Maryse Narcisse Registers as the Presidential Candidate of the Lavalas Family Party

by Daniel
Tercier (Haiti Liberte)
With great
fanfare, on May 19, Dr. Maryse Narcisse, the coordinator of the Lavalas Family
Political Organization (FL), registered as that party’s candidate for
presidential elections scheduled for October and December.
            With over 150 motorcycles, 10 school
buses, and 40 private cars, thousands of FL partisans clogged the streets of
Tabarre in anticipation of the event. Dr. Narcisse arrived at the Aristide
Foundation for Democracy around 9:30 a.m.. After a rally there, she drove
through the multitude to the home of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
about a half mile away. After about 15 minutes, two vehicles with tinted
windows emerged. The crowd went wild, thinking that Dr. Aristide was in one of
the vehicles. But when the cars arrived at the West Department’s Electoral
Bureau (BED), it turned out Dr. Narcisse was accompanied by Mildred Trouillot
Aristide, the former president’s wife.

            The FL has been excluded from all
Haitian elections for over a decade, since the U.S.-backed coup d’état against
Aristide in February 2004.