Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier waves from a hotel balcony in Petionville, Haiti, after returning to his homeland Sunday night after a 25-year exile. Reuters

Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s return to Haiti raises two basic questions.

The first: Why now?

Haiti is currently in a particularly vulnerable position, dealing with the effects of last year’s earthquake and a cholera epidemic while at the same time facing political turmoil.

Presidential elections remain in limbo after the first round of voting in November has been rejected by international monitors as fraudulent.

As negotiations for a settlement drag on, the risk of street protests rises. Drop into this situation a dictator, a man once named president-for-life, and it further complicates a situation already bordering on chaos.

Duvalier says he has come to help earthquake victims and has so far denied any political ambitions.

The second question: Does he have a chance at recapturing political power?

Duvalier has been in France for the past 25 years. Half of the population of Haiti is under age 21, so they have no first-hand knowledge of the dictator.

He is accused of stealing millions of dollars in state funds, yet may not be returning with much of a bankroll after living the high life in France and going through a costly divorce.

A few hundred supporters met Duvalier outside the airport and more followed him to his hotel, but it is hard to imagine the 59-year old man  — usually described as a “playboy”  — scrapping in Haiti’s rough and tumble democracy to regain the post his father handed to him when he was just 19.