16667: Arthur: Re: 16640: Dailey: to Arthur re respect for the Constitution (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Charles Arthur replies:

In a message dated 9/6/2003 3:55:35 PM W. Europe Daylight Time, Peter Dailey
<phdailey@msn.com> raised a whole bundle of issues relating to the enormously
tedious dispute between a handful of political leaders in Haiti. I don't have
time to unravel all the threads, and would just say:

I can't see anything in the Constitution about declaring an 'Alternative
President ' or calling for an 'option zero'.

As for this stuff about Aristide's term of office being extended, well, I can
see Articles 282-284 of the Constitution about amendments, and it seems to be
pretty clear from them that this is not possible....but maybe the OAS knows
better?

It seems rather rich for Preval to be blamed for the lack of elections
between mid-1997 and May 2000 when I distinctly remember the US envoy Richardson
going to Port-au-Prince to tell the President that if the second round of the
1997 Senate elections took place and served up a bunch of FL Senators, then US
aid would be suspended. From then on we had the intransigence of the OPL to
thank for the subsequent paralysis - its MPs knew full well that any elections
would see them replaced by the new party in the ascendency - the FL.

As for the comments about the 'solidarity movement', all I can say is that
the organisation that I work for - the Haiti Support Group - tries to stay out
of this FL versus Convergence dispute because it seems to us to be going on
over and above the heads of the majority of Haitians, and we would rather direct
our scant resources and energy to issues involving and concerning progressive
grassroots organisations and activists. And whatsmore aren't there a whole
host of diplomats, and 'democratisation' specialists, as well as the mainstream
media both in and outside Haiti poring over this 'crisis' for three years
already?

I know I should have resisted replying to this one, and forgive me if I do
not carry on with this thread....