Fwon Lespwa was a Haitian political coalition headed by

René Préval René Garcia Préval (; 17 January 1943 – 3 March 2017) was a Haitian politician and agronomist who served twice as President of Haiti; once from early 1996 to early 2001, and again from mid 2006 to mid 2011. He was also Prime Minister from ...

, who served as president from 1996 to 2001 and from 2006 to 2011. The name ''Lespwa'' is the Haitian Creole form of the French ''l'espoir'', meaning "hope". The coalition's full French name is ''Front de l'Espoir'' (Hope Front). Lespwa includes many members and former members of the last democratically elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide and his

Fanmi Lavalas Fanmi Lavalas ( en, Lavalas Family, Lavalas is Haitian Creole for ''flood''), is a social-democratic political party in Haiti. Its leader is former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It has been a powerful force in Haitian politics since 1 ...

(Waterfall Family).

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

and the

IRI IRI or I.R.I. refers to: Businesses and organizations * Iringa Airport, an airport in Tanzania serving Iringa and the surrounding Iringa Region by IATA airport code * India Rejuvenation Initiative, an Indian anti-corruption organization forme ...

attempted to form a rump Lavalas organization with

Marc Bazin Marc Louis Bazin (March 6, 1932 – June 16, 2010) was a World Bank official, former United Nations functionary and Haitian Minister of Finance and Economy under the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier. He was prime minister of Haiti appointed o ...

, but Aristide along with nearly all of Fanmi Lavalas refused to recognize Bazin's candidacy. While publicly boycotting the elections, Lavalas overwhelmingly supported the election of René Préval, which it saw as a return to peace and democracy. At the February 2006 presidential election, Préval was the Lespwa candidate. With 90% of the vote counted by February 13, he was leading with 49% of the vote. On February 16, 2006, Préval was declared the winner with 51.21% of the vote, once a number of uncounted voters were tabulated. Supporters of Lespwa found a massive dump of burned charred voting cards marked for Preval. A massive persecution upon supporters of the ousted Aristide government by the illegal interim government of

Gerard Latortue Gerard is a masculine forename of Proto-Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constituents put together. In this ca ...

preceded the 2006 election cycle. The party won in the 7 February 2006 Senate

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

18.9% of the popular vote and 13 out of 30 Senators and 23 out of 99 deputies in the Chamber of Deputies election. Lespwa's parliamentary caucus formed part of the governing coalition under

Jacques-Édouard Alexis Jacques-Édouard Alexis (born 21 September 1947) is a Haitian politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Haiti from 1999 to 2001 and was Prime Minister for a second term from 2006 to 2008 when he was dismissed due to political fallout from f ...

,''South Florida Sun-Sentinel.''
/ref> but soon formed a political alliance, the Coalition of Progressive Parliamentarians, that filed a motion of no confidence in Alexis' government during the 2008 food crisis. It has since rejected two of Preval's nominees for prime minister; through the electoral alliance, Lespwa's leaders have gained a majority in the Chamber. Lespwa was disbanded in November 2009 in favor of

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; ...

(''Inite''), the successor of many pro-Préval supporters, including factions from other parties.

References

External links

Préval Shoo-in for Haiti President Préval declared winner in Haiti
Defunct political parties in Haiti Defunct political party alliances Democratic socialist parties in North America Haitian nationalism Left-wing nationalist parties Political party alliances in Haiti Socialism in Haiti Political parties disestablished in 2009 {{Haiti-party-stub