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Haiti Political Parties
During presidential campaigns, political parties
organized
under the banner of specific personalities. Political
parties
have existed in name for a long time, but they have not
exerted
any independent influence on the political system. Rather,
parties have served as campaign vehicles for individual
politicians.
In the 1870s and the 1880s, the emergence of the
Liberal
Party (Parti Liberal--PL) and the National Party (Parti
National-
-PN) reflected the polarization between black and mulatto
elites
(see
Decades of Instability, 1843-1915). In the wake of
the
United States occupation (1915-34), nationalist parties
organized
around the issue of resistance to foreign occupation.
These
parties included the Patriotic Union (L'Union Patriotique)
and
the Nationalist Union (L'Union Nationaliste). During the
presidential campaign of 1946, there were many candidates
and
parties, including the Popular Socialist Party (Parti
Socialiste
Populaire--PSP), the Unified Democrat Party (Parti
Démocrate
Unifié--PDU), the Worker Peasant Movement (Mouvement
Ouvrier
Paysan--MOP), the Popular Democratic Party of Haitian
Youth
(Parti Démocratique Populaire de la Jeunesse
Haïtienne--PDPJH),
the Communist Party of Haiti (Parti Communiste
d'Haïti--PCH), and
a federation of groups known as the Haitian Revolutionary
Front
(Front Révolutionnaire Haïtien, FRH).
The presidential campaign of 1956-57 included
candidates who
ran under the banners of the National Agricultural
Industrial
Party (Parti Agricole et Industriel National--PAIN) led by
Louis
Déjoie, the MOP led by Daniel Fignolé, the PN led by
Clement
Jumelle, and the National Unity Party (Parti Unité
Nationale--
PUN) of François Duvalier. During the Duvalier years, the
three
non-Duvalierist parties continued to function in exile in
the
United States mainland and Puerto Rico.
Both Duvalier governments banned or severely restricted
opposition political parties. Consequently, about a dozen
opposition parties operated in exile, including Leslie
Manigat's
RDNP based in Caracas, the Unified Haitian Communist Party
(Parti
Unifié des Communistes Haïtiens--PUCH) based in France,
the
National Progressive Revolutionary Haitian Party (Parti
National
Progressiste Révolutionnaire Haïtien--Panpra) headed by
Serge
Gilles and based in France, and the Democratic
Revolutionary
Party of Haiti (Parti Révolutionnaire Démocratique
d'Haïti) based
in the Dominican Republic and subsequently known in Haiti
as the
Democratic Movement for the Liberation of Haiti (Mouvement
Démocratique pour la Libération d'Haïti--MODELH), headed
by
François Latortue.
During the presidential campaign of 1987, more than 100
candidates announced their candidacy. As of August 1987,
twentyone political parties had registered. None of these
parties,
however, developed a nationwide organization. At the time
of the
sabotaged elections of November 19, 1987, the race was
expected
to be won by one of four candidates: Sylvio C. Claude,
standard
bearer of the Christian Democrat Party of Haiti (Parti
Démocrate
Chrétien d'Haïti--PDCH); Marc Bazin of the Movement for
the
Installation of Democracy in Haiti (Mouvement pour
l'Instauration
de la Démocratie en Haïti--MIDH); Louis Dejoie II, son of
the
1957 presidential candidate, representing PAIN; and Gérard
Gourgue of the National Cooperation Front (Front National
de
Concertation--FNC).
The Gourgue candidacy under the FNC appeared to have
considerable support in urban and rural areas. The FNC was
a
loose federation of parties, community groups, and trade
unions
based on an organization called the Group of 57. The party
included the National Committee of the Congress of
Democratic
Movements (Comité National du Congrès des Mouvements
Démocratiques--Conacom), the Patriotic Unity Bloc (Bloc
Unité
Patriotique--BIP), and Panpra, which had re-established
itself in
Haiti with the return of Serge Gilles. Bazin and Dejoie
also
returned from exile to organize their presidential
campaigns.
Claude's PDCH and the Social Christian Party of Haiti
(Parti
Social Chrétien d'Haïti--PSCH) led by Grégoire Eugene were
the
only two political parties organized in Haiti that sought
to
operate openly during the Jean-Claude Duvalier years. The
remaining parties had either formed during the
post-Duvalier
period or had returned from exile to join the campaign.
Data as of December 1989
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