P-au-P, 13 from 2024 [AlterPresse] — The grouping of political parties, called Collective of January 30, 2023, which delegated Edgard Leblanc Fils to the Presidential Transitional Council (Cpt), expresses concerns regarding the resolution relating to the making of major decisions, adopted on Tuesday May 7, 2024 by members of the Cpt, in correspondence [[1] addressed to the President of the Transitional President Council and of which the online agency AlterPresse has taken note.
In the resolution adopted by the Cpt, it is indicated on the one hand “that in the absence of consensus, all major decisions of the Council will be taken by a qualified majority of its members, i.e. five out of seven voters…” and d on the other hand “that we have carried out a rotating presidency, applicable to the candidates for the presidential election of April 30, 2024”.
These two points of the resolution, “tainted by substantive and formal defects”, jeopardize the existence and viability of the Presidential Transitional Council, argue the political parties members of the Collective of January 30, 2023.
The Collective of January 30, 2023 declares to express its reservations and calls on the Cpt to “respect and enforce the conditions of existence and validity of legal acts”.
“the legal status of state organ, conferred on the Presidential Transitional Council by the decree of April 12, 2024, Special Monitor No. 14, cannot be called into question by a resolution, an act which, in essence, does not “has no binding character,” he believes.
“The Presidential Transitional Council is chaired by one of its members, chosen by consensus or by a majority of them, emphasizing that a regulatory act, taken in the Council of Ministers, determines the organization and mode of operation of the Presidential Council transition”, he recalls, referring to article 3 of the decree of April 12, 2024.
According to the collective’s correspondence of January 30, 2023 to the president of the Presidential Council, “in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned decree, a majority of 4 out of 7 advisors supported the choice of Edgard Leblanc Fils as coordinator of the Council, as attested by the ceremony public presentation, made by the observer Councilor Frinel Joseph, with the consent of the other voting Councilors”.
The resolution of Tuesday May 7, 2024 would go against the requirements of the agreement of April 3, 2024, signed between the stakeholders and making no reference to a qualified majority and a rotating presidency.
The rotating presidency, proposed as a mode of operation within the Presidential Transitional Council (Cpt), would be “nonsense and total absurdity”criticized the political scientist and economist Joseph Harold Pierre, in an interview given to the AlterRadio/AlterPresse platform.
The rotating presidency will not bring anything good to Haiti, particularly from an administrative point of view, he anticipates.
4 coordinators – in this case Edgard Leblanc, Smith Augustin, Louis Gérald Gilles and Lesly Voltaire – should succeed each other, every 5 months, at the head of this Council.
Initially designated to be part of the rotating presidency, advisor Fritz Alphonse Jean would have withdrawn in favor of Smith Augustin.
According to article 4-1 of the agreement of April 3, 2024, “the Presidential Council is coordinated by one of its members, serving as president of the Council and chosen/elected in accordance with the Document relating to the organization and operation of the Presidential Council”, recalls the Collective of January 30, 2023.
“Following Haitian law, presidential powers, with rare exceptions, are exercised in a shared manner with the Government by act taken in the Council of Ministers and with Parliament. This is why the signatories of the agreement of April 3, 2024 took care not to entrust any execution task to the Presidential Council.
Article 4 of the said Agreement clearly indicates that “the Presidential Council assumes, in a collegial manner, the orientation and management of the transition”.
Similar to “a subtle attempt to subordinate the Cpt to particular and partisan interests”, the resolution of May 7, 2024 would be a violation of the agreement of April 3, 2024, considers the Collective of Political Parties of January 30, 2023.
Paragraph 4 of this resolution would unduly involve the Presidential Council in acts of management and execution, incompatible with its mission, which is to guarantee the stability and continuity of the State, he continues.
These “executive acts” could increase the risks of conflicts of competence and authority with the Prime Minister, who directs government policy, fears the Collective of Political Parties of January 30, 2023. [ppsf emb rc apr 13/05/2024 15:20]
[[1] The correspondence of the political parties, signatories of the joint declaration of January 30, 2023, to the president of the Presidential Transitional Council Edgard Leblanc Fils is initialed by the political parties National Union for Integrity and Reconciliation (Unir), Organization of the People in Struggle (Opl), Dessalinian Popular Patriotic Movement (Mopod), Alternative League for Progress and Haitian Emancipation (Lapeh), Grand Rally for the Evolution of Haiti (Greh), Haitian Party shaved head (Phtk).
