The first round of the presidential election in Haiti was held on 28 November. The election was marked by numerous irregularities and violence. Various candidates have called for the election to be annulled and rerun. However, there has been pressure from the international community not to do so.

The Conseil national d’observation électorale (CNOE) has now announced the results of the first ballot. The Haiti Elections 2010 website is very useful for following events.

So, the second round will be between Mirlande Manigat and Jude Célestin. Célestin is the representative of outgoing president, René Préval’s party.

Unlike last year’s crisis, this year a new government has been appointed very quickly.

As reported in a previous post, President Préval nominated Jean-Max Bellerive as the replacement for the previous PM, Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis.

On Friday 6 November M. Bellerive’s nomination was approved unanimously by the Senate. The next day he was ratified by the Chamber of Deputies by a vote of 52-0 with just two abstentions. On Sunday Prime Minister Bellerive named a new government with 18 ministers, 11 of whom also served under the previous administration. Interestingly, two of the newcomers are associated with the Fanmi Lavalas, the party of former President Aristide that was not allowed to stand at the recent Senate elections. This has been taken as a consensual sign.

On Monday 9 November Prime Minister Bellerive’s declaration of general policy was approved by the Senate. The vote was 22-0 with four abstentions, two of which are formally associated with President Préval’s Lespwa grouping.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister received the support of the Chamber of Deputies for the same policy declaration by a vote of 70-2 with two abstentions.

Last year PM Alexis was dismissed on 11 April and PM Duvivier Pierre-Louis’s government was ratified only on 5 September. This year the process has been much more speedy.

All the information is taken from the Radio Kiskeya site.

In Haiti on Friday the Senate brought down the government by a vote of 18-0. There was one abstention. The government, including the prime minister, did not attend the vote, the result of which was, in effect, known in advance. Six senators who disapproved of the vote did not take part in the debate. The vote was reportedly held to protest against “a serious law and order situation and a dramatic reality of hunger”.

President Préval has nominated the former Minister of Planning in the previous government, Jean Max Bellerive, as prime minister-designate. Anyone who followed last year’s tortuous nomination process will be aware that designating a PM in Haiti is very different from actually having a PM approved by the legislature.

President Préval’s own party, Lespwa (L’Espoir – Hope), voted for the destitution of the government led by Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis. To me, this suggests that the president wanted a change. As a premier-presidential example of semi-presidentialism, the president does not have this power constitutionally. That said, party cohesion is weak (to say the least), so this may be a sign that the president simply does not control his ‘supporters’. Any clarifications would be welcome.

In Haiti President Préval has submitted a long list of constitutional amendments to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. This is the beginning of the end of the process that started earlier this year with the creation of the Constitutional Commission (see previous post).

The text of the president’s proposals are available in French here. A report on the Haiti Analysis blog gives an overview of the situation. A total of 96 of the 1987 constitution’s 298 articles are to be amended and 28 abolished.

Despite all the proposed changes, the reforms only tweak at the edges of Haiti’s semi-presidentialism. There are some changes to the way in which the PM is appointed and approved by the legislature. There are some minor changes of wording to the powers of the president. There are also some changes to the method of election of deputies as well as to their mandate. The big changes concern the creation of a Constitutional Council and reforms concerning dual nationality.

The process of reforming the constitution is quite complicated. Here is the text of the constitution:

ARTICLE 282:
On the recommendation, with reason given to support it, of one of the two (2) Houses or of the Executive Branch, the Legislature may declare that the Constitution should be amended.

ARTICLE 282-1:
This declaration must be supported by two-thirds (2/3) of each of the two (2) Houses. It may made only in the course of the last Regular Session of the Legislative period and shall be published immediately throughout the territory.

ARTICLE 283:
At the first session of the following legislature period, the Houses shall meet in a National Assembly and decide on the proposed amendment.

ARTICLE 284:
The National Assembly may not sit or deliberate on the amendment unless at least two-thirds (2/3) of the members of each of the two (2) Houses are present.

ARTICLE 284-1:
No decision of the National Assembly may be taken without a majority of two-thirds (2/3) of the votes cast.

ARTICLE 284-2:
The amendment passed may enter into effect only after installation of the next elected President. In no case may the President under the Government that approved the amendment benefit from any advantages deriving the reform.

So, the president has submitted reforms to the legislature (Art. 282). Both houses of the legislature have approved the reform proposals by a two-thirds majority (Art. 282-1). The legislature will now convene in January to vote on whether to change the constitution.

The second round of Senate elections took place in Haiti on 21 June. The Provisional Electoral Council has just announced the results.

The Senate comprises 30 seats. This year, 12 seats were contested in 9 departments. According to Wikipedia, the outgoing Senators were affiliated as follows:

Fwon Lespwa – 4 (This is President Préval’s grouping – L’espoir – Hope)
Fusion (Regroupement de la Fusion des Sociaux Démocrates) – 2
Organisation du Peuple en Lutte (OPL) – 2
L’Artibonite en Action – 1
Pont – 1
Fanmi Lavalas – 1
Christian National Union for the Reconstruction of Haiti – 1

The following Senators were returned:

Fwon Lespwa – 5 (Ouest, Sud Est, Nord, Nord Est, Grande Anse)
Fusion – 1 (Nord Est)
OPL – 1 (Nord Ouest)
L’Artibonite en Action – 1 (Artibonite)
Union des Citoyens Ayisyen pour la Démocratie, le Développement et l’Education (UCADDE) – 1 (Sud)
Konba (Konbit pou Bati Ayiti) – 1 (Nippe)
Independent – 1 (Artibonite)

At the first ballot there was violence in one constituency (Plateau central). As a result, there was no first round result and a new election date has yet to be announced.

