President of Haiti’s Senate, Joseph Lambert, has been treated at a hospital in the capital, Port au Prince, as he escaped an assassination attempt on Sunday.
The authorities said Lambert underwent an eye operation and his doctors said he remains under observation
Media reports said heavily armed individuals opened fire on the vehicle in which Lambert was travelling on Sunday at a roundabout near to the former premises of the Parliament.
The attack on the Senate President came the same day that the mandate of the ten remaining senators ended at midnight on Sunday.
As a result, Denis Cadeau, Jean Marie Ralph Féthière, Jean Rigaud Bélizaire, Garcia Delva, Joseph Lambert, Kédlaire Ausgustin, Patrice Dumont, Pierre François Sildor, Rony Célestin and Wanique Pierre, are no longer regarded as elected legislators or mayor.
The Senate is the upper house of Haiti’s bicameral legislature. It consists of 30 seats, with three members from each of the ten administrative departments. Senators are elected by popular vote to six-year terms, with one-third elected every two years. There are no term limits for senators; they may be re-elected indefinitely.
In 2015, the Senate was reduced to only ten members and the chamber of deputies was closed because the election to replace one-third of the senators and all of the deputies in 2013 was delayed indefinitely causing senators and deputies to finish their term in January 2015 without any replacement.
This led to a dysfunctional national assembly. In the 2015 parliamentary election these two-thirds were filled with new elected members, completing the 30 senators. Since January 2020, the number of lawmakers who retain their senate seats has again been reduced to ten since President Jovenel Moïse failed to hold elections in time to replace the others, whose terms expired before his assassination on July 7, 2021.
Last year, the United States Department of State, imposed sanctions on Lambert “for his involvement in significant corruption and a gross violation of human rights”.
US Secretary Antony J. Blinken said Lambert abused his public position by participating in corrupt activity that undermined the integrity of Haiti’s government.
CMC/
