Haiti parliaments convenes first session
(AP) — Haiti’s new parliament has convened in its first session but there was no public debate about a looming constitutional crisis with the weekend departure of the president.
Twenty-two senators and 92 deputies were present Thursday to open the troubled country’s National Assembly.
The matter of the presidential vacuum was listed on their agenda but they closed the brief session without formally discussing it. President Michel Martelly is constitutionally required to leave office Sunday.
Haiti deal near OAS mission chief says
Ronald Sanders, the Antiguan diplomat heading the Organization of American States special mission to Haiti is confident a solution will be reached in the coming hours over the fate of Haiti’s future governance, despite seemingly indecisiveness on the opposition’s goals.
“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 Feb. 7,” Sanders told the Miami Herald.
“Every day, the goal posts seem to change. There is a different story about what settlement they’re going to reach, as to how they go forward after Feb. 7.”
Martelly to leave office Sunday with “no regrets”
During the inauguration ceremony of the nearly-finished Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Communities President Michel Martelly expressed his gratitude for his time in office and for his supporters.
“It was an honor,” Martelly said. “I never wanted to hold to power for one more day. Feb. 7 will come straight with no regrets, no envy, no strings attached.”