Legislative

Haiti: Senate Commission Submits Report into Constitutional Errors/Fraud

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) – On Wednesday, Senator Edmond Beauzile (Centre/Alternative) submitted, after 7 months, a commission report on the events that contributed to the divergence between the Constitution published on May 13 and the votes taken on the 9th in the National Assembly.

The senate has not yet made the report public. Defend Haiti has made contact with the Chairwoman of the Commission who said it would be forwarded 'soon'. DH will no longer count the days without the Constitution published in Le Moniteur.

Background

The commission was set up on June 7th, 2011 with Senator Beazile as its Chair and Senator Joseph Lambert (Sud-Est/Inite), Senator Andris Riche (Grande Anse/Alternative), and Senator Moise Jean-Charles (Nord/Inite) as members.

In a DH article, published at the time the commission was set, Senator Jean-Charles had revealed that Senator Jocelerme Privert (Nippes/Inite) had been retracted from the commission for having some involvement in the case.

Senator Privert, also Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, at the time denied handling the document arguing he was not present when corrections had been made to it between May 9th and 13th.

The former Minister of the Interior, had said that the amendments published in the official journal had best reflected the vote of the National Assembly but also said that the errors, which would be the extension of mandates for members of the lower house, was not changed by the Assembly. This is the point of contention.

For Senator Jean Charles, the divergences in the document came from the senate. He added that “we cannot know whether it is manipulation or errors”, ensuring that the commission would begin its work.

Senator Steven Benoit (Ouest/Alternative) feels that it is necessary to disclose the names of the members of parliament that would have been involved in manipulating the text. The Senator of the Ouest has promised to make public the identity of the culprits no later than Wednesday, June 15.