Word: prevalence
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...wake of violent protests over increased food prices. However Saturday's vote by 16 of the country's 27 lawmakers to oust Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis means that the country is in the middle of a severe leadership crisis - and that Haiti's Head of State, President Rene Preval, is now politically impotent, bereft of his chief executive...
...Preval, who called the Senate vote on Alexis unjust, must now present a new candidate to parliament. Meanwhile, the government is in a lame duck position, with all current cabinet ministers, as well as other secretaries of state in appointed positions, reduced to caretakers. It could be some time before the lawmakers approve a new candidate since there is no majority party in the legislature...
...years - such as those supporting ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide as well as industrialists and military officers still angry over the dismantling of the army in 1994 - have begun making their moves. Harping on the food crisis and perhaps threatening more street agitation, they are likely to pressure Preval into appointing a candidate they think will work to their advantage. As in the past, the resulting compromises are likely to lead to the political divisions, disorder and ineffectiveness that plunged Haiti into chaos. The leadership vacuum may worsen if the Senators go after Preval himself, which some observers predict...
...presidency, was forced into exile in 2004 and is currently living in South Africa. Meanwhile, emails are circulating accusing Aristide supporters of instigating the demonstrations that shut down the capital last week. Among the Aristide supporters named is activist priest Gerard Jean-Juste, a former political rival of Preval's who was barred from running against...
...head off the food issue, Preval has pledged to promote egg, chicken and rice production and subsidize fertilizer costs; the World Bank has promised $10 million in emergency aid and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has agreed to send 364 tons of food, including chicken, milk and lentils. But in Haiti, even the smallest of economic fissures very quickly widen to swallow up any attempt at political equilibrium...