Haiti: decryption of the new constitution project
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, May 7, 2020. Pierre Michel Jean / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
In Haiti, attention is focused on the date of February 7.
If Jovenel Moïse insists that his mandate will end on February 7, 2022, the political opposition and a growing number of civil society organizations are counting on his departure from power in 48 hours.
It is in this tense and therefore rather less optimal context that the draft new constitution was made public.
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With our correspondent in Port-au-Prince
,
Amélie Baron
The Constitution adopted in 1987 after three decades of dictatorship gave broad power to Parliament.
This new text would be a swing back towards a presidential regime.
Major legislative overhaul with the abolition of the senate and the integration of deputies for Haitians in the diaspora.
On the executive side, the inspiration is American: no more Prime Minister, the president would be elected with a vice-president after a single ballot.
It would still be limited to two terms, but these could be consecutive.
The right to a healthy environment appears in the text, as does the project of compulsory military service at 18.
All this is not yet on the menu of the debates which focus on the possible retention of the president in his post beyond Sunday.
Note that in Haiti, the Constitution is as often mentioned as it is violated by politicians.
In 33 years, no president has established the permanent electoral council or the constitutional council, which could have just today decided on the duration of the mandate of Jovenel Moïse.
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