The politics of Haiti takes place in the framework of a unitary semi-presidential republic, where the president is the head of state and the prime minister is the head of government. The politics of Haiti are considered historically unstable due to various coups d'état, regime changes, military juntas and internal conflicts. After Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed, Haitian politics became relatively stable. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Haiti an "authoritarian regime" in 2022. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices Haiti is 2023 the 4th least electoral democratic country in Latin America.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president. As a priest, he taught liberation theology and, as a president, he attempted to normalize Afro-Creole culture, including Vodou religion, in Haiti. Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies to become a priest. He became a focal point for the pro-democracy movement first under Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier and then under the military transition regime which followed. He won the 1990–91 Haitian general election, with 67% of the vote.
René Garcia Préval was a Haitian politician and agronomist who twice was President of Haiti, from early 1996 to early 2001, and again from mid-2006 to mid-2011. He was also Prime Minister from early to late 1991 under the presidency of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
A coup d'état in Haiti on 29 February 2004, following several weeks of conflict, resulted in the removal of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office. On 5 February, a rebel group, called the National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation and Reconstruction of Haiti, took control of Haiti's fourth-largest city, Gonaïves. By 22 February, the rebels had captured Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haïtien and were besieging the capital, Port-au-Prince by the end of February. On the morning of 29 February, Aristide resigned under controversial circumstances and was flown from Haiti by U.S. military and security personnel. He went into exile, being flown directly to the Central African Republic, before eventually settling in South Africa.
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.
Parliamentary elections were held in Haiti on May 21 and July 9, 2000, electing all 82 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and nineteen seats in the Senate. A further eight seats in the Senate were elected on November 26, alongside the presidential elections. The first round of legislative elections generated so much conflict that the fall elections were boycotted by the opposition.
Fwon Lespwa was a Haitian political coalition headed by René Préval, who served as president from 1996 to 2001 and from 2006 to 2011. The name Lespwa is the Haitian Creole form of the French l'espoir, meaning "hope". The coalition's full French name is Front de l'Espoir. Lespwa included many members and former members of the last government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas.
The Struggling People's Organization, called until 1996 Lavalas Political Organization, is a Haitian political party originating from the Lavalas political movement. Formed in 1995, the pro-Aristide Lavalas faction split from the party in 1996 forming their own Fanmi Lavalas party, at this time the OPL's name was changed from Organisation Politique Lavalas to its present appellation. This split meant that few of the intelligentsia that had previously supported Jean-Bertrand Aristide ended up in the new Lavalas.
The National Assembly consisted of the bicameral legislature of the Republic of Haiti, consisting of the upper house as the Senate and the lower house as the Chamber of Deputies. Both assemblies conduct legislative sessions at the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
Lavalas, the Haitian Creole word for "avalanche", may refer to:
Elections for a third of the seats in the Senate of Haiti were held on 19 April 2009, with a run-off to be held on 21 June 2009. Per the Constitution of Haiti, voters should renew ten of the thirty seats in the Senate, but as Pierre Emmanuel Limage, died in a car accident and Ultimo Compère and Rudolph H. Boulos resigned, there were twelve open seats instead.
Ronald Dauphin is a Haitian grassroots activist, customs worker and political prisoner who has been imprisoned without trial since March 2004. A member of Fanmi Lavalas, he was arrested by armed rebels on March 1, 2004 - the day after the controversial Haitian President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, fled into exile which was triggered by both a popular and an armed uprising. Mr. Dauphin has spent the ensuing years in a Haitian prison without having been convicted of any crime. Prior to his arrest, Ronald Dauphin A.K.A "Black" or Black Ronald, had been working several security and disposal jobs for the Lavalas party. He had also been the main security chief for the Mayor of Saint-Marc in the time prior to his government contract work. While incarcerated, his father was burned alive in his house by people seeking revenge on Ronald. He was also diagnosed with tuberculosis, due to the poor and overcrowded prison system in Haiti.
General elections were held in Haiti on 28 November 2010, having originally been scheduled for 28 February. Ten senators and all 99 deputies were to be elected.
Convergence Démocratique was a conservative Haitian political movement created in summer 2000 in opposition to Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas (FL) party. A group of disparate opposition parties and social organizations, it was crafted and built by the International Republican Institute. The Convergence Démocratique was backed by "the Haitian elite, the Bush administration, the Republicans in Congress, and especially the International Republican Institute ... The International Republican Institute did all it could to urge the DC to build a national electoral constituency that could rival Aristide’s FL party at the polls ..."
Leading figures in the Convergence Démocratique made no secret of their intentions at the time of Aristide’s reinauguration as president in February 2001; they openly called for another US invasion, ‘this time to get rid of Aristide and rebuild the disbanded Haitian army’. Failing that, they told the Washington Post, ‘the CIA should train and equip Haitian officers exiled in the neighbouring Dominican Republic so they could stage a comeback themselves’." With the CD's inability to develop sufficient public support among the Haitian poor, reaching just 8% in March 2002 opinion polls, the electoral route for CD was not promising.
Patriotic Unity, is a political party in Haiti founded on 28 November 2009. Its dissolution had been claimed by former leading members on 30 April 2019 but was then disputed by the current leadership. Its founder and leader was René Préval, who served as President of Haiti from 2006 to 2011.
Alternative League for Haitian Progress and Emancipation is a Haitian political party. The party is led by Jude Célestin, and held three seats in the Chamber of Deputies after the 2015 election, while holding no seats in the Senate, although both houses of Haitian parliament have been vacant since January 10, 2023. The party abbreviation, LAPEH, is pronounced like the Haitian Creole word "lapé", meaning "peace", from French "la paix".
Platfòm Pitit Desalin, named after Haitian revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines, is a Haitian political party led by Jean-Charles Moïse. As of 11 April 2018, the party had two seats in the Chamber of Deputies and one seat in the Senate. Since January 10, 2023, both houses of parliament in Haiti have been vacant. The party leader, Jean-Charles Moïse, resigned as Senator in protest of an alleged bribe of $2.5 million offered to him by allies of President Michel Martelly and in order to run for president in the 2015 presidential election. He received 14.3% of the popular vote and came in third place. In the aftermath of the election, the party played a major role in the opposition protests against eventual winner Jovenel Moïse.
Presidential elections were held in Haiti on 20 November 2016 after having been postponed several times. The elections were overseen by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), and were held using the two-round system, with a second round scheduled for 29 January 2017 if no candidate received an absolute majority of the votes in the first round. However, on 27 November election officials announced that, according to preliminary results, Jovenel Moïse had won the election in the first round with more than 50% of the vote. Voter turnout, in the election held 6 weeks after Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti, was reported to be 21%. Jovenel Moïse assumed office on 7 February 2017, and was assassinated on 7 July 2021.
