Legislative

Haiti: Martelly Takes Too Long to Publish the Constitution says Senate President Desras

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) - The President of House, Dieuseul Simon Desras (Centre/Lavni) said Wednesday that President Michel Martelly is taking too long to publish the corrected Constitution of Haiti that was amended and published in May 2011.

Senator Desras returned from Denmark where he was on a working trip and agreed with his counterpart in the House of Deputies, Levaillant Louis-Jeune (Desdunes/Inite), who says that the Head of State is not enacting a new constitution, this step had already been taken by his predecessor Rene Preval.

President Martelly has the responsibility to ensure that the reproduction of the Constitution is as voted by the National Assembly and published before his inauguration to the presidency the leaders of Parliament say.

For this, Martelly must withdraw the executive order of June 3rd, 2011 that declared the published text to have erred from what was voted in Parliament and publish the corrected version continued the President of the Senate.

Senator Desras has did not hesitate to characterize the executive order as an illegal act, under any circumstances, because a president cannot cancel a constitutional law passed by both Houses of Parliament.

Senator François Lucas Sainvil (Nord-Ouest/Inite) chimed in saying that the corrected version of the Constitution that was forwarded to President Martelly accurately reflects the votes of parliamentarians on May 8th and 9th, 2011.

The Senator from the North West Department welcomes the quality of work which had been performed by civil society and human rights organizations that worked with the Parliament and the representatives of the executive on the process of restitution of the authentic document with the aid of audio and video tapes of the sessions.

Opponents of having the correct Constitution published remain intractable. Senator John William Jeanty (Nippes/Konba) announced that consultations are being held with political parties and social organizations in order to allow more voices to speak out against the publishing of the Haitian Constitution.