1983, April – December: (Firmer Than a Monkey’s Tail: The Municipal Elections, Borjella Wins the Cap Again, Lafontant Invalidates St.

1983, April – December: (Firmer Than a Monkey’s Tail: The Municipal Elections, Borjella Wins the Cap Again, Lafontant Invalidates St. Raphaël and Petit-Goâve, Three Constitutional Amendments Including the Right to Name a Successor, the Super Cabinet, the October Army Purge by Midnight Television, Le Petit Samedi Soir Lists Eleven Possible Successors and the Issue Vanishes, and the February 1984 Legislative Elections — Just a Show Put On for the United States): Shaken, the government resumed its business. The free and honest elections promised the previous April were scheduled for April and May of 1983 everywhere except Port-au-Prince, which was to vote last in June. The first balloting in the Northwest went well enough with regime candidates winning as expected. In May, with the mayorship of the ever-troublesome Cap being contested, the government detained the sole opposition Assembly member, Capois Alexandre Lerouge, for the duration of the campaign; security forces were thwarted in their attempt to lock up Sylvio Claude, who went to ground for a few days. To the intense annoyance of the government, the maverick Capois in a replay of the Lerouge election opted for the independent candidate Wilson Borjella. Away from the international press, Lafontant invalidated election results in dusty St. Raphaël and Petit-Goâve on the basis of irregularities; the Port-au-Prince elections were postponed. In August, three constitutional changes were announced: the right to appoint an interim president for foreign travel, the right to nominate a successor — no mention of interim this time — and the creation of a super cabinet comprising Finance, Foreign Affairs, and Interior. The super cabinet in microcosm demonstrated the contradictions pulling the government apart: Lafontant disliked intensely the mulâtre Finance Minister Frantz Merceron, who was adept and obliging enough to do what Bazin had balked at — routinely transfer millions from state coffers to private accounts. Michèle disliked Lafontant; the president was trapped in the middle. In October a nearly clean sweep of the army high command was announced — incumbents learned of their retirements from a midnight television broadcast. Le Petit Samedi Soir ran in December an article listing eleven possible successors to the presidency; no presses were smashed — the issue simply vanished from newsstands. With the dawning of 1984, all eyes focused on the February 12 legislative elections. Lerouge was warned against running for a second term; Eugène was barred from returning from his four-year U.S. exile until elections were over. Sylvio Claude, released on Christmas Eve from yet another stint in prison, under house arrest in his modest cinder-block home, told a reporter that while he was there Jean-Claude had someone to worry about, and dismissed the imminent elections as a show put on for the United States. More than three hundred candidates contested fifty-nine seats; despite preliminary vetting, a few contests heated up — in one, Ed Racine was pitted against incumbent Edner Cadet, but when Cadet began trailing seriously the government simply stuffed the ballot boxes. Despite two-thirds of incumbents being replaced, the resultant body looked identical. The regime put on less of a show in 1984 than during the previous American election — with Reagan’s re-election looking certain, fewer gestures were necessary. After delivering a speech in favor of press freedom on May 5, the president allowed his first minister only six days later to ban all political activities except those related to Jean-Claudism, while Secretary of State Shultz was simultaneously certifying to Congress that there had been enough demonstrable progress to justify continued U.S. aid to Haiti.