6927: Haiti's Opposition Proposes 3-Member Presidency (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: nozier <nozier@tradewind.net>

 February 6, 2001   Haiti's Opposition Proposes 3-Member  Presidency
 By DAVID GONZALEZ __NY TIMES

PÉTIONVILLE, Haiti, Feb. 5 — The Haitian opposition has  proposed to
President-elect Jean Bertrand Aristide that he be part  of a three-
member presidency that would lead the country to new  elections in two
years, diplomats and mediators involved in talks to break the nation's
political impasse said today.

  In a 17-point proposal, the opposition coalition known as the
Democratic Convergence also suggested that the prime minister come from
their ranks. Mr. Aristide's Family Lavalas Party is set to usher him
into formal power at inauguration ceremonies on Wednesday. By late
evening Lavalas proposed a broad commission to study the
 legislative election held last year. However, diplomats and others in
the  meeting said the two sides were still far apart and that no deal
would be  reached tonight.
 A Lavalas spokesman said the party rejected the Convergence
power-sharing proposal on the grounds that a tripartite government would
violate the Constitution. Earlier people close to the talks had said
they doubted that Lavalas would accept any governing scheme that would
dilute Mr. Aristide's authority.
  "That is not going to fly," one person close to the talks who is not
a   member of either side said of the power-sharing proposal. "Let
Aristide  be president and get him to call for parliamentary elections
for the end of  the year and another presidential election in three
years." Alfred Compas, a Lavalas mayor from Petite Rivière de Nippes,
expressed a view common among Aristide backers. "Lavalas has a base   in
every little family in the countryside," he said. "The Convergence only
goes to the radio stations. They do not go and talk to the people."
However, the opposition has influence and support among a wide
 number of professionals and intellectuals who would be needed to form a
functioning government and staff its ministries, diplomats said.That the
opposition proposed power-sharing was seen as a progress, since the
coalition, insisting since the November presidential election that  Mr.
Aristide was not legitimately elected, had threatened to form an
alternative government.
 Diplomats have told the opposition an alternative government would be
unacceptable to other countries.  "It would be better if they signed an
accord before Wednesday," one
diplomat said. "It would be difficult to see how they could negotiate
once Aristide is president. The dynamics change. It would be detrimental
to the Convergence. But to a degree, the other side is under pressure as
well."