- Lespwa
Fwon Lespwa is a Haitian political coalition headed by
René Préval , who served as president from 1996 to 2001. The name "Lespwa" is the Haitian Creole form of the French "l'espoir", meaning "hope". The coalition's full French name is "Front de l'Espoir" (Hope Front). Lespwa includes many members and former members of the last democratically elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide and hisFanmi Lavalas (Waterfall Family).USAID and the IRI attempted to form a rump Lavalas organization with
Marc Bazin , but Aristide along with nearly all of Fanmi Lavalas refused to recognize Bazin's candidacy. While publicly boycotting the elections, Lavalas overwhelmingly supported the election of René Préval, which it saw as a return to peace and democracy.At the February 2006 presidential election, Préval was the Lespwa candidate. With 90% of the vote counted by February 13, he was leading with 49% of the vote. On February 16, 2006, Préval was declared the winner with 51.21% of the vote, once a number of uncounted voters were tabulated. Supporters of Lespwa found a massive dump of burned charred voting cards marked for Preval. A massive persecution upon supporters of the ousted Aristide government by the illegal interim government of
Gerard Latortue preceded the 2006 election cycle. The party won in the 7 February 2006 Senate elections 18.9 % of the popular vote and 13 out of 30 Senators and 23 out of 99 deputies in the Chamber of Deputies election. Lespwa's parliamentary caucus formed part of the governing coalition underJacques-Edouard Alexis , [ [http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-ahaiti07jun07,0,1718057.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean "South Florida Sun-Sentinel."] ] but soon formed a political alliance, theCoalition of Progressive Parliamentarians , that filed a motion of no confidence in Alexis' government during the 2008 food crisis. It has since rejected two of Preval's nominees for prime minister; through the electoral alliance, Lespwa's leaders have gained a majority in the Chamber.References
External links
* [http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={5D5615A5-C0FB-4A84-9D10-0772B76E40E3}&language=EN Préval Shoo-in for Haiti President]
* [http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/02/16/haiti-preval060216.html Préval declared winner in Haiti]
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