Haiti goes under U.N. spotlight after lawmakers fail to vote new cabinet- Added COMMENTARY By Haitian-Truth

March 17, 2016

Haiti’s new interim Prime Minister Fritz Jean, right, speaks with France’s Ambassador to Haiti Elisabeth Beton Delegue during the reception after his induction ceremony at the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Feb. 26, 2016. Jean is an economist and former governor of Haiti’s central bank. Dieu Nalio Chery AP

By Jacqueline Charles

The United Nations’ special representative in Haiti and other foreign diplomats say they are deeply concerned with delays in implemting a political accord establishing the road map for Haiti to resume its interrupted electoral process.

The “Core Group,” as the diplomats are known, on Thursday called “on the Parliament to play its full role in the implementation of the Agreement of February 5 by proceeding without a delay in voting on the prime minister’s policy statement in order to facilitate the conclusion of electoral process.”

The international community’s preoccupation comes a day after lawmakers walked out of a session in the Lower Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday without approving Prime Minister Fritz Jean’s policy statement or a new interim government. It also comes as the U.N. Security Council prepares to put Haiti’s dysfunctional politics and stalled presidential runoff under global scrutiny Thursday in New York.

Warning that the country can ill afford its current political crisis given its dire economic outlook, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is recommending that the security council postpone a strategic assessment mission to determine the future of the U.N. presence in the country. The assessment was scheduled to take place next month —90 days after a new president and the remaining members of Parliament were supposed to have been elected on Jan. 24.

http://telenoticias.com.do/files/2016/02/Fritz-Jean.gif

That vote was indefinitely suspended two days before the runoffs amid mounting tensions fueled by allegations of widespread fraud. Opposition candidates including Jude Célestin, who qualified for the runoff but declared he would not participate, charged that the fraud was in favor of former President Michel Martelly’s handpicked successor, Jovenel Moïse. Moïse, who was in Miami last week, has denied the allegations. As a result of the crisis, Martelly left office last month without an elected successor and the country is being run by an interim president that is supposed to last no more than 120 days.

“In view of the current political uncertainty in Haiti, I propose that a strategic assessment … be carried out following the completion of the interrupted electoral process,” Ban said in his report the security council will discuss Thursday.

When that process will be resumed is uncertain. Five weeks before next month’s scheduled April 24 runoff, Haiti still doesn’t have a functioning government or Provisional Electoral Council to stage the election. There is also confusion over which of the country’s two prime ministers — Evans Paul, appointed by Martelly, or Fritz Jean, named by interim President Jocelerme Privert — has more legitimacy.

During an animated session in Parliament Wednesday, deputies threw accusations of corruption at each other. Jean’s opponent Deputy Gary Bodeau accused colleague Deputy Belange Pierre and other supporters of taking orders from the presidential palace. Pierre than dropped his own.

“We have convictions,” Pierre, a spokesman for the bloc GPEP, fired back in the chamber. “We know well who is giving money, who is giving rice.”

Bodeau continued with the accusations Thursday morning, saying on Magik9 that some deputies were being offered $60,000 to vote in favor of Jean. Asked by Le Nouvelliste Editor Frantz Duval how much he had in hand to block the vote, Bodeau refused to answer.

He also called for Jean to be brought before the courts, charging that when he presented a downsized cabinet of 15 ministries instead of 17 as a strategy to reduce expenses, he violated the constitution.

“All violations of the constitution are treason,” Bodeau said.

http://www.belpolitik.com/spa/_files/spa_album/pic_771.jpg

In a national address on Sunday, 30 days after a joint session of parliament elected him as interim President, Jocelerme Privert appealed to both chambers, asking them to help put a government in place Friday. Haiti was in dire straits, Privert said. Police officers were being shot and killed, everyday Haitians were dying from tainted moonshine and drought risked starving the population, he said.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Petrocaribe discounted-oil program was “sick and dying,” Privert noted. Haiti was months behind its payments and owed Venezuela more than $85 million. Local fuel companies were also owed millions of dollars while international donors were holding back aid because reforms had not been met.

“Haiti is ill,” Privert said, noting that a new nine-member electoral council had been named but couldn’t be sworn in until a new government was seated. “The completion of these elections and these objectives require the establishment of a government…in order to revive the electoral process.”

Ban said the continued commitment of Haiti’s political leaders to identify Haitian-owned consensual solutions to the country’s problems is essential to the country’s stability. “Haiti cannot afford political instability during the current period of negative economic trends,” he said.

________________________________________________________

COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG

On a VISION 2000 interview, this morning, Deputie Bodeau outlined the payments of $60,000 per Deputie/Senator for approval of a $300,000,000 power contract presented by a group of Dominican/Haitian businessmen.

Haiti is ill because of people like Privert, and Bellerive, who both made millions, in the Dominican Republic, at Haiti’s expense.

Privert is now acting as the Dominican Republic’s agent to derail Haitian progress.

Deputies were paid to vote for Privert, during the original contest between him and Senator Leblanc. We should actually have a Justice as Interim President, but this was derailed by Privert.

We expect Privert to be deposed, replaced by an Interim Government, headed by a Supreme Court Justice with a mandate to hold election in November, seating a new president February 7, 2017

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTFWpFqSlOenuhp3odsW3EXtvC2ZjO-QjCjnZh4bnbPRuVLqCNU

Share:

Author: `