Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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Thirty years to the day after Haiti’s last dictator fled the impoverished nation and the country took its first wobbly steps toward democracy, another leader stepped down Sunday, without a successor to take his place.
“I said I would not hand over power to those that don’t believe in elections, but the Parliament guaranteed that they will do everything to make sure the process carries on,” Mr. Martelly said in his last speech to Parliament, before handing the presidential sash to the leader of the national assembly. “I am leaving office to contribute to constitutional normalcy.”
Mr. Martelly, a former pop music star, was criticized for failing to hold elections during his five years in office and for surrounding himself with cronies, some of them criminals. He never shed his garish style and was considered an autocrat who allowed Parliament to expire during his tenure.
But Mr. Martelly said he had “faced the impossible” when he “inherited pain and misery” five years ago, a year after a huge earthquake killed hundreds of thousands of people and toppled sections of the capital.
Haiti’s latest political crisis resulted from a presidential election with 54 candidates that was held in October, which critics said was riddled with fraud. Political operatives were able to vote multiple times, and the president’s handpicked successor came in first despite being a virtual unknown, leaving the 52 presidential candidates who did not make the runoff election to question the results.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/w...is-president-departs-without-a-successor.html
Everybody should be happy now, right?
“I said I would not hand over power to those that don’t believe in elections, but the Parliament guaranteed that they will do everything to make sure the process carries on,” Mr. Martelly said in his last speech to Parliament, before handing the presidential sash to the leader of the national assembly. “I am leaving office to contribute to constitutional normalcy.”
Mr. Martelly, a former pop music star, was criticized for failing to hold elections during his five years in office and for surrounding himself with cronies, some of them criminals. He never shed his garish style and was considered an autocrat who allowed Parliament to expire during his tenure.
But Mr. Martelly said he had “faced the impossible” when he “inherited pain and misery” five years ago, a year after a huge earthquake killed hundreds of thousands of people and toppled sections of the capital.
Haiti’s latest political crisis resulted from a presidential election with 54 candidates that was held in October, which critics said was riddled with fraud. Political operatives were able to vote multiple times, and the president’s handpicked successor came in first despite being a virtual unknown, leaving the 52 presidential candidates who did not make the runoff election to question the results.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/w...is-president-departs-without-a-successor.html
Everybody should be happy now, right?
