Haiti's Senate met yesterday Monday, the second Monday of January, for the first time in a year with just a handful of lawmakers present, a move that highlighted the country's dysfunctional government as it prepares for the elections, in a more or less near and uncertain future, following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34162-haiti-flash-president-jovenel-moise-assassinated-by-mercenaries-official-updated-7am-+-video.html and to the many socio-political, security and other troubles...

The Senate, composed of 30 members, currently has only 10 senators, because the country did not organize legislative elections initially scheduled for October 2019, then postponed several times...

Of those 10 members, only seven showed up when Senate Speaker Joseph Lambert delivered his speech to Parliament :

"[...] the overall situation of our degraded political society does not favor brilliant auspices at the ceremony of the day. It has been two years since our country, in a kind of proven incomprehension, left the institutional order and democratic [...] Today, the Republic of Haiti is deprived of its Chamber of Deputies and its Senate is reduced to a third of its members, these exercise their mandate which expires on the second Monday of January 2023 [...]" declared the President of the Senate, also he "suggests humbly but firmly that the year 2022 be declared 'Year of Haitian Dialogue'. The title does not matter as it can vary from the National Conference, passing by the States General to social or political dialogue. I believe that our society is heavy in too serious events and that it can no longer do without this meeting. We need the authority of a convening power able to secure the responsible and enthusiastic participation of all sectors of national life [...]"

Further addressing to his colleagues he declared "The third of the Senate must put together its responsibility and its prerogatives to spare the Republic from this catastrophe. It has the duty to grant the urgency and the seriousness to put the Prime Minister de facto on notice not to stand in the way of the broad consensus which must finally pull the country out of this too long crisis [...] The Senate, although reduced to a third, therefore has many work. It's time to stand together to work together [...] "

Full speech by the President of the Senate that we invite you to read : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/discours-joseph-lambert-10-01-2022.pdf

HL/ HaitiLibre