So, President Préval’s party gained one seat. According to my calculations, Fwon Lespwa now has 12 seats, making it easily the largest grouping in the Senate. However, the Senate, like the Assembly, is very fragmented. Recall that the government is responsible to either chamber. So, the potential for government instability is still very much present.

The much delayed Senate election was held in Haiti last week. The Provisional Electoral Council has just announced the results, though not in a very user-friendly form.

The Senate comprises 30 seats and renews partially. This time, because of deaths and other reasons, 12 seats were contested in 9 departments. The CEP reports that 11.3% of the electorate voted, with only 2.3% voting in the department l’Ouest, which includes Port-au-Prince. Candidates from the Fanmi Lavalas party of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide were not allowed to stand, or at least no solution was found that allowed them to compete. This may account in part for the low turnout. There was violence in one constituency, Centre, and no results have been recorded.

To be elected candidates needed 50% +1 of the votes cast. No candidate was elected at the first ballot and the CEP has announced that the second ballot will take place on 7 June.

Alterpresse reports that in two departments, l’Artibonite (Nord) and the Nord-est, four candidates will compete for the two vacant seats on offer, while in the seven remaining departments two candidates will compete for the single seat in each.

These are the remaining parties and their first-round scores according to Alterpresse, which is much more user-friendly:

l’Artibonite: OPL, 26,22% des votes; Haiti en Action (HAA), 22.28%; l’Espoir, 14.54%; an independent, 13.74%

Nord-est: l’Espoir, 24.48%; Fusion, 18.54%; OPL, 13.20%; OPL, 11.90%

La Grand Anse (Sud-ouest): l’Espoir, 38.67%; Fusion, 22.06%

Les Nippes (Sud-ouest): Combat, 23.95%; l’Espoir, 16.50%.

Le Nord: l’Espoir, 49.49%; MODELH, 21.86%

Le Nord-ouest: OPL, 34.93%; l’Espoir, 29.29%

L’Ouest: l’Espoir, 29.31%; l’Union, 12.56%

Le Sud: l’UCADDE, 27.97%; l’Espoir, 22.70%

Le Sud-est: l’Espoir, 49.06%; OPL, 43.19%

Recall that President René Préval is from l’Espoir.

In Haiti President René Préval has established a Constitutional Commission to make recommendations for change. This decision was announced on 19 February (apologies for only just picking up on it now). In his speech announcing the Commission, President Préval is reported as saying that the 1987 Constitution was a “permanent source of instability”.

The head of the Commission is Claude Moïse. He is the author of a 1999 book called Le pouvoir législatif dans le système politique haïtien. He is a historian and a constitutionalist. He has also published a number of articles about constitutional reforms that are needed in Haiti. Here is a link to one from 2002. In this article, he argues that parliament is too strong, the president too weak and the process of appointing a PM too cumbersome (hear hear to the last point anyway).

The Commission has 17 members and had four months to report.

There were a lot of posts on Haiti last year because it took such a lot of time to select the prime minister. A new report from the ICG gives an overview on last year’s problems and also provides information about the progress of the new government. It doesn’t make for very comfortable reading, especially with Senate elections in the next few weeks. However, it is a really useful source of up-to-date information about the country. The report is available here.

The prime ministerial crisis in Haiti has finally been resolved.

On 30 August, the Chamber of Deputies approved Prime Minister Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis’s general programme for government. The result was overwhelmingly in favour – 71 for, 1 against and 8 abstentions. This was not too much of a surprise, given the composition of the government had been tailored to win the support of the parties in the Chamber.

On 5 September the Senate finally approved the programme too. This was always going to be the difficult part. It took two divisions. Recall that 16 votes (of the 18 sitting senators) were required for the programme to be ratified. At the first attempt, only 15 senators approved the programme and two abstained (the president of the Senate didn’t take part in the vote). After a break and some fraternal arm-twisting within the OPL party, another vote was taken and this time the PM won the required 16 votes.

It is just possible that the recent hurricanes and tropical storms that have hit Haiti very badly had a political effect and that, in the end, representatives felt that some sort of executive authority was required.

Following the ratification of her appointment as PM by the Chamber of Deputies on 17 July, Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis was ratified by the Senate on 30 July.

The next step in the process is for both houses to approve her government and her general statement of government policy. This is proving difficult.

In the Chamber of Deputies, there is disquiet that some members of the government that was dismissed in April have been named in the new administration. In this context, the vote there was delayed It was then rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon, but it was delayed again, this time because of Hurricane Gustav.

In the Senate, there is a debate as to whether the majority should be reduced. This is because the mandate of 10 of the 30 Senators has expired, one has died and another is ineligible. With only 18 Senators available, the majority could be considered to be 10, but the majority could also be considered to be 16 Senators. If it is the latter figure, then PM Pierre-Louis is unlikely to receive the support of the Senate.

In the meantime, there has been rioting. It has not reached the level of the rioting in April – that brought the government down – but it is a sign that the lack of executive authority is causing general problems.

There is a really nice resume of the situation in the Miami Herald.