Haiti elections 2015: Former president Aristide endorses Maryse Narcisse for president

Twice-ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide urged thousands of supporters gathered outside his house Wednesday to vote for the presidential candidate of the political faction he founded years ago.

Backers of the Fanmi Lavalas movement waved photos of Aristide after they trekked to his home in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Tabarre following a campaign rally miles away for the party’s presidential candidate.

Aristide appeared outside his gate with Lavalas’ presidential candidate and party chief, Maryse Narcisse, to address the crowd. Standing alongside Narcisse, he called on supporters to ensure that the party’s leader wins this year’s presidential election. The first round will be held on October 25.

“Everybody needs to stick together for Maryse Narcisse to enter the National Palace as president,” Aristide said into a microphone during his roughly seven-minute speech, prompting loud cheers and applause.

He also criticized Haiti’s electoral authorities for what he said were the flawed results from an August 9 legislative vote, which he described as a “selection instead of an election.”

The rarely seen Aristide remains a popular yet polarizing figure more than a decade after he fled the country on a U.S. plane in February 2004 amid a violent rebellion that led to his second ouster. He has stayed mostly silent at his family home since he returned to Haiti in 2011 following years of exile in South Africa.

Narcisse is among over 50 candidates vying for the job to replace President Michel Martelly, who cannot run for a consecutive term.

Aristide’s public endorsement could be a boon for Narcisse, who is polling well below front-runner Jude Celestin. During the last election cycle, the party was barred from the ballot.

A former priest and Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Aristide was a champion of the country’s impoverished masses and led a movement to oust dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. He alienated Haiti’s wealthy elite and was forced from power twice, first by a military junta in 1991 and again by a violent rebellion in 2004.

Critics say Aristide broke promises to help the poor, allowing corruption fueled by the drug traffic and masterminding attacks on opponents with armed gangs.

Source: Associated Press