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Haiti - Politic : The end of the term of senators in 2015 according to the ISC
16/10/2013 10:02:55

Haiti - Politic : The end of the term of senators in 2015 according to the ISC
At the conference held Friday at the Plaza Hotel, the Civil Society Initiative (ISC), a group of organizations, associations and institutions at national character belonging to different sectors of civil society, ISC focused on the legal texts relating to the date of the end of the term of the second third of the Senate and concludes that the legal term of the end of the term of the second third of the Senator, is the second Monday of January 2015.

Declaration of the ISC :
Us, Heads of Institutions, Associations, and concerned citizens, worried about the threat to the Haitian Parliament, to become inoperative starting the second Monday of January 2014, we focused on the legal texts on the date the end of the term of the second third of the Senate and consulted constitutional experts, lawyers and political scientists. As part of this process, we made the following observations and conclusions :

1. The Electoral Act 2008 was enacted on 1 July 2008 by the Chamber of Deputies and 8 July of the same year by the Senate. Section 85 of the Act states :

"In order to harmonize the constitutional time and the electoral time, on the occasion of elections outside the constitutional time, for any reason, the mandates of elected expire as follows :...

b) the term of Senators ends the second Monday of January of the sixth year of their term, regardless of the date of taking office :"


This article means that these Senators must reach the sixth year of their term. However, if the 2nd Monday of January comes before they have completed the 6th year, they have to leave in January, even if they lose a few months of their mandate, this to ensure that the 2nd Monday of January is and remains the date of transfer of power between Parliament. This article also means that if the elections were not held in the Constitutional date, that is to say in November, according to the 1987 Constitution, the Senators do not have to wait until January to take office, they can do so immediately after the elections.

2.- The transitional provision of Article 231 of the Electoral Law stipulates :

"Pursuant to section 85 of this Act, the Senators elected at the next electoral contest to replace a third of the Senate remains in office until the second Monday of January 2014."

Parliamentarians who voted this law in July 2008, believed that the elections and the inauguration of the Senators would take place during the year 2008. The 1987 Constitution provided a maximum of 3 months to organize elections in case of vacancy. From 2008 to January 2014, the Senators would have reached their sixth year and would leave in January 2014, to allow a transfer of power to the constitutional date.

3.- These elections rather than carried out in 2008, were held in April and June 2009 and the inauguration took place in September 2009. Thus the transitional provision which was only an application of Article 85 in relation to a calendar from 2008 to 2014 fell starting the moment the elections were not conducted in 2008. Thus only the provision of Article 85 of the Electoral Act 2008 remains as it is permanent provision and not temporary unlike the transitional provision.

From this analysis, we can conclude that :

"THE DATE LEGAL OF THE END OF TERMS OF SECOND THIRD OF THE SENATE IS THE SECOND MONDAY OF JANUARY 2015"

Moreover, it is appropriate to note that the second Monday of January 2015 also marks the end of the current legislature. Indeed, Members of the 49th Legislature will have reached their 4th year in January 2015. The renewal at the same time of the Chamber of Deputies and one-third of the Senate, would allow to achieve the objective of the Electoral Act 2008, namely, the harmonization between the constitutional time and the electoral time. And the second Monday of January 2015, would mark at the same time, the arrival of a new Parliament and the inauguration of a new third of the Senate.

The signatories welcome the fact that the two branches of Parliament have taken an important step by passing swiftly a new electoral law, according to the amended Constitution. In this, the Chamber responded to the request for the benefit of emergency made ​​by the Executive. At this point, for obvious reasons, it is the President of the Republic to convene the Chamber of Deputies, to the extraordinary, to allow both chambers to harmonize their views, so that the new law is promulgated and published as soon as possible. Thus, the CT-CEP will establish a realistic timetable, effective, according to new legal and constitutional provisions.

Moreover, it will be necessary to reach a political consensus between the different sectors on the provisions to be adopted in order to restore the cycle of renewal of third of the Senate every two years from 2015.

An alleged finding of the lapse of the Senate the second Monday in January 2014, therefore, would be arbitrary. Forced departure, premature and illegal of Senators in January 2014 before take place the partial senatorial elections constitute a de facto dissolution of Parliament and a grave violation of the Constitution. Such an act would also open the way to political instability, social unrest and pose a threat to the democratic gains. The legislative and executive powers are thus concentrated at the level of the Presidency. The Haitian democratic state is based on three pillars: : he Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. One pillar falls and the building collapsed as a democratic entity.

In our desire to defend, not of individuals, but the Parliament, which represents an essential institution and the rule of law, we ask the President Martelly, as guarantor of the proper functioning of institutions, to make the choice of respect the requirements of the Constitution and section 85 of the Electoral Act 2008, under which the mandate of these Senators took office in 2009, expires in their sixth year, that is to say the second Monday of January 2015.

Great political and social tension settles in the country today, when so many other fundamental issues on the social and economic plan are suffering. Wise choices from the President can help dispel these clouds.

In this context, we pledge to work jointly, institutions, religious cults, members of civil society to defend the democratic gains and support the Executive, Parliament and political parties, in order to avoid our country a new political and institutional crisis of incalculable consequences.

Declaration signed by :
Mgr Guire Poulard (Catholic Bishops' Conference) ; Pasteur Sylvain Exantus (Protestant Federation of Haiti) ; Ati Max Beauvoir (National Confederation of Haitian voodoo) ; Nahomme Dorvil (Civil Society Initiative) ; Rosny Desroches (Civil Society Initiative) ; Andy Apaid (Foundation Nouvelle Haiti) ; Edouard Paultre (Haitian Council of Non State Actors) ; Pierre Espérance (National Network for the Defense of Human Rights) ; Jocelyne Colas (Justice and Peace) ; Antonal Mortimé (Platform of Human Rights Organizations) ; Laenec Hurbon (Centre Œcuménique des Droits Humains) ; David Tilus (Francophone group of Action for the Environment) ; Jinaud Augustin (Lanse-Haiti) ; Arnold Antonin (Petion Bolivar Centre) ; Mgr Zachée Duracin (Episcopal Church) ; Carline Joseph (Entrepreneur Gonaives) ; Raoul Peck (Filmmaker) ; Cary Hector (University Professor) ; Hérold Jean François (Director of Media) ; James Jacques (Engaged Citizens Initiative for Change in Haiti) ; Gervais Charles (Lawyer) and Pauris Jean Baptiste (Protestant pastor)

HL/ HaitiLibre

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