PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC – Lower than 48 hours after he was prevented from boarding a flight to the US, lawyer André Michel has introduced his candidature for the presidential election in Haiti.
“I’m asserting my presidential ambitions for the upcoming elections. I’ll current a political platform centered on safety, financial and social improvement, and nationwide sovereignty,” Michael stated on his X account, previously Twitter.
“The elimination of armed gangs is my high precedence. We should not dwell on the Gang!” he wrote.
Political observers are questioning the sincerity of Michel’s announcement, saying that it was made to deflect consideration from the humiliation he skilled on the Cap-Haïtien airport on Saturday when he was barred from boarding a Dawn Airways flight to Florida.
Whereas no official clarification has been made relating to the airline’s resolution to forestall him from boarding the flight, media reviews right here counsel that he could also be on a blocklist that features each former and present Haitian officers, political figures, and influential members of the enterprise sector whose U.S. visas have been revoked.
Michel rose to prominence on the nationwide political scene in the course of the 2011–2021 interval, when he performed a central function in a number of high-profile authorized circumstances involving authorities officers and was a kind of towards the administrations of Michel Martelly and Jovenel Moïse.
He was additionally a member of Ariel Henry’s transitional authorities, turning into one in all its most vocal defenders.
Haiti has been with out an elected head of state after President Moise was shot and killed at his non-public residence on July 7, 2021. His spouse was additionally injured in the course of the assault, and several other Colombian nationals have been arrested in reference to the killing, however haven’t been formally charged as but.
For the reason that dying of Moise, prison gangs have sought to overthrow the interim governments, and so they have virtually full management of the capital, forcing individuals to flee their houses.
The United Nations has stated that the gangs are chargeable for the deaths of 1000’s of individuals in Haiti.
The Haitian-based media group, SOS Journalistes, is urging the authorities right here to carry a constitutional referendum forward of plans to carry elections in Haiti by November this 12 months.
It said {that a} constitutional referendum is important within the nation, the place energy is anticipated to be transferred in February 2026 to a decide of the Court docket of Cassation.
Final Friday, the official launch of the “Chair of Regulation and Administration of Electoral Operations in Haiti” happened, an initiative of the State College of Haiti and the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP).
The 2 establishments signed a partnership settlement that goals to strengthen coaching and analysis within the administration of electoral processes within the nation. The challenge can be supposed to coach executives in electoral professions and improve the institutional capability within the nation.
