ARTICLE - ELECTED OFFICIALS WON'T GO

ELECTED OFFICIALS RESISTING PRESIDENT'S DECISION TO REMOVE THEM
(Defend Haiti) -

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Municipal delegates in Port-au-Prince said they were surprised by the actions of President Michel Martelly to replace city officials without elections. They call it “organized theft”, this action by the head of state.

"Only an elected person replaces another one" is now the motto of municipal authorities across the country, recalling ARTICLE 66 of the Constitution of Haiti.

Mayors in different departments and municipalities throughout the country are forming a resistance to the decision of President Martelly to proceed with their revocation before the elections.

"One can’t fire a mayoral cartel before the election unless there is blatant fraud; otherwise we must wait for the elections to replace them," advised the municipal delegate of Port-au-Prince, Sicard Lemaire.

According to Lemaire, the constitution has made the mayor an autonomous entity, the same as one can not replace a senator before the election, one can not do this for a mayor.

Reacting to the position of some mayors who don’t intend to leave before the elections, President Martelly said that "when the state revokes somebody, the state revokes somebody."