26689: Severe: (reply) to Goldberg (comment) New Election Date (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Constantin Severe <csevere@hotmail.com>

The logical conclusion to Goldberg's query is that the new election date is 
unconstitutional. In any other context that would be cause for great mourning 
and gnashing of teeth, but given the events of last two years it's par for the 
course. Leaving aside the issue of how we got this transitition government, 
we've already seen the interim government overstay its constitutional 90 day 
mandate, imprison opponents on the vaguest of charges, overrule the court of 
cassation, and now miss the Feb. 7 date. Some would say at this late date that 
the constitution is  already dead and buried, so who cares.

Call me a fetishist, but I think in a country that purports to be a republic 
its basic law, the constitution should be more than something to bash your 
political opponents with when you're out of power. When this lot in power now 
was fighting Aristide they had long odes to the Constitution.
Now the attitude is, hey stuff happens. So when some form of Lavalas comes back 
into power eventually what stops them from running roughshod over the 
opposition. Theoretically, it's the constitution, but the last two years has 
shown us that it is a dead letter.

I'm afraid what this interim government is transitioning Haiti into, I don't 
believe it is democracy.