Richard Auguste Morse States citizen. His cousin Michel Martelly is a musician, right-wing Haitian politician and former President of Haiti. Richard Morse repeatedly expressed support for Martelly in the 2010 presidential elections in Haiti. By 2014, he had distanced himself from the Martelly government. Richard Auguste Morse was born in Puerto Rico in 1957. His father, Richard M. Morse, was an American academic sociologist and writer, and his mother, Emerante de Pradines (1918-2018), was a famous Haitian singer, as was his maternal grandfather, Auguste de Pradines. The family did not stay in Puerto Rico for long, and Richard grew up in the town
Elections in Haiti cast in the first-round election. A second round was scheduled for March 20, 2011 with the two highest vote-getters, Mirlande Manigat and Jude Célestin. Protests claiming fraudulent voting resulted in the electoral commission removing Célestin from the race. This promoted Martelly from his original third-place finish in the first-round, to face Manigat in the run-off. The last presidential election was held on 28 November 2010 with a runoff on 20 March 2011. Michel Martelly won the runoff election held on 20 March 2011 with 67.6% of the vote against 31.7% for Mirlande Manigat and was sworn into office on 14