during the Duvalier dynasty, the autocratic family dictatorship of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, which lasted from 1957 to 1986.
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