With widespread popular rejection and an indication of an illegal renewal of his mandate, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse received support from the United States on Friday, calling for moderation and new elections in return.
Moise has been ruling without any control over Haiti since last year, saying he will remain president until February 7, 2022, based on an interpretation of the constitution that rejects the opposition and claims his term will end next Sunday.
“We have urged the Haitian government to hold free and fair parliamentary elections so that parliament can resume its rightful role,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price to reporters in Washington.
Like the Organization of American States, the United States believes that “a newly elected president should succeed President Moise when his term ends on February 7, 2022,” Price said.
But the United States, Haiti’s largest donor, has warned the government to hold back until elections are held.
The decrees should be reserved for “planning parliamentary elections and for immediate threats to life, health and safety, until parliament is restored and can resume its constitutional responsibilities,” Price said.
The election of deputies, senators, mayors and local officials should have taken place in 2018, but the election was postponed, leaving a vacuum in which Moise says he has the right to remain in office for another year.
A dozen women’s and human rights organizations criticized the UN mission in Haiti for providing technical and logistical support to the president’s plans to hold a referendum on constitutional reform in April and presidential and parliamentary elections later in the year.
“Under no circumstances should the United Nations support President Jovenel Moise in his undemocratic plans,” the document states.
These groups claim that according to their reading of the constitution, the president’s term ends on Sunday.
The Electoral Council that set the dates for all these votes was unilaterally appointed by the president.
Members are not sworn in by a court as required by law.
In recent months, however, crime in the country has increased sharply.
For example, there is a resurgence of kidnapping extortion, of which not only people belonging to the richest sectors are victims, but also those with lower incomes.
The majority of the Haitian population lives below the poverty line.