Haiti’s president downplays his country’s crisis at UN as US sounds alarm
News Desk
Posted On February 23, 2021
Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise told the UN Security Council on Monday that “democracy was doing well in Haiti” despite its ongoing political crisis, an assertion challenged by the United States, which called on him to quickly put an end to his era of “rule by decree.”
Moise has been ruling by decree for a year because there currently is no parliament, and only a third of its senators are in office. Legislative elections due in 2018 were delayed.
He also maintains that his term lasts until February 2022 — but the opposition argues it should have ended two weeks ago, in a standoff over disputed elections.
During a rare address by a head of state — countries are usually represented by the foreign minister — Moise said that in four years, his country “had had to face down bids to interrupt the constitutional order through violence.
“At the base of all this, there is a rejection of the democratic regime and of elections as the only means of access to the management of the affairs of the state,” he said, lauding his own administration’s “tireless efforts… to appease the sociopolitical climate.”
“We are facing a powerful lobby which has great resources,” he said during a speech that lasted 27 minutes, instead of the 15 normally granted, and that was marred by the sound and image cutting out because of a poor internet connection.
He said this lobby was associated with “sore losers” and has violently blocked the senate’s regular functioning, preventing the government from being formalised and voting on a budget and an electoral law…..read more
Source: France24
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News Screamers 24th Feb, 2021
