Editing Jean-Bertrand Aristide (section)

== Opposition (1996–2001) ==

In late 1996, Aristide broke from the OPL over what he called its "distance from the people"<ref name=hallward>{{Cite news|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n04/peter-hallward/an-interview-with-jean-bertrand-aristide|author=Peter Hallward|title=An Interview with Jean-Bertrand Aristide|pages=9–13|newspaper=London Review of Books|date=22 February 2007}}</ref> and created a new political party, the [[Fanmi Lavalas]]. The OPL, holding the majority in the [[Senate of Haiti|Sénat]] and the [[Chamber of Deputies of Haiti|Chambre des Députés]], renamed itself the [[Struggling People's Organization|Organisation du Peuple en Lutte]], maintaining the OPL acronym.

Fanmi Lavalas won the [[2000 Haitian parliamentary election|2000 legislative election]] in May, but a handful of Senate seats were allocated to Lavalas candidates that critics claimed should have had second-round runoffs (as the votes of some smaller parties were eliminated in final vote counts, which had also been done in earlier elections). Critics argue that FL had not achieved a first-round majority for this handful of senate seats. Critics also charge that Fanmi Lavalas controlled the Provisional Election Commission which made the decision, but their criticism is of a vote count technique used prior in Haiti history.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dailey|first=Peter |date=13 March 2003|title=Haiti: The Fall of the House of Aristide|journal=New York Review of Books|volume=50|issue=4|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16126|access-date=14 February 2010}}</ref> Aristide then was elected later that year in the [[2000 Haitian presidential election|2000 presidential election]], an election boycotted by most opposition political parties, now organised into the [[Convergence Démocratique]]. Although the U.S. government claimed that the election turnout was hardly over 10%, international observers saw turnout of around 50%{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}, and at the time, [[CNN]] reported a turnout of 60% with over 92% voting for Aristide.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/election.watch/americas/haiti1.html|title=Election watch Haiti|publisher=CNN|date=26 November 2000 | access-date=6 May 2010}}</ref> The Bush administration in the U.S. and Haitian expatriate opposition leaders in Florida would use the criticism over the election to argue for an embargo on international aid to the Haitian government.