ARTICLE - PM - TRYING TO AVOID POLIT. CRISIS

PRIME MINISTER TO TRY TO AVOID IMPENDING POLITICAL CRISIS
(Defend Haiti) -

PORT-AU-PRINCE – Prime Minister Garry Conille is hopeful he will be able to thwart a political crisis that is set to overcome Haiti in the month of June, when ten (10) members of the senate will leave office, and the mandate of hundreds of mayors and municipal authorities will end.

In May, a third of the Haitian Senate will have their 6 year mandates come to an end. If elections are not held to elect ten (10) new senators, one for each department, the Haitian legislature, and subsequently the government of Haiti will fall further into dysfunction.

The prime minister recognizes that organizing an election in less than five (5) months is challenging.

”From experience it’s going to take six (6) months to organize elections. We are obligated to do it in less. And we would not like to see a vacuum at the level of the senate, in any case after the month of May because we didn’t have time to hold an election…”

Organizing the actual elections is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of steps and processes it would take to reach that point.

In the eyes of the Prime Minister, three (3) events must take place in order to realize a credible election that will sit the next ten senators and all local authorities of the republic of Haiti.

1. Establishment of a Permanent Electoral Council

Following the upheaval caused by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) that organized the last Haitian elections, the Haitian Constitution and the people of Haiti require a Permanent Electoral Council to be in placed with the responsibility.

The Provisional CEP and the Permanent CEP are two completely different electoral institutions. The former was not supposed to exist past February 7th, 1990, when Haiti’s first president-elect after the fall of Duvalier was inaugurated. The latter is the true and intended governing body of Haitian elections.

Another difference between the Provisional and Permanent CEP are that the nine (9) members of the Provisional council are selected arbitrarily, usually all by the president. In the Permanent council, three (3) council members are selected by each of the three (3) branches of government, Executive, Legislative and Judicial.

Garry Conille said of the Permanent CEP:

”I don’t believe the population wants to wait any longer to have a Permanent Electoral Council…”

But establishing the Constitutionally-mandated Permanent Electoral Council is a challenge in itself for the prime minister. It would require that all three branches of government participate in setting it up, and for more than 15 years Haiti has been without a functioning judiciary.

2. Completion of the Haitian Supreme Court

In order for the Judiciary to participate in the establishment of the Permanent Electoral Council, it would need to become functional and have all nine (9) members of the Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) installed.

The process of filling the seats of the Supreme Court has dragged on with presidents of past Haiti and it is dramatically no different with the administration of President Michel Martelly. This retards the process of setting up a Permanent Electoral Council.

”… my preference is to give rise to a Permanent Electoral Council. Time after time, I believe this is what would be best for us.”

”And I will tell you quickly that in my discussions with the President, the amended Constitution gives the ways in which the CEP [permanent] should be done, and in all its ways it is a process that is participative, because the structures must be here and I mean a structure where the members will be here for many, many years.”

The Head of State currently holds a list of eighteen (18) candidates nominated by the Haitian legislature and needs to select five (5) more judges to join the four (4) who already sit on the nation’s highest court.

1. Publishing of the Constitution of Haiti

All matters of sitting judges and establishing a Permanent Electoral Council are explained in the Constitution of Haiti, which as of June, has not been published in the nation’s official journal, Le Moniteur.

Effectively, for some months now Haiti has been guided by arbitrary decisions based on precedent and the former Constitution without its amendments, that were accepted by the Parliament which met in May and had a quorum before the inauguration of President Michel Martelly.

Three weeks into Martelly’s presidency, by decree, the text of the Constitution was put into question. Martelly promised before the nation, members of the three branches of government, representatives of civil society and a visiting delegation of the Club of Madrid, that he would publish the Constitution before the end of 2011. He has not kept his word.

Senators Ending Mandates in May 2012:

Youri Latortue (Artibonite/AAA)
Edmonde Supplice Beauzile (Centre/Alternative)
Michel Clerie (Grande Anse/Alternative)
Nenel Cassy (Nippes/Inite)
Kely Bastien (Nord/Inite)
Jean Rodolphe Joazile (Nord-Est/Alternative)
Evaliere Beauplan (Nord-Ouest/Pont)
Jean Hector Anacacis (Ouest/Inite)
Yvon Buissereth (Sud/Inite)
Joseph Lambert (Sud-Est/Inite)