Haiti elections 2015: Vérité – a leading political party withdraws

A leading political party in Haiti announced on Tuesday that it was pulling out of next month’s legislative elections.

It was not immediately clear whether the pullout would disrupt the second-round runoff on October 25, when Haitians are also due to cast ballots for a new president. But the move was seen as another setback for stability in the country – long rocked by political turmoil.

The Vérité (Truth) Party, which announced its boycott of the upcoming poll, is widely seen as a leading political threat to President Michel Martelly’s Haitian Tet Kale (Bald Headed) Party, which takes its name from Martelly’s trademark shaved scalp.

Party leaders have been seething, however, ever since an earlier decision by Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to strike Vérité presidential candidate Jacky Lumarque from the October ballot.

Lumarque, the rector of Quisqueya University, one of the country’s top educational institutions, was barred from the presidential race when the CEP determined he did not have the legal document, known as a “discharge,” required of public officials to show they did not misuse public money while in office.

Lumarque was a member of a presidential commission on education under former President Rene Préval. His supporters say he did not distribute any money and thus did not need a discharge.

Haiti’s highest court, the Court of Auditors, agreed but the CEP still moved to sideline Lumarque from the presidential contest.

He had been seen as a top contender for the presidency, alongside Jovenel Moise of Martelly’s Tet Kale. Martelly himself cannot run for re-election.

Haiti’s parliament dissolved in January after scheduled legislative elections in 2011 and 2014 were canceled. Since January, the 119-member Chamber of Deputies has sat empty and the Senate, with only 10 of its 30 members, has failed to hold a quorum.