Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
the Catholic Church of Haiti asked the president this Tuesday Jovenel Moise with regard to the electoral law and the Constitution, in a message interpreted by officialdom and the opposition as a clear suggestion that his term should end.
In an official statement, the Episcopate states that “no one is above the law and the Constitution” and stresses that “everyone wants Haiti to be a rule of law.”
“The President of the Republic has applied the electoral law and the Constitution to deputies, senators and mayors in the course of previous years, even for himself, thus proclaiming that the law is one for all,” he says. the text.
The communiqué does not explicitly ask Moise to leave power, but both sections of the bureaucracy and the opposition have interpreted that the bishops, in this way, have sided with the groups that, citing the Constitution and a 2015 election decree, they consider the presidential term concludes next Sunday.
see: Jovenel Moïse, President of Haiti
Aside from the political issue, the Episcopate has also referred to the wave of crime that is sweeping the country, stating that Haiti is “on the brink of explosion: everyday life for the people is death, murders, impunity, insecurity “.
A Moise adviser, Stanley Lucas, reacted to the bishops by saying on Twitter that “the Catholic Church prefers to join the coalition of oligarchs to protect the system rather than accompany democracy, reforms and modernization.”
The length of Moise’s tenure has these days become the center of the political battle between the government and the opposition and has prompted protests and a general strike celebrating its second and final day today.
Moise was elected for a five-year term in 2016 in an election that was repeated after the 2015 election was annulled for allegations of fraud, and he took office on February 7, 2017.
But from the point of view of the opposition, an article in the Constitution opens up the possibility of interpreting that Moses’ term began a year earlier, due to the electoral crisis.
This thesis is supported by the vast majority of the opposition, the unions, the Bar Association, the Jesuits and now the Episcopate, among other groups.
However, the theory that Moses’ term ends on February 7, 2022 is supported by the Organization of American States (OAS), the United States, and other countries.
Moise has called elections for next September and intends to approve a new Constitution sooner, which would be put to a referendum in April, according to his plans. EFE