PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC – The members of the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) have called for it to be installed “as soon as possible” while accusing the Ariel Henry government of seeking to introduce “major modifications” that could further stall the process of bringing about peace and security in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.
In a statement, the political, economic, religious, and civil society organizations also want the Council to be installed in “the form and content defined in the Political Agreement for a Peaceful and Orderly Transition of April 3, 2024”.
They said they are “deeply shocked” upon learning of the decree published last Friday by the Henry government and “denounce the introduction of major modifications which distort the consensual project of a two-headed executive carried by the Presidential Transitional Council, consensus patiently and laboriously built between Stakeholders from March 11, 2024”.
Prime Minister Henry, who was sworn in with the international community’s backing shortly after President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination in July 2021, has already indicated that he will step down once the CPT is officially installed. A new prime minister was sworn in ahead of the fresh elections.
Henry is stranded in Puerto Rico, having been unable to return home from Kenya, where he witnessed the signing of an agreement allowing the African country to lead a United Nations Security Council-sanctioned Multinational Security Mission (MSS) to restore peace and security in Haiti.
However, in their statement, the members of the CPT said that Henry and “his resigning government have deliberately chosen not to respect the commitments to which they subscribed, through their direct representatives grouped within the Agreement of December 21”. They communicated to the CARICOM governments on April 1 this year.
They further argue that Henry and his government “chose not to publish, or even mention, the Political Agreement of April 3, 2024, in the decree of April 12 creating the Presidential Transitional Council and not to make public Le Moniteur Spécial No. 14-A relating to the “Order appointing the Members of the Presidential Transitional Council.”
“However, it should be remembered that Prime Minister Ariel Henry came to power in exceptional circumstances linked to President Jovenel Moise’s assassination on July 7, 2021, thanks to three political agreements, two of which were published in Le Moniteur.
The nine groups and political parties also recall that in the absence of the Political Agreements of September 11, 2021, and December 21, 2022, “no member of the current Cabinet would have been eligible to be Minister or Prime Minister based on the provisions of the constitution.
“Stakeholders remain committed to the consensus built from March 11, 2024, codified in the Agreement for a Peaceful and Orderly Transition signed on April 3, 2024, between different actors, including the Agreement’s signatories of 21 December 2022.”
The members said they “demand strict compliance with the commitments the resigning government made during the CARICOM-led political process.”
They said that the government had called for the political agreement and the document relating to the organization and functioning of the Presidential Council to be published in the official Le Moniteur.
The members said the government also agreed to “connect the bipartisan transfer of powers commissions” and “install as soon as possible the Presidential Transitional Council in the form and content defined in the Political Agreement for a Peaceful and Orderly Transition of April 3, 2024”.
The Council will comprise seven voting members selected across Haiti’s political spectrum and two non-voting observers.
Last weekend, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the 15-member CARICOM grouping welcomed the establishment of the CPT.
For his part, Guterres urged “all Haitian stakeholders to continue making progress in putting in place transitional governance arrangements, including the timely appointment of an interim Prime Minister and government, and the nomination of the members of the Provisional Electoral Council.”
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