Security & Strategic Review February 2009 (ISSN 1741-4202)

With the UN stabilization force Minustah beginning to discuss a pullout date, Haiti is facing a highly risky development in the political arena: the exclusion from the forthcoming senatorial elections of Fanmi Lavalas, the party of exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Lavalas followers have already threatened to disrupt the elections if this move is not reversed, and even the US has joined the chorus of international concern over the possible consequences.