ARTICLE - A POLITICAL RATIFICATION PROCESS

A RATIFICATION PROCESS MORE POLITICAL THAN TECHNICAL
(Haiti Libre) -

Although on Monday, Senator Simon Dieuseul Desras, President of the Senate declared "...since the Commission has asked the Prime Minister to submit his documents, once he has finished submitting them, this means that automatically the examination of the documents begins....It is today Tuesday, that the Commission, responsible for studying the case of Prime Minister-designate, Laurent Lamothe, will meet to define a methodology, and launch the verification operations that will result in recommendations that will be submitted to the Assembly.

The President of the Senate desires an impartiality of the Commission "[...] I want one thing: that the record of Laurent Lamothe is treated with impartiality and objectivity... [...] "Regarding the chances of Prime Minister-designate to be ratified, Senator Desras indicated, "I'm not supposed to give an opinion, but personally [...] it is necessary that there is a participatory approach, which involves the Senators in what is decided, in what is done for the area they represent. They want to have a visibility in what is decided for their area [...]"

Senator Edwin Zenny (Edo) dissident of INITE, and a personal friend of thePresident, stated that currently, the Executive seeks to achieve a majority in the Senate for the ratification of the Prime Minister and Edo relies on the support of brothers Lambert [Joseph and Wencesclas] to help him obtain this majority.

Garaudy Laguerre, former presidential candidate [Mouvman Wozo] hopes that the constitutional provisions will be respected, noting that the ratification process normally technical, is more of a political process "[...] I think that where we are now, it's a matter of political negotiations, because in general, we say that it is a technical process [ratification], but it is really a political process [...] We know the practice in Parliament,... sometimes there are people who have the proper documents, who do not pass, and others that have incorrect documents that pass [...] I think the parliamentarians and Laurent Lamothe [...] have a historic opportunity to remove the country from this crisis, if they can negotiate properly for the interests of the country. I do not think that we are in a situation where we can just have a Prime Minister, who presents the general policy and who chooses a few ministers. I think that the political parties represented in parliament, should be able to negotiate sectoral policies in order to come up with sustainable solutions for the people..."

For his part, Edouard Paultre, Head of the Haitian Council of Non State Actors (CONHANE), also desires the respect of the constitution, and hopes that parliamentarians will be able to be cautious in order not to aggravate the crisis in the country. He believes, too, that President Martelly should negotiate with the political forces in Parliament to create a majority for the new Government. He also hoped that those who support or are against the government, assume it openly and unequivocally.