Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moise, blamed the opposition in the UN Security Council on Monday and defended his plan to reform the constitution, while the United Nations warned of the country’s grave political crisis.
Moise urged the legitimacy of his government during a videoconference intervention, despite opposition groups no longer recognizing his authority, as his term expired on February 7 and had appointed an “interim president”.
“Under strict compliance with the five-year constitutional mandate given to me by the Haitian people, I am pursuing essential structural reforms to consolidate democratic progress and preserve the rule of law,” said the president, who accused opposition groups of trying destabilize the country and seize power.
Moise stressed that the “need for a new constitution has been noted for a long time” and is something the whole country is demanding, so he plans to go ahead with his plan to hold a referendum in April to call for a new Magna Carta. and, in September, organize the legislature which has been postponed since 2019 and the president, in which you will not be a candidate.
Due to the postponement of the 2019 parliamentary elections, the parliament was not renewed, which has been practically closed since January 2020, a circumstance that has allowed Moise to rule by decree ever since.
In recent weeks, Haiti has seen the political crisis hit after Moise fired three Supreme Court justices accused by the president of planning a coup, and that there were major demonstrations against him.
Last Monday, at the Security Council meeting, the UN envoy to Haiti, Helen La Lime, warned of the seriousness of the political crisis and defended that the way out is to seek compromise and soon ‘credible’ and ‘credible’ elections to keep. “.
La Lime stressed that more dialogue is needed on constitutional reform and that at least minimal consensus is reached among political forces before a referendum comes.
Meanwhile, several member states of the Council – including the United States – have expressed concern over some of Moise’s measures, including the dismissal of the judges of the Supreme Court and his administration on the basis of decrees.