Election

On Thursday, May 1, 2015, the office of the Department of Electoral Litigation (BCED) Ouest 1, has delivered its verdict on the legitimacy of the First Lady Sophia St-Rémy Martelly's candidacy to the Senate of the Haitian Republic. The tribunal under the presidency of Wally Désence constituted by Me Merlan Bélabre and of Me Mario Delcy, has announced that the charges framed against the First Lady were found unacceptable as they were groundless to warrant any action against her candidacy and hence rejected. We may remember that some opposition leaders like Dr Louis Gérald Gilles of Fanmi Lavalas, Marie-Denise Claude, Me Tranquilor Mathieu (Unité Patriotique) and the platform JUSTIS, had earlier challenged her candidacy on two main constitutional grounds-- dual citizenship and her involvement with an unsettled public fund.

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The Provisional Electoral Council has reconsidered its initial decision and now has decided to remove Jacky Lumarque of the Verite Party from the race for not having his discharge certificate which is a requirement by the electoral decree in its Article 90. Mr. Jacky Lumarque was the candidate for the Political Party VERITE which was formed by former president Rene Preval.

According to the CEP, the candidate of VERITE did not provide a dischage certificate for his management as Coordinator of the Working Group on Education and Training (GTEF). The letters from the Superior Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes (CSC/CA) demonstrated that the candidacy of Jacky Lumarque was approved without a standard-level décharge.

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We just learned that the candidate for the political party MUDHAH, François Levelt, has been removed from the race for president in Haiti. The CEP made that decision on Friday, June 19, 2015 due to possession and trafficking of crack and cocaine in the United States.

Nou jis aprann ke yo retire nan ras pou prezidan kandida pou pati MUDHAH politik la, François Levelt. CEP a te pran desizyon sa nan Vandredi, 19 jen, 2015 akòz posesyon ak trafik krak ak kokayin nan Etazini.

Ki sa nou panse?

What do you think?

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The next presidential election in Haiti is expected to bring lot of surprises. For the candidate of Platform of the radical opposition "Pitit Dessalin" this is already a given. Moïse Jean-Charles declared recently that the October 25 presidential will be only a formality because as he sees it, he is already the next president of Haiti.

Candidate Jean-Charles took a look at the competition and say no real challenge to his candidacy. According to Moïse Jean-Charles, "Neither the government of Michel Martelly nor the international community have candidates capable of competing with him".

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Sophia Martelly is the First Lady of the Republic of Haiti since May 11, 2011. It is often said that, behind every successful man there is always a more successful and strong woman. The First Lady is often referred by her friends as "the power behind the throne" while the enemies call her "iron lady". Although, the Haitian press mostly refrained from making too much commentary on the presumed candidacy of the First Lady, it is a fact that nobody likes power vacuum.

Sources close to the First Lady indicate that she has decided to succeed her husband. She has formed her presidential exploratory committee, two years before, and she has been consistently doing a very good job on behalf of the Haitian people and recently has expressed her wish to work for the center-right liberal Party, Haitian Tèt Kale (PHTK).

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Haiti's electoral council has released the final list of presidential candidates approved to participate in the upcoming presidential election in Haiti. After analyzing 70 applications of candidate, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has approved 58 candidates. Former Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe is excluded from the list

Final list of candidates approved by the CEP to participate in the next Presidential election in Haiti:

Alexandre Jean Bony - CONCORDE NATIONALE

Andre Amos - FRONT UNI POUR LA RENAISSANCE D'HAITI

Andre Michel - PLATEFORME JISTIS

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On Monday, April 13, 2015, the political actors in Haiti have accused President Martelly on charges of setting up over 66 political parties out of the total 165 parties registered for the forthcoming election.

The accusation came when the Prime Ministry is trying to reduce the number of contending political parties in the election and the President and the Minister of Justice Pierre-Richard Casimir were busy in meeting the Heads of some compassionate countries like Brazil, Venezuela and others to fund the massive coming election (expected budget between $50 and 60 million, the most expensive ever in Haiti). During the discussions, the Head of States have expressed their concerns to fund the coming electoral process. According to an amendment with support from the former President Preval, political parties taking part in the election will be supported from a fund earmarked for the contests.

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The dream for Laurent Lamoth to become the next president of Haiti seems to be diminishing. The BCEN that actually issued the verdict late yesterday to reject his candidacy really put some waters in his fire. The BCEN based their decision due to the absence of discharge.

In the meantime, Lamothe has been rallying his troop to apply some pressure on the CEP to allow him to participate in the election, which so far doesn't seem to be working. From radio presentation to news conference bot in Haiti and the Diaspora, nothing seem to be going on his favor.

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The deadline to register the nomination for the August 9 legislative election has expired on Thursday, April 23rd midnight. According to an official report, more than 2,000 candidates from as many as 125 political parties have registered for 119 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 20 open Senate seats. Most of the candidates are running after the mayoral posts as it give access to the most powerful neighborhood leadership. Haiti has a history of turbulent elections, but in no way that dissuades candidates to participate in election.

The law permits every individual to form political parties. International observers believe that although the electoral council cannot force, but it can merely recommend parties to form coalitions, however, the parties on their own interest may form coalitions. Presently, President Martelly is ruling the country by decree since the Parliament was dissolved on January 12, 2015. The terms of one third of the Senate had expired with the expiry of the entire member of the Chamber of Deputies on that day.

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My children would often tell me" " dad, that is not fair" and I often respond to them that life was never fair, just deal with it. However, in the case of Former Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, not only he's been crying that life is not fair since the BDED has rejected his candidacy for president, but he doesn't think that he can continue to live if the decision is not changed.

Lamothe and his team has mounted a well organized public campaign to sell his side of the story. Whether it is on Radio stations, at the Royal Oasis Hotel in Port-au-Prince , in the Haitian diaspora; Lamothe, Former Minister Michel Brunache are all over the airwave, crying "abuses and injustices"

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