Haiti’s controversial constitutional referendum is postponed, again
.JPG "A protester holds up a copy of the Haitian constitution during a protest to demand the resignation of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. Haiti has lurched into a fresh political crisis amid allegations of a coup attempt and an escalating dispute over when the presidential term of Moïse should end.")
Haiti is once again postponing a controversial vote on a new draft constitution.
The constitutional referendum was scheduled to take place on June 27 after being previously scheduled for April 25. Now, citing the surge in COVID-19 cases, the country’s elections commission announced Monday that it will be postponed. A new date has not yet been announced.
Mathias Pierre, a government minister in charge of elections, announced on Twitter that arrangements will be made for the publication of a revised timetable. He also tweeted the notice announcing the decision. The announcement came just hours before a five-member mission from the Organization of American States was scheduled to arrive in Port-au-Prince to try to facilitate a political dialogue between the government and members of the opposition and civil society.
On Monday, following six days of violent gang clashes in the capital, a group of private-sector organizations became the latest to express their concerns and reservations about the June 27 referendum and asked the government to postpone the vote. In a letter, the organizations expressed their apprehension about the process itself, the lack of a broad political agreement, the ongoing COVID-19 surge and the deterioration of the security climate. The pandemic and the worsening insecurity, they said, “will only worsen a climate already unsuitable for reflection.”
“Today, it is indisputable that the population lives in fear and terror whether in Cap Haitien, Petit Goâve via Martissant, Croix des Bouquets and Laboule,” the letter said, naming Haitian cities that have been been recently besieged by violence.
The postponement puts less time between the referendum, should it be rescheduled, and a scheduled Sept. 19 first round legislative and presidential elections, which the United States has been insisting on in order to bring an end to President Jovenel Moïse’s one-man rule.
The Biden administration, like its predecessor, has been insisting that Haiti hold free, fair, transparent and credible legislative and presidential elections — a process some U.S. lawmakers have said is impossible under Moïse and the European Union has called impossible under the current volatile conditions.
The U.S. State Department has repeatedly said that the constitutional referendum, which Moïse has been insisting on holding ahead of elections, should not “delay or derail legislative and presidential elections in 2021.”
“It is up to the Haitian people to decide the merits of constitutional reform,” a State Department spokesperson told the Miami Herald/McClatchy before the postponement, which can now endanger the date of the election. “On our end, we have emphasized to the government of Haiti we will not provide financial support for a constitutional referendum. ... The referendum should, however, be seen as inclusive, transparent, and credible to the Haitian people.”
The decision to postpone the referendum comes in the middle of a deadly surge of new COVID-19 infections that is overwhelming hospitals. At the same time, the country is wrestling with a fresh round of gang violence that cut off access between the southern region and the capital over six days, disrupted internet service in four regions and forced scores of poor Haitians in Port-au-Prince’s Martissant neighborhood to flee their homes.
The gang conflict has only added to already boiling political tensions over the end of Moïse’s presidential mandate and the referendum, which Haitian constitutional experts and legal scholars have said is illegal because it violates a ban on referendums in the current document.
Moïse and his supporters disagree, and argue that the referendum is not for a change, but for a new constitution altogether. With the final document still in the works, drafts of the new constitution show a strengthened presidency with less power for parliament, which would be reduced to one chamber instead of two; a weakened court of auditors charged with overseeing government corruption and contracts; and a vice president instead of a prime minister. Instead of elections every two years, all elections would take place every five years.
With the support of the United Nations system, the elections commission, which Moïse unilaterally appointed and the Haitian Supreme Court has refused to swear in, has been finalizing voter lists and ordering materials with money Haiti placed in a U.N.-controlled fund.
The elections commission, known as the Provisional Electoral Council, has struggled to recruit workers and convince businesses to lend their buildings as polling sites amid fears of violence.
The referendum has been a tough sell. Some opposition leaders have called on the population to burn voting materials to prevent the balloting, and on Tuesday those opposed to the referendum chased the justice minister out of a southeastern town with rocks after believing he was there to lobby for support for the referendum. Video shared on social media showed Justice Minister Rockefeller Vincent fleeing the normally quaint village of Jacmel under a barrage of bullets being fired by his security staff, struggling to navigate blocked streets.
“God saved me,” Vincent later told Radio Métropole while explaining he was in the community to discuss border security.
The same day of the incident, Haiti’s Catholic bishops issued a statement once more voicing opposition to the referendum. The bishops warned that the vote could further polarize an already difficult situation and deepen the country’s political crisis.
“The decision to replace a constitution should not be taken in the middle of a political crisis in which a consensus is struggling to be reached,” the Episcopal Conference of Haiti said.
Joining them in opposition is former president Jocelerme Privert. Breaking his silence, the former head of the National Assembly and interim president who oversaw the 2017 elections that brought Moïse to power, wrote a column in the country’s daily Le Nouvelliste, saying that should Moïse decide to violate the bylaws he was elected under, he risks being called before the high court for the crime of high treason.
Moïse’s desire to change the 1987 constitution in favor of a new one, sets a dangerous precedent to political stability, Privert wrote, and “is a threat to democracy.”
McClatchy Washington Bureau White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 7, 2021 at 8:18 PM.
