CARIBBEAN-Head of Haiti’s presidential council hopes for elections by 2025

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – The head of the Transitional President Council (TPC) in Haiti, Edgard Leblanc Fils, Tuesday said that he expects presidential and legislative elections to be held in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country by the end of 2025.

Fils, speaking at a news conference marking the end of the 47th regular meeting of CARICOM leaders, thanked the regional countries for their role in trying to bring about stability in his homeland, where security has become a significant issue, particularly following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7, 2021.

“We express our gratitude to CARICOM and particularly the Eminent Persons Group (EPG),” he said, noting its role in negotiating with the former government of Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry and the various opposition groups.

This led to the creation of the transitional government and the choice of a prime minister, he said.

“Since our new efforts and the placement of the new transitional organ, we are now going to put in place our transitional electoral process or system, which will allow us to have our general elections at the end of next year,” Fils told reporters.

“We have also launched our national conference, which will review the Constitution, particularly redefining the relationship between the state and the population, and set the tone for the new state of operations.

“It is within this difficult context marked particularly by the gun violence that is currently taking place in the capital of Haiti and the other villages of the country. We aim to remove Haiti from this situation,” Fils said.

He said Haiti has also benefitted from the deployment of police officers from Kenya under the United Nations-sanctioned mission to combat powerful armed gangs that have wreaked turmoil in the Caribbean country.

“We have also benefited from our participation in this CARICOM conference, equally to greet and thank the President of Kenya, Mr. (William) Ruto …and equally as the countries, Benin, Jamaica, and all those who have supported the fight against the gangs.

“We are very appreciative once again for being a part of this conference and looking forward to unity and sharing for the safety and security of all people,” Fils said.

CARICOM chairman and host Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said the work of the TPC is “beginning the process of putting Haiti on the path to treating with its ability to hold elections in what we hope is not a distant future.

“We want to point out that CARICOM also heard about and discussed the humanitarian situation in Haiti. It is a situation of grave concern,” he added.

Mitchell said that thousands of people in Haiti are displaced, and many others do not have adequate access to food.

“And so CARICOM has agreed that we will also seek to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Haiti,” he said, adding that this is one of the things the regional grouping will be doing along with its colleagues “to ensure that we can continue to support the people of Haiti in that regard.”

He said that the EPG, comprising former prime ministers Dr. Kenny Anthony of St. Lucia, Perry Christie of the Bahamas, and Jamaica’s Bruce Golding, “who have been doing tremendous work in supporting the efforts of the various groups and sectors in Haiti to create their own homegrown solution to the challenges they face, will continue to do so.

“They have been invited to visit Haiti in August so that they can experience firsthand and engage firsthand with various groups and sectors so that they could report back to CARICOM on the current state of affairs in Haiti and how CARICOM can continue to assist and support our brothers and sisters in Haiti. “

Mitchell described the work being undertaken in Haiti as “small steps, but the essential steps, and we think it is high computing.

“Given that Haiti is a member of CARICOM, we will continue to support and show solidarity with the people of Haiti. That’s who we’ve always stood in support of, and that’s who we will continue to stand in support of,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Fils said that the situation has improved somewhat now that the National Police, along with the Haitian military and the international force, have been deploying joint operations in the metropolitan area.

“So in a context where around 70 percent of the hospital services healthcare services are inoperational, the joint efforts of the National Police, the military, and the Kenyan forces have allowed us to regain certain lost territories, including around the General Hospital, which is one of the main health care facilities in the metropolitan area. And we were able to regain that territory and safeguard it until now.”

He said that there are signs that life is regaining its ordinary course in many parts of the Port au Prince area and other major cities of Haiti. “What we see as a sign of life retaking its ordinary course and the economic situation improving.

“A clear sign of that progress was the fact that 80,000 students in the metropolitan area could attend their end-of-year exams successfully, their official exams, and that’s a sign of progress and have a clear direction towards a better security situation, even if the steps are tiny.

“Meanwhile, the Transitional Presidential Council is taking all of the institutional steps needed for us to advance securely toward the electoral process,” Fils told reporters.