Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Countn Studies
the FNCD and his ally, Evans Paul. In the 1995 parliamentary
and municipal elections, the FNCD presented itself as the main
opposition to the Lavalas Political Platform, a coalition that
pulled together the OPL, MOP, and two newer parties, the
Open Gate Party (Pati Louvri Barye—PLB), which had its
strongest following in the North Department, and the Resistance
Committee of Grand' Anse (KOREGA, based on the Creole
name), a Lavalas group based principally in the Grand'
Anse and South departments. Most other marginal political
parties boycotted the elections, although some individuals affiliated
with them presented their candidacies. Their absence was
not felt; voters endorsed the PPL or independent candidates
linked with Lavalas by large margins of victory in most races.
Without the Lavalas endorsement, Evans Paul failed to gain reelection
as mayor of Port-au-Prince, and the FNCD was almost
shut out.
Of the fourteen candidates who ran in the December 1995
presidential election, four were independents; nine were affiliated
with political parties. The landslide winner, Rene Preval.
ran simply as Lavalas. As noted elsewhere, since those elections
the Lavalas movement has splintered in two directions: toward
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family, created in 1997, and
toward the OPL, which altered its name to the Organization of
Struggling People to symbolize its break from Aristide's Lavalas.
The OPL is headed by Gerard Pierre-Charles. The other
parties that formed the 1995 PPL coalition—MOP, PLB,
KOREGA—remain active, although they are currently overshadowed
by the FL-OPL division. The marginal parties, now
including the FNCD and sometimes lumped together as "the
opposition," still exist, but they are characterized by small followings.
They are plagued by their inability to distinguish
themselves from political pasts that do not appeal to most voters,
or to form effective coalitions. Since the contested elections
of April 1997, the OPL has occasionally taken a common
position with these parties.
Duvalierists and Makout
Support for the de facto military regime was strong among a
network of individuals and organizations that had participated
in the well-developed patronage system of the Duvalier dictatorships
and the military regimes that followed. Among them
were the former members of the infamous nationwide paramilitary
organization, the tonton makout, and Duvalierist or military
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