News Information
- NEWS_POSTED_BY: Haiti Place
- NEWS_POSTED_ON: Feb 07, 2015
- Views : 798
- Category : Haiti News
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Description :
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES, JCHARLES@MIAMIHERALD.COM
01/23/2015 4:52 PM 01/23/2015 7:26 PMThe signing of a political accord Monday, Dec. 29, 2014 to avert a deeper crisis in Haiti. L-R: President of the Chamber of Deputies, Jacques Stevenson Thimoleon, Senate President Simon Desras, Haiti President Michel Martelly and Supreme Court President Anel Alexis Joseph. COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PALACE
- Location : Port-au-Prince, Ouest, Haiti
- Website : http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article8017677.html
Overview
PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti on Friday installed a new nine-member Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to organize polls for the country’s long overdue legislative and municipal elections.
The swearing-in of the men and women, representing nine different sectors of society took place at the Supreme Court and just hours before representatives of the 15-member United Nations Security Council were expected to arrive for a three-day mission. They later traveled to the CEP’s headquarters in Petionville, where foreign diplomats joined recently installed Prime Minister Evans Paul in welcoming the panel.
“It’s not the international community who has to tell us to do elections,” Paul said. “We have to do it. Elections are indispensable for the stability of Haiti.”
As Paul spoke, across town anti-government demonstrators took to the streets in the second day of consecutive protests demanding the resignation of President Michel Martelly, whom they accuse of trying to be a dictator and dragging his feet on elections.
As has been the pattern with Martelly, every time he has a meeting with the U.N., whether it be an address at the General Assembly or another big gathering with the international community, he made a move to show progress. But this move, to quickly install the CEP, wasn’t without controversy.
On Thursday, the government was forced to abruptly cancel its swearing-in plans after issues were raised about the lack of consensus and debate over the choosing of some members over others to sit on the independent elections council. The Presidential Palace had asked each of the nine sectors to submit two independent names as possible representatives for their one slot. But during discussions over who should represent women’s organizations, for instance, one leading women’s group pulled out of the process, saying it didn’t recognize designee Yolette Mengual.
Mengual was the only member of the newly installed electoral board who addressed the pack room that gathered for the installation ceremony.