Comments on: Haiti: President PrĂ©val Seeks an Electoral Amendment http://www.coha.org/haiti-president-preval-seeks-and-electoral-amendment/ COHA is an NGO specialized in monitoring Latin American and Canadian Relations for more than 30 years... Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:22:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Ilio Durandis http://www.coha.org/haiti-president-preval-seeks-and-electoral-amendment/comment-page-1/#comment-9791 Ilio Durandis Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:35:13 +0000 http://www.coha.org/2008/03/26/haiti-president-preval-seeks-and-electoral-amendment/#comment-9791 This is a very interesting piece. I am always fascinating to listen or read from international scholars about their take on Haiti's constitution. Haiti is a country full of law, and yet it is ruled without any regards to the law. Officials only make use of articles that are of interest to them in the constitution. Preval is in a no-win situation as far as amending the constitution is concerned. In Haiti, where the present constitution prohibits people with dual citizenship from holding public office, we have senators and cabinet ministers who have dual citizenship, and there's nothing anyone can do about that. I am not sure I can agree with your assessment that based on Latin America tendency that it is probably not in Haiti's interest to amend the term limit of the president. Giving the conditions of Haiti, do you really think any leader can put out a road map of progress in five years? There are certain prejudices, and stereotypes that need to be clear from the international scholars before they could be credible on Haitian matters. We need people who can put the laws of the land in application. The 1987 constitution is due for an amendment, but I am not sure we will ever see a real change on the document. This is a very interesting piece. I am always fascinating to listen or read from international scholars about their take on Haiti’s constitution. Haiti is a country full of law, and yet it is ruled without any regards to the law. Officials only make use of articles that are of interest to them in the constitution.

Preval is in a no-win situation as far as amending the constitution is concerned. In Haiti, where the present constitution prohibits people with dual citizenship from holding public office, we have senators and cabinet ministers who have dual citizenship, and there’s nothing anyone can do about that.

I am not sure I can agree with your assessment that based on Latin America tendency that it is probably not in Haiti’s interest to amend the term limit of the president. Giving the conditions of Haiti, do you really think any leader can put out a road map of progress in five years? There are certain prejudices, and stereotypes that need to be clear from the international scholars before they could be credible on Haitian matters.

We need people who can put the laws of the land in application. The 1987 constitution is due for an amendment, but I am not sure we will ever see a real change on the document.

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