by Margaret Mair

Created on: January 29, 2010

For much of its existence Haiti has struggled to establish a working democracy, free of either internal conflict or external interference.  This struggle has been complicated by poverty, a widespread lack of education and infrastructure, and the wish of other nations, including the United States, France and Canada, to encourage a government which is friendly to their interests.  

The roots of the Rebellion of 2004 stretch a long way back, but the most immediate precipitating factors are found in the often-delayed elections finally held in January 2000, elections dominated by the Fanmi Lavalas party and its leader Jean Bertrand Aristide.  The politics of Haiti  to this point were based on a multiparty system.  There were as many as nineteen active political parties in the period leading up to the 2000 election, most with regional or local loyalties and interests.  During the run up to the election most did not actively campaign, and when they did speak out it was usually to criticize the Fanmi Lavalas party and the government.  In the end Fanmi Lavalas, created by Aristide in 1996, was the only party to have a national presence, to campaign nationally, and to work hard to educate voters on how to vote for its candidates.   Subsequently the Fanmi Lavalas party won the majority of seats, and Jean Bertrand Aristide was elected President.

These elections were observed by the OAS, which reported substantial reservations in the way the election ballots were counted, transported, recorded and reported, and in the partisan manner in which formal challenges to the results were treated, a partisanship which they felt was particularly noticeable in the election of candidates to senate seats.  The behavior of various party leaders was also seen as a problem, since they made what the OAS report suggested were unfounded accusations of fraud.  These accusations, combined with the partisan reporting of some of the press, further eroded belief in the legitimacy of the elections and made a tense situation even worse.  However, the OAS observing team did not declare that these discrepancies rendered the election results as a whole invalid.

The years following the elections were difficult ones.  The Democratic Convergence, a coalition of parties and individuals opposed to Aristide, tried to force his resignation in 2001. The group was supported by the Haitian elite, funded in part by the National Endowment for Democracy

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