Haiti has postponed the general elections to the 7th of November. The constitutional referendum promoted by Jovenel Moïse was also postponed before he was murdered in his home on 7 July by an armed command. Meanwhile, the country has asked international organizations for help in continuing the investigation into the murder.
The presidential and legislative elections and the constitutional referendum in Haiti, scheduled for September 26, were postponed to November in accordance with the electoral calendar that the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) handed over to the Haitian Prime Minister, Ariel Henry. According to the new electoral calendar, the The second round of presidential and legislative elections will be held on January 23, 2022. Legislative elections should have been held in 2019. As well as municipal elections, which also accumulate years of delay.
Although the constitutional referendum promoted by Moise was not well received, even in the ruling party, according to his critics he does not respect the current Magna Carta of Haiti. it is was written in 1987 after the fall of the 29-year-old Duvaliers dictatorship and establishes that “any popular consultation that intends to modify the Constitution by means of a referendum is formally prohibited”.
The text of this constitutional reform proposed by Moïse, which aims to strengthen the Executive Branch, has not yet been written in full. Two bills that have already been presented propose the suppression of the Senate, in addition to opening up the possibility of two consecutive presidential terms.
murder investigation
After the death of Moïse, 53, shot to death in his home in Port-au-Prince, police arrested 44 people, including: 12 Haitian police officers, 18 Colombians and two Americans of Haitian origin. This week, the Office for the Protection of the Citizen of Haiti made a formal request for assistance to the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (Ganrhi). The head of the state cabinet, Renan Hédouville, asked for support to form an international commission to investigate the murder., given the weaknesses of the national judicial system.
“The phenomenon of impunity linked to corruption has reached alarming and worrying proportions in the justice system,” the office said in a letter sent to the head of Ganrhi, Ecuadorian Freddy Carrión Intriago. In the letter, they warned that in the last 25 years the Haitian Justice has not concluded any criminal proceedings related to high-profile crimes nor did he issue sentences that might persuade individuals not to commit “reprehensible acts.”
It is not the Haitian government’s first request for help in investigating the assassination of its president. A few days ago, Itamaraty asked the UN for help in advancing the investigation and requested the creation of a special court to try the accused. For Haitian diplomacy it was an “international crime” because involved citizens of various countries in its planning, financing and execution.
Hédouville wrote earlier to the United Nations representative in the country, Helen the Lime, to express concern about the progress of the investigation and the possible impunity that the authors may enjoy. In the letter, The official pointed out more than 40 cases from 1990 to the present that still do not have a resolution from the Haitian justice system. “A judicial system based on corruption and impunity. Injustice of the Haitian judicial system,” he said.
Judges threatened
However, this week the magistrate who will lead the judicial investigation into the murder was finally appointed. The investigating judge of the Court of First Instance in Port-au-Prince, Mathieu Chanlatte, was appointed to investigate the case of Moise’s murder. Chanlatte is an experienced magistrate who has worked on several key cases, such as the dispute between the state and the Sogener electric company, according to local media.
Chanlatte’s appointment comes after at least two of her colleagues in court reported death threats. “Unfortunately, despite having left home two weeks ago, I still get calls from strangers who threaten to kill me,” the judge confessed in late July. Clement Claus diary Le Nouvelliste, who added it to the calls required him to change the facts detailed in the report.. Last month another judge Carl Henri Destin, the magistrate who drafted the first report of the murder asserted that he was accused of conspiring to conceal the truth and He noted that authorities also lack a security plan to protect court officials investigating the murder.
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