POLITICS-HAITI: Opposition Groups Seek to Confront Lavalas

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ives Marie Chanel

PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 11 1998 (IPS) - Opposition groups from both the left and right are attempting a comeback in Haiti after years of virtual political irrelevance.

This month, traditional opposition groups are re-organising the structure in an attempt to have a greater impact at legislative and local elections scheduled for the end of the year. Ten months of internal dissension within the ranks of the ruling Lavalas coalition have boosted their chances.

In a joint declaration published here, 26 rightist and center- left parties declare that the crises in Haiti’s political system and institutions will continue to worsen. The present political situation harshly penalizes the entire population, which cannot make economic progress and wass struggling simply to survive, the statement says.

The leaders of the parties concerned include Lesly Manigat, former Christian-Democratic pr esident between Feb-June 1987, Marc Bazin, the former rightist prime minister installed by the military in 1992, socialist leader Serge Gilles, and Evans Paul, a former political ally of ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Their declaration goes on to say that concentrating state power (executive, parliamentary, judicial and administrative) within a small group of the similar political leanings, has created a source of inextricable political conflict and abuse. At the same time, the excluded sectors and political parties are unable to offer mediation or solutions, creating even more frustration, and doing little to advance the cause of democracy.

The opposition parties demand that the coming elections be free, fair, democratic, and open to all political parties and institutional sectors. They insist that both institutional mechanisms and basic legal procedures be established to guide the conduct of the elections, in consultation with the marginalized parties and civilian institutions.

They also want the electoral victors to be allowed to carry out their mandates, and say that a system of checks and balances limiting the powers of the government, president, and parliament would obviate the kinds of political crises the country has known uuntil now. The party heads are asking for institutional, financial, and manpower resources for the affected groups to quickly produce a compendium of the country’s laws.

The opposition leaders also request that the safety of all who engage in politics be guaranteed under law , and monitored by a police untainted by political partisanship. The signatories say that they plan to effect ways to stabilize political life in the immediate and long term, and they urge all citizens to participate, in order to create confidence in the future of Haiti.

The groups recently met in several working sessions, and have decided to establish a “Haitian Congress of Political Parties” which will prepare position papers and monitor important issues of mutual interest. The parties have agreed to mount an eight-point agenda to include safety and political freedom, assistance for political parties, reorganization perspectives for the parties, a proposed joint effort among the parties in writing an electoral law bill, and the setting up of a Provisions Electoral Council which will be in charge of organizing the end-year elections.

Also on the table will be the setting up of preliminary legal definitions to prescribe the power and authority of government institutions, amendments to the 1987 Constitution, and the maintenance of ties to the International Institute for Republics (IRI).

Six of the parties signed an official “non-aggression pact” at the end of April. Among them were the Fanmi Lavalas group of ex- President Aristide and the Democratic Movements Congress Party (CONACOM).

Gerard Pierre-Charles, head of the People in Struggle Party (OPL), a former member of the ruling coalition party, says the pact is intended to stop the hostilities, polemics, mistrust and accusations between the groups.”

“We think that the hostilities must cease and that we have to try to act more dispassionately, given the dangerous, unlawful, and unbridled atmosphere which exits right now”. The OPL has been intractable opponent of the ruling coalition for more than one year.

Pierre-Charles believes that President Preval’s only way out of the current crisis is the acknowledgement that he does not hold absolute power. “We’re asking the President not to look for loop holes (in nominating a prime minister) but to consider the popular support his candidate will have when he nominates a new premier. We’ve even asked him to consult with former President Aristide.”‘

“We know there’s a difference between the abstract and the real in politics. We want things to happen in the real political world. That’s why we want to negotiate with the President directly”, Pierre-Charles insists.

President Preval conducted political talks last week with various factions of his political camp, including the OPL, which holds a majority of seats in Parliament. The OPL plurality has already resulted in the rejections of three Preval-backed candidates for the prime ministership since the resignation of Rosny Smarth from that post on June 9 of last year.

The second nomination of Herve Denis on March 23 was blackballed by senators on April 16 after similar treatment by the Chamber of Deputies last December, when he was first nominated. Among names being mentioned in political circles as prospective new prime ministers are Francois Severin and Evans Lescouflair.

Severin is a former Minister of Agriculture in the Aristide government. Currently, he is chief of cabinet to President Preval. Evans Lescouflair is the Secretary for Youth and Sports, and is considered close to both Aristide and the OPL.

Some members of the in the international community have shown the exasperation with the continuing political stalemate. Official visits and missions from abroad have been increasing in past months and the U.N. Assistant Secretary General for Peace-Keeping Operations , Bernard Miyet, spent 72 hours in Haiti evaluating the situation. He expressed his concern last Thursday about the 11- month impasse to the president of the Haitian Senate, Edgard Leblanc,

Another visitor last week, French ministerial Delegate for International Cooperation Charles Jocelyn, conveyed similar concern over the intractability of the political impasse.

“The country’s leaders should never have permitted this situation to deteriorate, because it gives lending institutions a reason to distance themselves. The principals in this drama must immediately come to some sort of agreement so we can put this problem behind us.”