Abdulah: Assembly of Caribbean People wrote to Caricom about Haiti on Monday

POLITICAL leader of the MSJ (Movement for Social Justice) David Abdulah said on Monday, he wrote to Caricom on behalf of NGO Assembly of Caribbean People about the "worsening political crisis in Haiti." And with Haiti's president Jovenel Moise being assassinated on Wednesday, he said the crisis now deepens.

Moise was killed at his private residence around 1 am on Wednesday and his wife Martine was injured. Up to late Wednesday she was in the US receiving medical treatment for multiple gunshot wounds and was in critical condition.

Abdulah said the group first wrote to Caricom in February.

The letter said, "We are sure that you are aware of the current situation in Haiti where there exists a very serious political crisis.

"The constitutional term of office of the President is in major dispute with the sitting President Jovenel Moise claiming that his term ends in February 2022, given that he assumed office in February 2017.

"The opposition and very large sections of civil society strongly disagree since, had it not been for election irregularities in the October 2015 elections which had to be annulled and the electoral process finalised in November 2016, Moise would have started his term in February 2016 as established by the Haitian Constitution. In other words, the actual five-year term runs from February 2016 to February 2021, regardless of when President Moise actually took office."

Moise had been ruling Haiti by decree for over two years.

"In addition, the very elections that were won by Jovenel Moise in November 2016 saw only some 600,000 persons voting for him out of a total population of more than eleven million, of which there should be well over eight million eligible voters. This suggests that President Jovenel Moise has had a very tenuous mandate from day one of his term of office," the letter said.

It said more people would die if the crisis is not peacefully resolved and that Caricom must mediate.

In its second letter on Monday, it said Haiti needed urgent attention and that Moise's term "had long run over its constitutional period."

"Haiti is first and foremost a Caribbean nation. It is a member state of Caricom. It is therefore our responsibility, before any other multilateral body, to seek a peaceful and democratic resolution of Haiti’s political crisis. Such a resolution, involving as it must the Haitian people – their political parties and civil society – is a very necessary condition to the resolution of Haiti’s other urgent problems including the covid19 pandemic; crime and violence; social injustice and inequality; the recovery and restructuring of the economy."