The 1957 Electoral Campaign

Chapter 6: The 1957 Electoral Campaign

At that time, Haiti was divided into five departments: Artibonite, West, North, South, and Northwest. Under President Duvalier, the country would come to have nine departments. In 2005, under the provisional government of Boniface Latortue, Haiti would be divided into ten departments.

Déjoie’s Side

Let us first examine how matters stood on Déjoie’s side. In 1957, Déjoie launched the Haitian Agricultural-Industrial Party, known as PAIN, a political party established to support his presidential candidacy. Handsome and well built, Déjoie resembled a movie actor in the official portrait released by his political bureau during the campaign.

As a leader, however, the many mistakes he committed soon made it clear to many people that Déjoie was not particularly skilled at Haitian politics. Early in the campaign, Déjoie undermined himself. At a rally with the people of Gonaïves, he made an unfortunate declaration in which he spoke of big toes.

Duvalier’s supporters immediately distorted the expression “big toes.” It did not take long for it to spread throughout the country, with the claim that Déjoie had called all Black people big toes.

Despite all the effort Louis Déjoie later made on the radio to explain that he meant his campaign would establish policies that created work for everyone, he could not contain the great damage this distortion would cause his official candidacy. From then on, one of the gravest insults one could direct at a Haitian was to call that person an inhabitant of the big toes.

Déjoie’s political bureau also circulated another strange assertion: the period from 1946 through 1956 amounted to ten years of social regression. It claimed that the Estimé and Paul Magloire governments had accomplished nothing socially during those ten years. From 1946 through 1956, Haiti had not advanced; on the contrary, it had moved backward.

Déjoie’s Support

Those who followed the campaign closely saw that the Déjoie family’s base was Les Cayes, while his wife was from Jacmel. Louis Déjoie dominated the entire southern region of the country.

Déjoie’s side claimed important advantages: support from the American Embassy, American businessmen established in Haiti, and the Catholic Church. Déjoie was also performing well in Port-au-Prince and the Northwest Department, and among many peasants who had benefited from installations he owned on the Plain of Les Cayes and in the Saint-Michel-de-l’Attalaye region of Artibonite.

From an economic standpoint, members of Déjoie’s political bureau and his supporters proclaimed everywhere that the country would benefit greatly if he became president. Not only would former members of the traditional elite regain power, but Déjoie would establish a technocratic government that would develop agriculture and revive national industry. This, they said, would open an era in which businesspeople and major foreign industrialists would create jobs and spread prosperity throughout the country.

As a former president of the Chamber of Commerce, Déjoie wielded substantial influence over the leading merchants of Port-au-Prince. At the slightest incident, he would go on the radio and declare in French, “Je vais être obligé de décréter la grève générale.” It was enough for Déjoie to speak on the radio for the doors of all the major stores in Port-au-Prince to close immediately.

Dr. Duvalier’s Side

Having considered Déjoie’s side, let us now examine Dr. Duvalier’s side. Thanks to leaders such as Jean Bélizaire, Dr. Duvalier commanded more than eighty percent of the Northern Department. He was ahead and performing well in Artibonite. In addition, Duvalier had on his side every member of the Haitian Army’s high command.

Many former supporters of President Estimé, particularly those who had benefited from what was called the Revolution of 1946, held a major meeting in Port-au-Prince after Magloire fell on December 6, 1956. Many prominent figures from the Estimé government attended. The purpose was to decide whether these former Estimé supporters would back Jean David or Dr. François Duvalier for president. After discussion, they agreed to support Dr. François Duvalier first; when Duvalier’s term ended, they would then promote Jean David.

Duvalier’s supporters immediately spread the story throughout the country that Dumarsais Estimé himself, before his death, had told his wife that he had chosen Dr. François Duvalier as his sole heir to continue the political program he had begun.

Mrs. Estimé quickly placed at Dr. François Duvalier’s disposal a beautiful two-tone Buick, light blue and dark blue. Wherever Duvalier traveled in the country, his supporters made sure everyone knew that Mrs. Estimé had provided the car for his campaign.

It did not take long for many Arab Haitians and other supporters to contribute large sums of money to Dr. Duvalier’s campaign. Beginning with the Duvalier government, Arab Haitians would increasingly enter and establish themselves deeply in Haitian political affairs. Duvalier’s side also spread the claim that it had the support of members of an American mission working in the country, as well as Monseigneur Alfred Vauclique of the Methodist Church in Port-au-Prince.

The Campaign Slogans

In summary, neither Agronomist Déjoie’s side nor Dr. Duvalier’s side presented a development plan or a detailed political program explaining how it would govern. For the remainder of the campaign, both candidates continued making elegant speeches in French and repeating the same slogans.

Déjoie’s slogans remained “La politique de la terre, la seule, la vraie” and “Vote Déjoie, se vote travay.” Duvalier’s slogan was “Honnêteté administrative.” He maintained that he would continue Estimé’s program, but as an “estimisme revu et corrigé,” meaning that he would thoroughly revise and correct it.

That was the situation on both sides. Had the election been conducted normally, no one knows exactly how many people would have voted for Dr. François Duvalier or for agronomist Louis Déjoie.