Political Problems

>>>Political Problems Continued

 *Shortly after Rene Preval became president of Haiti, Aristide broke away from the OPL and created his own political party called the Lavalas Family (Fanmi Lavalas, or FL for short).

*The 1997 elections were for 1/3 of the senate, town delegations, and commune-level assemblies.  Only 5-6% of the voting population turned up to vote, with the majority of the vote going to FL.  Not even a full 2 years later, Haiti was already plagued with fraud at the voting booths.  

*Preval government refused to accept results of elections  and was unable to organize local elections in 1998.  Preval then ruled by degree, establishing a cabinet comprised almost completely of FL members.  Preval postponed elections five times and would not call Parliament into session.