Haiti: Political Parties & Elections

Haiti's 1987 constitution established a semi-presidential system combining an elected president with a prime minister and cabinet, alongside a bicameral legislature made up of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. For much of the twentieth century, however, formal party competition was tightly restricted under a series of authoritarian governments.

Political parties were effectively banned during the early years of Francois Duvalier's presidency, which began in 1957, and the National Unity Party (PUN) emerged as the sole legally sanctioned party under Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude, who succeeded him as president in 1971. The Duvalier dynasty's rule, marked by repression carried out partly through the paramilitary Tonton Macoute, ended when Jean-Claude Duvalier went into exile in 1986.

The end of Duvalier rule opened the way for a multiparty system, and Haiti held its first free presidential election in December 1990, in which Jean-Bertrand Aristide, backed by the Lavalas movement, won a decisive majority in a vote monitored by international observers from the United Nations and the Organization of American States. Aristide's Lavalas coalition later split into rival parties, including the Lavalas Family (Fanmi Lavalas), while subsequent decades saw the rise of other parties such as the Haitian Tet Kale Party (PHTK), founded by Michel Martelly. Political affiliation in Haiti has often centered on personalities and movements rather than fixed ideological platforms.