At long last, Haiti has a president. On Jan. 3, the provisional electoral council confirmed that businessman Jovenel Moise won the Nov. 20 election. Moise is close to former President Michel Martelly, who stepped down in February 2016. The provisional council said that Moise won 55 percent of votes in the November 2016 election, beating out his closest rival, Jude Celestin, who won 19.5 percent. Moise will begin his five-year term Feb. 7.
Haiti's judiciary ratified the results, noting that although there were some irregularities in the vote, they were not significant enough to impact the electoral process. Minor protests broke out following the confirmation of the results. It is noteworthy that the unrest has been so small. Massive street protests broke out in December 2015 over allegations that the last election, held in October 2015, had been fraudulent. As with the recent vote, Moise won the October 2015 election, though without a majority. A second round had been set for Dec. 27, 2015, but it was cancelled because of protests. The provisional council decided to postpone the vote indefinitely and, since that time, provisional President Jocelerme Privert has led the country. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been pressuring Haiti to hold the second round of elections, and threatened to suspend aid on numerous occasions. Eventually, the presidential election was set for October 2016, but Hurricane Matthew forced authorities to postpone it to November.
Moise is a businessman involved with the banana industry and belongs to the center-right Haitian Tet Kale Party. He does not have a great deal of political experience and was selected by Martelly as his presidential candidate. This is a relatively common practice, and most incoming Haitian presidents have been close to their predecessors.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and its economic growth has been further hampered by the political uncertainty of the past year as well as a three-year drought and a cholera outbreak. The U.N. Economic Commission to Latin America expects the Haitian economy to grow around 2 percent next year, up from around 1.5 percent in 2016.
