ARTICLE - APPROACHING POLITICAL CRISIS?

FORMER PORT-AU-PRINCE MAYOR WARNS OF ENCROACHING POLITICAL CRISIS
(Defend Haiti) -

PORT-AU-PRINCE - The latest public figure to caution the public of an encroaching political crisis was the former Mayor of Port-au-Prince, Evans Paul, who stated that elections should have been held in November for dozens of seats that needed to be replaced in 2012.

With a third of the senate having terms ending in May 2012 and local authorities, mayors, commissioners, having terms ending in January, Evans Paul, who is also the spokesman for the political platform, Alternative, eluded to the fact that the members of the executive have not made any provisions to even set a date for holding elections; a negligence that could lead to a "crisis" he lamented.

"...there is a great big delay about the way things are going in organizing the next elections, and there are people who see it as the way [the executive] are meddling with the dynamics of democracy in the country. And I understand that there are colleagues that would attribute it to the general negligence of the president."

Paul spoke of the Constitution, which requires that a "Permanent" Electoral Council, with nine (9) members chosen by the three branches of government, the judicial, executive and legislative, each choosing three (3). The alternative to that is what Haiti had last year, the the "Provisional" Electoral Council, which had its members chosen by the President. The last elections in Haiti were so wrought with fraud and inconsistencies, even to the point of having an arrest order issued against the president of the council.

The former mayor of Port-au-Prince also stated that 4 members of parliament should have been installed since the second month of the Martelly administration, in June. The 99 member lower house is now operating with 94 deputies; Deputy Dionald Polyte (Pestel & Beaumont/Inite) have died since July.