With a note of urgency, the leaders of the Western Hemisphere have asked the head of the Organization of American States to broker the political dispute that has paralyzed Haiti for the past year. Enaudi traveled to Haiti six times this past year, but failed to get an agreement. Those May 21 elections were recognized by the OAS, but the method of calculating the votes, which affected seven to nine senate seats, was called into question. A coalition of political parties, claiming widespread irregularities and partisanship on the part of the commission set up to run the elections, boycotted a runoff, as well as the presidential vote in November. The opposition has turned down several proposals to rectify the irregularities, calling instead for new legislative and presidential voting.
Several signs point to a possible agreement.
Coming out of summit meeting, Aristide said he believed that dialogue will take Haiti out of the crisis. Evans Paul, a spokesman for the opposition, interpreted the international community's recommendations to Aristide as a victory for Haitian democrats. He said it was time for the two sides to sign a political accord to resolve the crisis.