Caribbean & Central America - December 2013 (ISSN 1741-4458)

Last month the United Nations stabilisation mission in Haiti (Minustah) issued no less than two separate statements expressing concerns about political instability and violence in Haiti. With the opposition staging its biggest protests since President Michel Martelly took office in May 2011, these concerns have been linked to the government’s continued failure to hold long awaited senate and local elections – a delay which the opposition has suggested might be deliberate.

On 7 November Minustah issued a statement on behalf of “the special representatives and ambassadors of Brazil, Canada, the European Union, France, the Organization of American States, Spain, and [the] United States of America”, calling for continued dialogue between the executive and legislative branches “in order to reach a consensus solution concerning priority political issues”. These “priority issues” include the need to hold long overdue elections to renew a third of Haiti’s 30-member senate and fill dozens of local government posts.

Since May 2012 the senate, in which Martelly’s Repons Peyizan party has no representatives, has had only 20 active members, making it difficult to meet the 16-member quorum necessary to conduct business. However, the mandates of a further third of the senators (10) will expire next year. Back in August Sandra Honoré, the head of UN Peacekeeping Mission and the Special Representative for the Secretary-General in Haiti, warned: “By early 2014, more senators’ terms will expire, rendering the country’s Senate and the Parliament ineffective” marking a “real decline in the democratic process [that] Haiti does not have the luxury to afford”.

The Minustah statement follows other signs of international pressure on Martelly. At the end of October, Uruguay’s President José Mujica warned that Uruguay’s 940 peace-keepers will be withdrawn if there is no visible sign of improvement within 90 days. Opposition legislators like Steven Benoit of Alternative have suggested that President Martelly might be deliberately stalling these efforts. At a meeting of the US Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, in September, Benoit accused Martelly of playing “two years of hide-and-seek, first to publish the amendments of the constitution, then to form an electoral council, then to send the electoral law to congress [he kept the document for two months at the palace]; President Martelly waited for the lower chamber to almost end its regular session before depositing the electoral law”.

With this pressure eventually appearing to have had an impact (see sidebar), Martelly is also feeling the heat domestically. On 18 November the biggest anti-government protests since Martelly assumed power took place in key towns, including the capital Port-au-Prince, as well as Cap-Haïtien and Les Cayes on the anniversary of the 1803 Battle of Vertières that marked the final defeat of French troops in Haiti's struggle for independence and the abolition of slavery. This in turn followed anti-government protests on 7 November in Pétionville, the high-class residential district in the east of the capital, and on 30 September – the anniversary of the 1991 ouster of former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991; 1994-1996; 2001-2004)-which drew thousands of people. While Aristide has largely kept a low profile since his return to Haiti in January 2011, his Fanmi Lavalas party is showing new signs of life. Against this backdrop of renewed social unrest, on 16 November, Minustah issued a second statement of concern – on this occasion in relation to “recent incidents of violence in several cities and municipalities” and, specifically, “the resurgence of violence and killings perpetrated in Cité Soleil [a slum in the capital] and in certain other areas of the country”. This followed clashes between gangs in Cité Soleil which left eight people dead and nine injured, as well as violence reported in Cap-Haïtien.

• Electoral law approved

In a special session called by President Michel Martelly on 28 November, the lower chamber approved a new electoral law paving the way for senatorial elections. This follows the senate’s approval on 3 October of the bill – the full details of which have yet to be made publicly available. Sandra Honoré, the head of UN Peacekeeping Mission and the Special Representative for the Secretary-General in Haiti, welcomed the vote by the Haitian legislature describing it as “a significant milestone for the organization of inclusive, transparent and democratic elections”. However, Haiti’s transitional college of the permanent electoral council [Ctcep in its French acronym] – the body tasked with organising the vote- has yet to set a date for the long overdue elections and experts say that a minimum of six months is needed to organise them.