By Jacob Davis
CSMS Magazine
As the presidential election in Haiti moves to high gear, CSMS Magazine has just learned that La Fanmiy Lavalas, the political party of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide, has chosen Dr. Maryse Narcisse as its presidential candidate. Narcisse, who has been a long time protégé of Aristide, is seeing as the perfect choice for the former president.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who has been criticized for his autocratic way of ruling the party, is now perceived to be doing the same thing in the choice of Maryse Narcisse, like he did with former Haitian president René Preval. According to many watchers, relinquishing power is something that dreads Aristide to the core, and choosing a subaltern will only further his goal at ruling from behind.
One remembers too well when Preval was president in the late 1990s, every official visit to Haiti by a foreign dignitary had to include a stop at Aristide private residence, which was considered the true seat of power and influence over the state bureaucratic machine in Haiti.
What Haiti needs is not political tergiversations; it needs a government of national consensus with the sole mandate of bringing the country back from the brink of disaster. Haiti and its people have suffered enough.
Note: CSMS Magazine’s Port-au-Prince correspondent Yves Duchet contributed to this report.
