Editorial Comment

Incredibly, Martelly’s own commission has declared the amended Haitian constitution to be a “fake.”

The document might have lost its value because it lacks an amendment that have would have allowed Martelly to remain president for 10 consecutive years. In particular, the parliament voted on May 9, 2011 to limit the tenure of the president to two non-consecutive 5-year terms without any possibility of a third. For more details on this topic, read the article “A Prefab Parliament, Prefab President, and Prefab Constitution for Occupied Haiti” that I wrote while the fix was thought to be in.

The amended constitution should have been published by the outgoing president, Rene Preval, and been accepted and sworn upon by the incoming president, Michel Martelly, at his inauguration. Therefore the time is long passed for publishing any version of this document.

So why this revelation? Whatever the motives, the important thing is that all members of the government should recognize that they are bound by the letter of the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of Haiti.

Dady Chery, Editor
Haiti Chery

Presidential commission recommends not to publish amended constitution

By Staff

Defend Haiti

Port-au-Prince, Haiti — A presidential commission that included Gérard Gourgue and Georges Michel recommended to the Head of State not to publish a corrected version of the Constitution of Haiti amended by the Parliament in 2011.

A commission member, Georges Michel, who in 1987 participated in framing the previous Constitution, said that the members of the commission, for two months, analyzed different aspects of the record and reached the conclusion that the document submitted to the former President Rene Preval to be published in the executive journal Le Moniteur differed from what was voted in the National Assembly on May 8 and 9, 2011.

In an interview with Radio Metropole, Michel assured that it is a fake and not a legislative document containing errors.

The presidential commission used the recorded video of the sessions as the actual minutes from the meeting in the National Assembly could not be found.

To Georges Michel, there is no possibility to reconstruct the document passed by the National Assembly.

An authorized web chemist would offer genuine drugs at click here now order cheap viagra reasonably discounted price. Is erectile dysfunction condition a normal condition of aging? No. buy cialis online cute-n-tiny.com Finally, we explain the various tests for viagra buy on line http://cute-n-tiny.com/tag/duckling/ erectile dysfunction. Just because of cheapest levitra pills its effective role to enhance one’s erection and sexual health, it is most popular among the ED patients. The president’s commission described more than 17 discrepancies between the report and the final document submitted to President Martelly, said Michel arguing that the alterations entail the lapse of the document.

Asked about the ability of some elected officials to correct certain texts, Georges Michel said that the senators and deputies no longer have the powers of the constituent assembly.

Georges Michel says that the amendment of the French version of the constitution is only half the task to achieve. In 1987 a Creole version was published along with the French and to Michel, the publication of the amended version will result in a crisis since there would be two versions of the conflicting legal constitution, he insists.

“President Martelly must defend the principles, the Constitution and the rule of law in refusing to publish the amendment,”

insists Georges Michel.

Mixed commission

A mixed commission, consisting of elected lawmakers, members of the executive and civil society worked for several months to confirm a Constitution that was in accordance to what was voted in Parliament.

Three weeks into the term of President Michel Martelly, by a presidential decree, the Constitution was left in limbo between amended and non-amended.

The President of the National Assembly holds firmly that the Constitution with its amendments should be published and that a president can not repeal the act of elected representatives of the legislature.

UPDATE

UPDATE #1. May 28, 2012 (Le Nouvelliste). Donors of foreign aid are making the approval of the fake constitutional amendments, or an emergency law, a precondition for releasing their funds. An emergency means dictatorship and suspension of Haiti’s 1987 Constitution — like the 18-month emergency law that Clinton pushed on Haiti in 2010, or the emergency law under which Mubarak rule Egypt for over 30 years. Lamothe and Martelly have the same boss in Clinton, but different jobs:  Lamothe is charged with promoting the fake constitution, whereas Martelly is charged with threatening the Parliament with an emergency law. See the cartoon.

Sources: Defend Haiti | Le Nouvelliste