Voting senate (Picture from Le Nouvelliste)
Dangerous political deadlock
The ratification process of former Justice Minister Bernard Honorat Gousse, President Michel Martelly’s second nominee for prime minister, came down to the controversial divide between the technical or procedural vote and the political or personal vote.
“I would vote against Gousse even if the other 29 senators voted for him,” declared Senator Evaliere Beauplan to Haiti Liberte, a Haitian weekly. “Because, in 2004, he forced me to flee into exile,” he added. His colleague Jean William Jeanty, member of the pro-Gousse minority, contested the process on technical grounds, “We are in drift; the vote is not complete,” he said, referring to the minority’s refusal to vote. “I don’t know how the president of the Senate will enter this vote into the record,” Jeanty stated.
Haitian leaders, for the second time since Martelly’s inaugural address on May 14, 2011, failed to provide their constituency a prime minister to form a new government and avoid possible unrest. A 16-member anti-Gousse coalition of the 30-seat Haitian senate rejected his nominee, late Tuesday Aug. 2, 2011, after a seven-hour animated debate, including two meetings behind closed doors that ended at 10:02 p.m.
President Martelly’s first major political defeat came at the hands of the lower house that, in a 42-19 vote, rejected Daniel Rouzier, a successful businessman, as his first nominee for prime minister. Missing Haitian visas in Rouzier’s passport caught the attention of the commission reviewing his documents, suggesting that he might have taken on another nationality, actions strictly prohibited by the Constitution. Lawmakers also listed tax evasion as another hindrance to Rouzier’s success.
Uncompromising Absolutism
Gousse’s rejection surprised few people in the political community as the resolute majority announced their opposition to his nomination in a petition letter immediately after President Martelly announced it. They even wrote a letter asking him to consider a new nominee; however, Martelly reaffirmed his choice and even expressed confidence in a favorable outcome, arguing his own 18-member senate majority would prevail.
Negotiations between the President and the opposition did not suffice to change the outcome of Tuesday’s vote, however. Controversies surrounding Gousse’s tenure as Justice Minister after the removal of ex-leader Jean Bertrand Aristide were impossible to circumvent, it insisted. Many members of the majority, former allies of the exiled president and former President Rene Preval, recalled when Gousse reportedly used his position to persecute them and other political opponents with illegal imprisonments, assassinations and forced exile.
Furthermore, lawmakers urged the president to refrain from making unilateral choices and consult with them to avoid unnecessary conflicts. Nevertheless, Martelly insisted he and the parliament decided on the current nominee together and maintained that Gousse was the right man to head his government.
The senate vote came on the heel of the President’s announcement of the formation of a lower-house majority that would see his nominee through the ratification process should he survive the Senate. The 58 deputies making up that majority announced their alliance with the President before the Senate voted on Tuesday, pronouncing in Gousse’s favor.
Controversial Procedures
According to the Haitian Constitution, the President of the Republic must designate a new Prime Minister if either chamber of Parliament rejects his choice. While either chamber can start the ratification process, the first phase has traditionally been a technical one, where legislators analyzed documents submitted by the nominee, ensuring his qualification for the job. The second phase, purely political, ensured the declared policies of the nominee were in line with the country’s politics.
However, procedural order would not change the majority’s determination. “The vote on Mr. Gousse must and should be political,” declared Joseph Lambert, former president of the Senate and leader of INITE, the party of ex-leader Preval. He further argued a majority of senators would always vote against anyone with a controversial record on political grounds, thus justifying his colleagues’ position.
A nine-member Commission investigated Gousse’s qualifications to fulfill the Prime Minister’s duties based on six criteria established by article 157 of the 1987 Constitution:
- Be a native-born Haitian, and never have renounced Haitian nationality
- Have attained 30 years of age
- Enjoy civil and political rights and never have been sentence to death, personal restraint or penal servitude of the lost of civil rights
- Own real property in Haiti and practice a profession there
- Have resided in the country for five consecutive years
- Have been relieved of his responsibilities if he has been handling public funds.
Please read part two