The official resignation of Haiti’s final elected senators raises concerns about the condition of democracy in a country that hasn’t been able to hold elections since 2016.
18 months after the assassination of its last president, Haiti’s very future was unknown with no elected officials remaining in office as of Tuesday and gangs running wild throughout the nation.
It was a lengthy process; the legislative branch effectively ceased to exist in January 2020 when all lower house lawmakers and two-thirds of the upper chamber of the National Assembly resigned without being replaced.
lawyer Samuel Madistin said, “You can barely call it a democracy anymore.”
He added, “and this comes at a time when the state is losing control of the majority of its territory, 60 percent of it, to armed gangs.”
Madistin, described Haiti as ” a state which, in practical terms, no longer exists.”
The killing of President Jovenel Moise at his own house by an armed commando squad in July 2021 only exacerbated the country’s serious political crisis, which was already exacerbated by the paralysis of governmental institutions.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry currently governs the country, although his legitimacy is widely questioned because he was appointed rather than elected, barely 48 hours before the president’s murder.
Madistin feels that the PHTK, the party initially led by Moise, purposefully delayed elections in the nation out of self-interest.
He noted, “the failure is also that of the international community and the United Nations, whose mission was to stabilize the country politically.”
From 2004 to 2017, the UN Minustah mission deployed up to 9,000 blue helmets and over 4,000 international police personnel in Haiti.
Despite being reduced to a political office of approximately 60 people today, the international body has preserved its purpose to “strengthen political stability and good governance.”
The fact that no one can successfully manage Haiti today and establish laws does not really affect the country’s residents, who are more worried about gang violence and acute poverty.
“Citizens are not really interested in the problem of representation: their priority is security,” says Gedeon Jean, head of the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights (CARDH).
From 2004 to 2017, the UN Minustah mission deployed up to 9,000 blue helmets and over 4,000 international police personnel in Haiti.
Despite being reduced to a political office of approximately 60 people today, the international body has preserved its purpose to “strengthen political stability and good governance.”
The fact that no one can successfully manage Haiti today and establish laws does not really affect the country’s residents, who are more worried about the twin concerns of gang violence and acute poverty.
“Citizens are not really interested in the problem of representation: their priority is security,” says Gedeon Jean, head of the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights (CARDH).
In the last polls held in late 2016, little more than 20% of people bothered to vote.
“Parliament has become a high place for corruption: people cast votes in exchange for money, for management positions,” claimed CARDH’s director.
“We had corrupt people in parliament, drug traffickers, people who were used for money laundering,” Jean continued.
