Politics
Haiti to hold delayed elections by early next year – PM Lamothe
Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said Tuesday that his country will hold long-overdue legislative and local elections no later than early next year if several opposition lawmakers don’t stand in the way of the vote before their mandates expire in January.
In an interview with reporters, Lamothe said a group of 6 senators who have been holding Haiti “hostage” won’t be able to do so anymore once their terms end. Still, Lamothe said, he hopes the officials will approve an electoral law before then, a move that could pave the way to organize the vote that is 3 years late.
Lamothe has promised before that the elections will happen before year’s end, but now the stakes are higher as the government faces mounting pressure regional partners to organize the vote before the terms of 10 senators expire in mid-January and Parliament is dissolved. President Michel Martelly will then rule by decree.
“From January 12 on, they will not have the green light to block the process,” Lamothe said. “The president will take responsibility and organize the elections as soon as he can, as soon as possible.”
If the elections are not held before year’s end, they will happen in the first three months of next year, Lamothe said. The elections seek to fill two thirds of the 30-member Senate, the entire 99-member Chamber of Deputies and dozens of local posts. Political infighting and foot dragging have led to the delay, which has been met with a mix of frustration and indifference.
The senators deny they are holding up the elections and are instead defending the Haitian Constitution.
The run-up to the elections is almost certain to prove turbulent. In recent weeks, supporters of two-time president Jean-Bertrand Aristide have organized protests outside his compound in the capital as he faces a revived criminal inquiry that originates from the aftermath of his second ouster, in 2004.
