Editorial | CARICOM should back unity government for Haiti

Neither the statement made in the Senate last Friday by Jamaica’s foreign minister, Kamina Johnson Smith, nor the one issued by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders in the wake of last week’s assassination of Haiti’s President, Jovenel Moïse, suggest that the region has an urgent, specific nuts-and-bolts initiative to help that CARICOM member out of its deep political and constitutional crisis.

There is vague talk of “playing a lead role in facilitating a process of national dialogue and negotiation” between Haiti’s contending political forces, which, on its face, is a useful exercise. But the times and circumstances demand something more immediate and deliberate. Or, rather, Haiti requires action to arrest, and reverse, it being steered on a path where any attempt at facilitating dialogue is futile, and the cycle of instability is inevitable.

In that regard, Jamaica and CARICOM must tell the core group of countries and institutions, to which interim Prime Minister/President Claude Joseph derives much of his legitimacy, that holding elections on September 26 would be a bad idea. Indeed, such elections, whether for a president, or members of the national assembly or senate would, in this atmosphere, lack public confidence and, ultimately, legitimacy. Instead, CARICOM would better serve Haiti by publicly making it clear that the preferred option, with a potentially far more efficacious outcome, would be for Mr Joseph to invite, and work towards, a government of national unity that, over the next two years, would create an environment in which free and fair and legitimate elections can be held.

REFORMING ELECTORAL PROCESS

CARICOM, especially Jamaica, has expertise in reforming a corrupt and dysfunctional electoral process into one with high public trust. And a legitimate election, and the government that flows therefrom, will provide a sturdier foundation upon which to rebuild Haiti’s notoriously fragile governance institutions.

We appreciate the sense of urgency of the United States and other members of the core group (including the United Nations, whose ambassadors have emerged as a kind of arbiter of initiatives on, or in Haiti) to have an election and create a façade of constitutional order. It is important, however, to recall the genesis of this latest manifestation of Haiti’s perennial political and institutional crisis.

After the invalidation of the results of one poll and the postponement of others, President Moïse came to office on the back of a disputed 2016 election in which a little over 1.12 million, or merely 18 per cent, of Haiti’s more than six million registered voters cast ballots. He, however, was not sworn in until 2017 because of disputes over the fairness of that election, which Mr Moïse used to argue that his five-year term expired in February 2022, rather than in 2021. The United States had recently given its imprimatur to Mr Moïse’s position, over the opposition’s arguments to the contrary.

The Haitian situation was exacerbated by the absence of legislative elections, which meant that Mr Moïse, for more than a year, had governed largely by decree. It has now been further complicated by Mr Moïse’s assassination.

What, however, this situation is not, and ought not to be compared to, are the 1991 and 2004 coups against Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the disruption of constitutional order that could readily be remedied by the reinstatement of the constitutionally elected – as happened in the first Aristide presidency. In this case, not only is the president dead, but all the seats in the assembly and two-thirds of those in the senate are vacant. Further, the chief justice, who would be constitutionally in line to act as president, died recently.

COMPLICATIONS

Adding to these complications is the fact that had not Mr Moïse been killed, Mr Joseph, the interim prime minister, was to have stepped down last week from that position in favour of Ariel Henry, whose appointment was previously announced. Now, Mr Henry has made a claim to the job, while Joseph Lambert, one of the 10 remaining members of the senate, was nominated by his colleagues to act as president.

In the meantime, no one really believes that Haiti is ready for an election or that the election commission can manage one that is fraud-free and legitimate, despite Helen La Lime’s, head of the UN office in Haiti, push for a solution “that gives the people of Haiti the opportunity to decide who forms their next government”.

We agree with that goal and with the implied declaration of the right of Haitians to elect their leaders. That vote, though, should be genuine and fair and not be the precursor of further and ongoing instability. The best way to ensure this is to have everyone at the table, fashioning a process in which they all have faith and in whose deliverables they can have confidence. In this circumstance, that trust best begins with sharing power, which for now, would be a government of national unity.