Haiti is sinking ever deeper into crisis: the country no longer has any elected representatives at the national level. Today is the end of the mandate of the last ten senators that the country had. Blame it on the non-organization of elections for more than six years. And in a current context where it is the gangs who have control of the territory, organizing polls quickly is impossible.
With our correspondent in Port-au-Prince, Amelie Baron
This end of the legislature is altogether symbolic because in fact the legislative power of Haiti had been totally dysfunctional for three years when all the deputies and two thirds of the senators left their posts without an elected successor to replace them. After the 2016 elections that brought him to power, President Jovenel Moïse did not hold a single ballot and his assassination in July 2021 plunged the country further into crisis. Without president, deputy or senator, it is Prime Minister Ariel Henry who manages affairs, not without being widely contested in his legitimacy.
Remember that he had only been appointed 48 hours before the attack which cost the life of the Head of State. No law provides for the vacancy of both executive and legislative power and the political class is at loggerheads, unable to agree on a compromise. A point on which everyone agrees: restore security before being able to organize a vote.
The gangs which today control more than 60% of the territory will have to be taken into account in the “elections” equation because they have a large financial windfall, amassed in particular via the ransoms for the kidnappings they commit daily.