Haiti Elections: Aristide Returns After 7-Year Exile

Jean-Bertrand Aristide Returns to Haiti

Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide has returned to Haiti, seven years after going into exile in South Africa.

Hati's first democratically-elected president, Aristidewas first elected in 1991, and was deposed by the military a few months later. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was reinstalled with the help of the US military, and won a second term in office.

Aristide was forced out of power in 2004 during the rebellion, which had US support. The White House did not want Aristide back in Haiti for the elections, arguing that his presence would have a destabilizing effect. President Obama was pressuring South Africa to keep him overseas. South Africa refused, and Jean-Bertrand Aristide is back in Haiti.

Former dicator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier is also back in Haiti, where he has been laying low pending possible corruption and human rights abuse charges.

Meanwhile, Juse Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States, says that Haiti is fully capable of holding "a normal election".