Waging Peace: Haiti

Monitoring Elections

In 1987, members of the Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas, an informal group of current and former leaders from the Western Hemisphere, met to discuss the electoral process in Haiti. A presidential candidate had been assassinated, which threatened to undermine the entire process. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Prime Minister George Price of Belize, and Dr. Robert Pastor, then director of the Center's Americas Program, flew to the island to try to steer the elections back on track. They succeeded at the time, but in December, the military intervened and prevented the election.

In July 1990, the council was invited by then President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot and opposition leaders to monitor the election. In this effort, the council joined the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, visited the country several times in advance of the Dec. 15 ballot, and sent an international delegation to monitor the vote. President Aristide won in Haiti's first free and fair election in its history, but less than a year later, he was overthrown in a military coup.

The Carter Center became actively involved in assisting the international community to restore constitutional government to Haiti in September 2001. Visiting the Center in December 1992, former Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica and U.N. Secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali discussed possible involvement by the United Nations or Organization of American States in Haiti, and President Aristide visited the Center the next month. President Aristide remained in close contact with President Carter and Dr. Pastor and participated in several discussions at the Center on how to restore democracy to Haiti.

Many of those ideas bore fruit in September 1994, when President Carter was asked by Haitian General Raoul Cédras to help avoid a U.S. military invasion of Haiti. President Carter relayed this information to President Clinton, who asked him to undertake a mission to Haiti with Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell. The team successfully negotiated the departure of Haiti's military leaders, paving the way for the restoration of Jean-Bertrande Aristide as president.

In February 1995, the negotiating team returned to Haiti to assess the country's progress. Their visit focused on the transfer of authority from American-led forces to the United Nations and on preparations for parliamentary and presidential elections. They found signs of progress but warned of pitfalls that could mar the June 1995 elections.

Visiting Haiti during the June 1995 election, The Carter Center found it flawed by technical and administrative problems, and its results were widely disputed. However, Robert Pastor, director of the Center's Latin American and Carribean Program, said, "Compared to 200 years of dictatorship and repression, the election was a step out of the past. Whether it will be a step forward or sideways remains to be seen."

The Carter Center was again called on after the 2000 elections. The Caribbean Community  and the Organization of American States led a mission to seek solutions to an impasse on the disputed election results and to develop plans to fortify Haiti's democratic institutions. The Carter Center served as an adviser to the mission. The OAS has continued to serve as the mediator for this dispute, and The Carter Center continues to monitor the evolution of democracy and prospects for development in Haiti.