PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC – The Speaker of the Senate, Carl Murat Cantave, has cast doubt on the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country holding legislative and municipal elections in October this year.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Jean-Henry Céant, during a visit to the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced that the elections would take place on the last Sunday of October.
He said he was confident that the polls would be held in a peaceful environment.
But Cantave told a news conference that “talking about elections in October 2019 is make a reference to something fictitious”.
He said he made his position known to Us authorities during his recent visit to that country to participate in the launch of the Women Candidates project and to the presentation of Haiti’s need for humanitarian assistance in the current crisis.
He told reporters that the socio-political and economic crisis, the insecurity in the neighborhoods, the budget for the elections are some of the issues to be examined before a date for the polls could be declared.
Cantave said that if the dialogue does not take place or if it does not lead to concrete and applicable solutions, he fears an institutional vacuum in Haiti and more disorder in the country.
He is also predicting a dysfunctional Senate with several comunes being without authorities that could force President Jovenel Moise to lead the country by decree.
Since the end of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986, Haiti has been jolted by coups and contested elections that have further undermined the economy of the region’s poorest country.
