ARTICLE - CONSTITUTION - WHO IS RIGHT?

"THE ERROR" IN ARTICLE 137, WHO IS RIGHT?
(Haiti Libre) -

Article 137 of the amended text of the Constitution of 1987, published this week in the official newspaper "Le Moniteur" indicates: "The President of the Republic chooses the Prime minister among the members of the party having an absolute majority in Parliament. The majority is established on the basis of electoral results of elected officials in each House. Without this majority, the President of the Republic chooses the Prime Minister in consultation with the President of the Senate and House of Deputies"

It would lack in this text, according to Senator Simon Dieuseul Desras, President of the Senate, the following sentence: "in both cases the choice must be ratified by Parliament."

However, Professor Rosny Desroches, Executive Director of the Civil Society Initiative (ISC), and member of the Commission which was responsible to reconstitute the minutes from the meeting of May 9, 2011, says the opposite; explaining that the text published in Le Moniteur is the text, as it was passed by the parliamentarians, and that the sentence, "in both cases the choice must be ratified by Parliament" was not included in the declaration of the amendment. He added that after this publication, it is impossible to make a new modification to the published text...

This statement is far from being shared by Deputy Charles Faustin, who says the opposite. He recalled that at the time, the proposal for the amendment was intended to ratify the Prime Minister in the General Assembly, instead of a separate ratification in both Houses. However, this proposal was rejected,.... it was according to him, agreed to return to the double ratification; but in no case, the removal of the ratification by the parliament had been an option.

Deputy Jean Willbert Deshommes, deplores for his part, that the correction was not made to Article 137, to restore the ratification by parliamentarians, pointing the finger for the responsibility to the Presidents of both Houses.... Rosny Desroches believes that "The text having been promulgated in Le Moniteur, with all its errors, no changes can be made​​". According to the Deputy, the only possibility for a change in the constitution, is to resume the constitutional review process, at the end of the 49th Legislature.