PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Lawmakers trickled in almost two
hours after the scheduled start time and spent hours debating procedures with
supporters of Haitian Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis, who questioned the
validity of fellow senators’ move to censure her.
Despite their impassioned pleas and cries of
“illegal” and “unconstitutional” from the Senate floor,
Pierre-Louis’ dismissal appeared imminent.
Senators have accused Pierre-Louis, a favorite of the
international community, of not moving quickly to solve Haiti’s crucial
problems: high unemployment, lack of significant foreign investments and
environmental deterioration.
Pierre-Louis, in office for a year, said she has spent much
of her tenure getting international support for Haiti after four back-to-back
storms devastated the country last year and that it is too soon to see the
results of her work.
Senators were not swayed. But unlike the last censure of a
Haitian prime minister — Jacques-Edouard Alexis in April 2009 following days of
food riots — this one wasn’t as swift — or orderly.
At times, chaos reigned: lawmakers screamed and talked over
one another in front a national televised audience. The Senate president often
rang a small silver bell to create order to no avail as the session stretched
into late Thursday without a vote.
“There is an error in the summons, and everyone knows
it,” said Sen. Youri Latortue, a Pierre-Louis supporter who last year
successfully led the movement to oust Alexis.
But those lined up against Pierre-Louis weren’t moved by the
constitutional arguments, or her letter to the Senate president questioning the
validity of the censure and informing him that she did not plan to attend the
session.
“Do we not have the right, the freedom today to call
the government and ask for an explanation?” asked Jean Hector Anacasis,
one of the senators leading the effort to oust Pierre-Louis.
Sen. Joseph Lambert, the former president of the senate and
leader of President Rene Preval’s Lespwa Coalition, went even further, accusing
Pierre-Louis of not improving the lives of most of the country’s estimated nine
million citizens who live on less than $2 a day.
“I’ve never been so shocked in my life,” said Sen.
Andris Riche after hearing Lambert’s reasons for wanting Pierre-Louis gone and
walking out of the session following an impassioned speech in support of her.
“You are going to commit an act that to me is disastrous.”
“Decisions are not made at the prime minister’s office.
You know where the decisions are made,” he said, implying the presidential
palace.
Neither Pierre-Louis nor her government showed up for the
censure, and sources say she was at the prime minister’s residence while her
staff was preparing a pre-taped video message to the nation recapping what she
has done since becoming prime minister.
Supporters said they suspected the outcome was known before
the censure debate began.
“The error of Michele is that she depended only on the
international community. She did not look to build alliances in other sectors
domestically. And the international community’s error is they depended solely
on Michele,” said Micha Gaillard, a spokesman for political party Fusion.
“We should not panic. We have made a lot of effort toward stability, and
it is now up to Preval.”
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
