Hundreds of Haitian opponents on Wednesday called for the resignation of President Jovenel Moise during a rally that reached the vicinity of the US embassy, a country the president has backed.
Police suppressed the demonstration with tear gas to prevent opponents from reaching the door of the embassy, where they wanted to deliver a document.
MULTIPLE INJURIES
At least three people, including a journalist, were injured, according to media reports, after national police used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse a group of protesters who were trying to reach the U.S. Legation by a different route from the main group. local.
At various points along the route, protesters erected barricades with burning tires and threw stones and cobblestones at police officers.
The protesters wanted to reach the U.S. embassy to deliver a message to President Joe Biden asking him to stop his country’s government from backing Moise, the target of violent protests since 2018.
CONTROVERSION OVER THE PRESIDENTIAL MANDATE
Last week, the opposition reactivated anti-government protests with a view to increasing pressure in the streets as February 7 approaches, the date they believe Moise’s tenure should end.
Moise assumed power for a five-year tenure on February 7, 2017, so according to his accounts, he will maintain leadership of the state until 2022, for which he has the backing of the Organization of American States (OAS), States States and other Nations.
The opposition rules that Moise’s term of office will expire in February 2021 because an article of the constitution provides for an early start of the presidential term if there are problems with counting votes in elections.
They believe that this article applies to this case because of what happened to the 2015 elections, which were annulled on allegations of fraud and repeated in 2016.
However, the OAS supports the assertion that Moise’s mandate runs until 2022 and has also approved the election calendar proposed by the president.
2021, AN ELECTORAL YEAR
At the moment, the Haitian president is promoting the drafting of a new constitution, which aims to end the ongoing political instability that his country has experienced since mid-2018.
The text of the Constitution, not yet known to the public, will be put to a referendum at the end of April and elections will be held in the second semester to renew all power bodies in the country.
Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for September; in November, the municipal elections and, if necessary, the second round of the presidential elections.
Moise has assured on several occasions that he will not run for a second term, even though the new constitution allows him.
CONSTANT PROTESTS
With this new Magna Carta, Moise strives to end the political instability that has remained constant since the writing of the 1987 Constitution, a time when there have been 24 different prime ministers in 33 years.
Moise’s tenure has been particularly frenetic since mid-2018, with frequent demonstrations fueled by popular discontent with corruption, poverty, rising prices for basic goods and citizen insecurity.
At least 133 people were killed and 551 injured in the demonstrations that took place in Haiti from October 2018 to December 2019, according to a report released by the UN this week.
Violence intensified during these marches, partly as a result of increasing police repression, and partly because of the action of armed gangs that control numerous neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince.
Protests ended in the first months of the pandemic but resumed in January, albeit with less violence than in the last months of 2019.