Above: MINUSTAH Chief Sandra Honore (UN Photo/Mark Garten
By the Caribbean Journal staff
The ongoing delay of legislative elections in Haiti is of “increasing concern,” according to Sandra Honore, the new head of the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in the country said Wednesday.
Honore, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, said the political stalemate could undermine the country’s political situation and its apparently improving security situation.
“Continued delay in the holding of long-overdue partial senatorial, municipal and local elections is of increasing concern and poses a series of risks to the stabilization process,” said Honore, who is also the Special Representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Haiti.
The elections, which have been delayed for nearly a year and a half, would elect one third of the country’s 30-member Senate and a number of municipal positions.
They have been delayed since 2011.
“Despite the executive branch’s repeated public statements in favour of holding the elections as soon as possible, these delays have led a number of political and civil society actors to express skepticism concerning the likelihood that elections will be held in 2013,” Honore said.
Her predecessor, Mariano Fernandez, had also called for elections to be held this year, echoing the call of a number of international governments.
In April, Haiti announced the formation of a transitional body necessary to move elections forward. At the time, Haiti’s senior leaders said they expected elections by the end of the year, but that remains an uncertainty.