This post is also available in: Kreyol

I am here to tell you that the Haitians claiming that Moise’s term has ended aren’t saying this because they don’t know how to count to 5

My biggest goal for this site is to provide opportunities for Haitians in the dyaspora to engage with our people in Haiti and shed light on the movements on the ground so that we can better stand in solidarity with them. Too often, we assume that because we are in the West, that automatically makes us smarter and more capable than our siblings back home.

So, here’s an explanation of the constitutional debate going on about Mr. Jovenel Moise’s presidential term. You have probably heard that the opposition which includes, civil society, religious leaders, students, human rights organizations, the high courts (what’s left of them), parliament (what’s left of it), and organizers have declared Moise’s term as being over as of February 7th 2021. I understand that this might be confusing considering the man took office in 2017, and the Haitian constitution states that a president’s term is 5 years. But I am here to tell you that the Haitians claiming that Moise’s term has ended aren’t saying this because they don’t know how to count to 5, nor are they claiming this because they have not read the constitution, quite the contrary. Of course, this is a debate, and any debate has two sides.

Le conseil supérieur du pouvoir judiciaire haïtien reconnaît ce dimanche matin la fin du mandat du président, alors que Jovenel Moïse maintient qu'il lui reste un an au pouvoir. #Haiti #AFP pic.twitter.com/QXMxj1XLwH

— Amélie Baron (@Ameliebaron) February 7, 2021

The first thing you should know is that there have been protests against the current Haitian president for years now. At the heart of these protests are disappeared PetroCaribe funds. Many people in the PHTK government, including JoMo, have been implicated in the disappearance of money that could have transformed Haiti. We broke this down for you here, check it out.

I have seen many folks in the dyaspora ask “why can’t they just let the guy do his job?” But I would like to remind you that many of you spent the last few years saying that Trump was not your president, and protesting against his policies. And just as it was well within your right to want an incompetent harmful president gone, it is also the right of the Haitian people. The next thing I hear often is “does Haiti need a dictator?” This claim suggests that the problem in Haiti is that the people there simply have too many rights, and the president does not have enough power. Well, JoMo dismissed his parliament almost a year ago, and has been unilaterally ruling by decree with nobody to stop him since. Are you arguing that this government needs even more power and needs to be even less accountable and transparent to the people they are in service to?

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s what’s going on in terms of the constitutional debate. 

The Haitian constitution, it turns out, says way more than simply “5 years” when it comes to the term of a Haitian president. Here is what article 134 says: 

Article 134-1

The term of the President is five (5) years. This term begins and ends on the February 7 following the date of the elections.

Article 134-2

[Amended by the Constitutional Law of 9 May 2011 / 19 June 2012]

The presidential election takes place on the last Sunday of October of the fifth year of the presidential mandate.

The president elected enters into his functions on 7 February following the date of his election. In the case where the ballot cannot take place before 7 February, the president elected enters into his functions immediately after the validation of the ballot and his mandate is considered to have commenced on 7 February of the year of the election.

From here, I’m going to pass the mic to my dad who wrote what he calls “a whatsapp broadcast article” explaining the situation to his network of friends. (I didn’t know Whatsapp articles were a thing, but the elders have their own understanding of that app, so I’m going to let him have it). It was originally written in Kreyòl, but I’ve translated it to English for you here. My dad is way smarter than me, but I should warn you that he’s pretty cranky, and it shows in this “WhatsApp article.” Take it away, Papi!

Jovenel Moise’s Term

What is a constitutional calendar?

In a democratic republic, a constitutional calendar is a clock established by the constitution that clearly marks when elections should be held and when a President’s term is over. It also tell us when a new president should be installed. This clock has two major elements: the length of a president’s term, and the date a new one should be installed. 

In any serious country, a lot of effort is made to make sure this calendar is respected. For example, in the USA, a president’s term lasts four years and their term ends at noon of January 20th of the end of their term. This clock began back in the year 1933, since then a new president has been inaugurated every four years on January 20th. There have been exceptions in 1957, 1985, and 2013 because January 20th fell on a Sunday, so it was pushed to January 21st.

Haiti’s Constitutional Calendar

Our calendar was established by the Constition of 1987. A president’s term lasts five years, and the date for a new president to be installed is February 7th. Since Haiti’s first democratic election happened in December 1990, our calendar goes like this:

·        7 fevriye 1991

·        7 fevriye 1996

·        7 fevriye 2001

·        7 fevriye 2006

·        7 fevriye 2011

·        7 fevriye 2016

·        7 fevriye 2021

 Article 134-2

On each of these dates, there should have been a new president installed. But since we are a chaotic people, there have been several instances where this date has arrived and no new president was inaugurated. However, the constitution makes provisions saying that when the inauguration happens late, the president loses time in their term. This article says that if the election is held late, the new president should be inaugurated after the election, and their term begins on February 7th of the year that the elections were held.

There are several Haitian presidents who have seen their terms shortened and have lost parts of their term because of the constitutional calendar. The president who lost the most amount of time in their term is President Aristide who lost three years because of a coup that occurred in September 1991. He returned from exile in October 1994. In 1995, Aristide received a lot of pressure from the international community to respect the constitutional calendar and organize elections so he could step down in 1996.

President Jovenel’s Term

President Jovenel was installed on February 7th of 2017. The constitutional calendar had his installation scheduled for February 7th, 2016. This was delayed because the first round of the 2015 elections were annulled because of fraud that was committed in favor of PHTK, Jovenel Moise’s party, according to the official Independent Commission Election Evaluation that was done after these elections. There was further delay because of Hurricane Matthew. Because of this, a new Provisional Electoral Council was established to continue the elections. They redid the first round, and Moise was named the winner as of the first round making a second round no longer necessary.

However, this was still a continuation of the same election. As proof, consider these three things:

1- the Electoral Council did not accept or invite any new candidates to enter the race because they specified that this was the same 2015 elections being continued.

2-President Privert declared on February 7th of 2017 that this was the finalizing of the 2015 elections.

3- Even Mr. Jovenel Moise declared in his inaugural speech on February 2017 that the road had been long, because the election had begun in 2015 and was finally coming to an end in 2017.

May all who have ears to hear, hear!

For posterity:

Port-au-Prince, Sunday February 7, 2021

Thanks Dad! I encourage you to stay up to date on what’s going on in Haiti. Consider subscribing to our newsletter where we round up weekly news about Haiti, and challenge yourself to read news from Haiti. Even if your French and Kreyòl are shabby, make good use of your translation tools, and get yourself in the habit.

Alright. I’m out.