Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

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Haiti: Government and Politics
owed the fact that the FL was fielding slates of candidates
(cartels) for most of the communal section assemblies and town
delegation races. The dismally low 5 percent turnout on April 6
reflected a growing trend of voter fatigue, frustration, apathy,
and confusion. The election was plagued not only by a negligible
turnout, but also by controversy surrounding the extremely
poor management of the process by the allegedly pro-FL CEP
and resultant fraudulent vote counts in many races, including
several close senatorial races where CEP determinations
related to spoiled ballots pushed the FL candidate to outright
victory. Pointing to widespread allegations of fraud, few international
observers recognized the elections as free and fair.
The government^ yielding to this pressure, as well as that
applied vehemently by the OPL, refused to recognize the
results, but did little to resolve the matter quickly.
While the election controversy festered, the country tumbled
into an unprecedented political crisis. Government
became gridlocked, as relations between the executive and parliamentary
branches worsened and the Chamber of Deputies
and the Senate, fraught with internal divisions, failed to reach
consensus on most pressing legislative matters, including the
passage of the government's budget and legislation related to
economic reform. In June Prime Minister Smarth, unable to
work effectively with the parliament and personally disgusted
by the way political in-fighting had paralyzed the country
"power is a disease in this country," he stated—resigned, throwing
the executive branch into a turmoil. Although many members
of his cabinet followed him, leaving their posts, others
remained in caretaker roles to manage ongoing programs.
However, they were unable to initiate programs until a new government
was formed. As remaining ministers combined portfolios,
spreading a thin executive branch even thinner, external
assistance once again began to dry up, a significant development
in a country whose budget is approximately two-thirds
derived from foreign aid. Alarmingly, by October 1997, only
US$1 billion of the US$2.1 billion pledged almost three years
earlier had been disbursed.
In the meantime, President Preval, standing somewhere
between the FL and the OPL, appeared to be unable to find a
way out of the electoral crisis. Indeed, many viewed him as
remaining surprisingly aloof from it. After a delay of several
months, he nominated Ericq Pierre, an agronomist and Haiti's
representative to the Inter-American Development Bank
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