PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 5, CMC – President Michel Martelly says he will leave office on Sunday in keeping with the provisions of the constitution as the mission from the Organisation of American States (OAS) gets ready to leave the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country still optimistic that a deal could be hammered to end the political and constitutional crisis.
“I am grateful to all those who allowed me to serve. On February , I’ll leave without any regret, any envy and without any desire to remain in power,” Martelly told reporters as he attended an event to inaugurate a new government building built to replace one damaged by the January 2010 earthquake.
President of the Senate, Jocelerme Privert said “the National Assembly will take all necessary measures to fill the vacancy of the presidency”.
Earlier this week, Privert, denied several rumours that Prime Minister Evans Paul had resigned as part of a agreement that would end the crisis sparked by the decision of opposition parties to boycott the second round of balloting on January 24 to elect a successor to Martelly.
The opposition supported candidate, Jude Célestin, and the supporters have instead been calling for an interim government to oversee the polls in the country.
“No agreement between the Executive and Parliament has been found, the alleged resignation of Prime Minister Paul Evans was not notified to Parliament and no list of names for Prime minister was submitted to Parliament, all contrary information at the moment, are false,” Privert said.
He had earlier this week also told a mission from the Commission of the Community of States of Latin America and Caribbean (CELAC) that “local players are able to find a solution to the crisis…”
But as he prepared to leave Port au Prince, Sir Ronald Sanders, the Antigua and Barbuda diplomat who headed the OAS mission told the Miami Herald newspaper that he was still optimistic that an agreement could be reached to end the crisis before Martelly formally leaves office.
“This is an exceptional situation requiring an exceptional solution,’ the chairman of the OAS Permanent Council said, adding “what I am pleased about is that it is they who are finding the solution.
“They are working together, desperately trying to get to a solution and that is the best thing that can happen. It is not a solution that anyone imposes on them; it is one that they devised, formulate, and it will be up to them to implement it,” he said, adding “I am as confident as one can be in these circumstances that the deal that is now on the table will probably come to fruition on February. 7”.
But even as the situation was being discussed, anti-government demonstrators were demanding that former president Jean Bertrand Aristide be appointed to head the interim government pending the outcome of the polls.
However, some opposition parties grouped under the label “Group of Eight (G8) say they want a Supreme Court judge to lead the interim government that would investigate the first round of presidential election on October 25 last year and organise a new election.
The new session of the Haitian parliament opened on Thursday and that Privert, who also served as president of the National Assembly, acknowledged the imminent presidential vacuum.
But the legislators took no decision was taken on how to address the situation.
