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Haiti: Martelly setting up commission to resolve potential constitutional crisis
Haitian president Michel Martelly announced last week that he was in the process of setting up an 11-member commission to make recommendations within the next few days on how to resolve the deadlock holding up long-overdue legislative and municipal elections.
The country has not had any legislative elections since the March 2011 runoffs from the 2010 elections.
Legislative elections were scheduled in 2012 for 10 of the country’s 30 senators but have been postponed over the past 2 years because the Martelly administration wants changes to Haiti’s electoral laws and six opposition parties refuse to accept the amendments.
The terms for the 10 senators expire on January 12 2015 and in the absence of elections, Martelly could say the Senate lacked a quorum and hence govern by decree. This in turn would set off a constitutional crisis, since the current 10 senators announced on November 17 that they would not step down in January if no elections were held.
Opposition groups have been holding demonstrations demanding Martelly’s resignation.
“The country is divided,” Martelly admitted in his brief November 28 announcement. “The problems are many. The problems are complicated.” The commission he announced is to review the results of consultations that the the president held with various groups between September and November.
The proposed commission will include:
– Gérard Gourgue, an 89-year-old jurist who was justice minister in two provisional civilian-military governments after the overthrow of the Duvalier family dictatorship in February 1986;
– Three religious leaders;
– Three former elected officials;
