PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Until Friday, Haiti’s top two politicians were each claiming to be the rightful leader in charge of running the country in the aftermath of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
On Friday evening, a third man entered the picture. Joseph Lambert, the head of what remains of the Haitian Senate, said that he has been voted provisional president of the Republic of Haiti by his fellow senators.
The vote among the 10 senators who remain in the 30-member chamber was 8-0 with two abstentions “only because they are not in the country,” Lambert told the Miami Herald.
The chamber is the only constitutionally ordained part of government left in Haiti. Moïse was killed in the middle of the night Wednesday in his home in the hills above Petion-Ville. Since then, Claude Joseph, the outgoing prime minister who had resigned, has taken charge. Ariel Henry, the neurosurgeon Moïse had named as the new prime minister — but who has not been sworn in — has claimed he should be running the country.
The assassination has left Haiti, already reeling from a constitutional and political crisis, in uncertainty. There are only 10 elected officials left — all senators — because the majority of the country’s parliamentarians and all other elected officials had their terms end in January 2020.
The Senate vote had the backing of some of the country’s political parties, which support Lambert as interim president and Henry as prime minister. They include opposition parties and Moïse’s ruling Haitian Tèt Kale Party. Party head Liné Balthazar was among those who signed a separate accord supporting Lambert and Henry.
While all of Haiti’s political players agree that Moïse’s death is an exceptional situation, they cannot agree on the way forward. Behind the scenes a number of powerful players have been positioning themselves to take charge. The struggle has left the international community worried and fearful of more chaos.
“We are facing a very difficult situation in Haiti right now,” Helen La Lime, the United Nations special representative to Haiti, said this week after giving a closed-door briefing of the situation to the U.N. Security Council. “We continue to encourage all national stakeholders to remain united. Our message is that stakeholders need to set aside their differences and to chart a common way forward and overcome this difficult moment in a peaceful manner.”
So far the country has remained peaceful, but the political bickering continues.
Andre Michel, a leader in the Democratic and Popular Sector opposition coalition, said what’s needed is “a broad concerted national solution” and not “any tailor-made, non-inclusive solution, that above all does not take into account popular demands.”
“We are not signatories to this agreement,” he said of the proposal to put Lambert in as provisional president with Henry as prime minister. “The consensus that produced this agreement is too weak to be fruitful.”
Fanmi Lavalas, once the most powerful political party in the country, also opposes making Lambert president.
But the party’s refusal to support a Lambert-Henry leadership doesn’t mean that it’s supporting Joseph, the acting prime minister who in the wake of the president’s death declared Haiti to be under martial law.
“Why do we need a president? We have to innovate and transform that tropical tragedy into an opportunity to dignify the Haitian people,” said Leslie Voltaire, a longtime politician and member of Fanmi Lavalas, which was founded by former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. “I would rather see a council of state represented by illustrious Haitians from the diaspora, the regions and sectors of activity (health, education, the private sector, environment, human rights) with a coordinator.”
Other prominent Haitians are divided between supporting Joseph or backing a solution in which none of the people claiming the mantle of power should be in charge.
“Senator Lambert has no provisional or constitutional power to run Haiti,” said Gary Bodeau, a former president of the Lower Chamber of Parliament who supports Joseph. “One-third of the Senate cannot replace Moïse.”
There is no provision in Haiti’s constitution for a scenario in which the president dies and there are only 10 elected officials left in the entire country.
Recognizing that a president could die in office, or even be thrown out of office, the constitution was amended after the country’s catastrophic 2010 earthquake to say that the National Assembly would step in if there was a vacancy during the last two years of the president’s five-year term.
There is, however, no National Assembly right now.
Lambert insists that his selection will not complicate matters.
“I was chosen unanimously,” he said. “That doesn’t add to the conflict. There is a vacancy and the political force and class, the [Organization of American States], the U.N ... believe there needs to a dialogue initiated with the political actors to bring the country to stability.”
But those international organizations aren’t necessarily fans of the seasoned politician.
In the days since Moïse’s death, both the U.N. and the U.S. have been quick to show support for Joseph. This has rankled other politicians in Haiti, who say neither the U.N. nor the U.S. is respecting Haiti’s laws. They fear that a politician like Lambert will want to hold onto power, rather than prepare the country for elections.
Lambert said that is not his intention.
“The resolution the Senate vote is clear,” he said. “I am provisional president until the next parliament takes its seat in January 2022.”
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