Jamaican News

Opposition lawmaker elected new leader of Haiti’s Senate

By David McFadden

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti _ An opposition lawmaker who was jailed for over two years before being cleared of charges he orchestrated a 2004 massacre of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s opponents is the new chief of Haiti’s Senate.

Jocelerme Privert was elected late Thursday as Senate president with 15 votes and seven abstentions. There are currently 24 sitting members of Haiti’s 30-seat upper house. Two senators, including a government-aligned rival who had pushed for the Senate leadership before withdrawing his candidacy, left the chambers before the vote.

Privert vowed to lead Haiti’s Senate impartially and provide sound leadership in managing public finances during a one-year term. He said he also hopes to pave the way for a permanent electoral council to replace a chronically disorganized provisional one whose members are replaced every election cycle.

He’s a member of the Verite platform, a faction associated with former President Rene Preval.

An interior minister under Aristide, Privert was held for over a year without charges on allegations he planned the 2004 killings of government opponents near the port city of St. Marc, where violence erupted in the buildup to an armed rebellion that pushed Aristide from power for a second time and killed at least 300 people. He was later charged with murder and held for another year alongside former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune.

Both men consistently maintained they were political prisoners and had no involvement in the killings. At one point, they launched a hunger strike in jail.

All charges were dropped in June 2006 and Privert was released after 26 months behind bars. He said he was the victim of a political conspiracy by the U.S.-backed interim government of former Prime Minister Gerard Latortue following Aristide’s ouster.

Privert’s rival for the Senate presidency was Youri Latortue, an adviser to outgoing President Michel Martelly. He is a cousin of ex-Prime Minister Latortue.

No political faction has a majority in Haiti’s Senate. Six seats are still to be decided in a partial legislative runoff set for Jan. 24, the same day as a scheduled presidential runoff.

In a Thursday interview with Radio Kiskeya, Haiti’s opposition contender for president reaffirmed that he will not participate in a two-candidate runoff on Jan. 24 because of concerns about electoral fraud. Jude Celestin said he plans to soon make his boycott official with the Provisional Electoral Council.

However, electoral authorities have said Celestin’s name will appear on ballots because he never officially withdrew from the race. They say voters will be able to choose between Celestin and government-backed candidate Jovenel Moise, who led disputed first-round results with roughly 33 per cent of the official tally.

The Organization of American States on Tuesday called upon the two runoff contenders “to participate actively in the election.” The United Nations, the United States and other nations that monitor Haiti say they support holding the runoff this month.

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince this week updated a Haiti travel alert warning American citizens to exercise caution and pay attention to the security situation “as the electoral process progresses to a resolution.”

But at least one lawmaker, Sen. Evalier Beauplan, said legislators will seek to set up a commission to assess the elections and potentially postpone the Jan. 24 vote. Since Sunday, 92 newly elected deputies and 14 senators have taken oaths of office, nearly filling Haiti’s Parliament and ending a year-long period where Martelly was ruling by decree.

On Friday, Vijonet Demero, the electoral council’s secretary general, resigned “for reasons beyond my control.” He’s the second member of the nine-member council to step down in recent days.

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David McFadden on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dmcfadd

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