The last 10 remaining senators in Haiti’s parliament have officially left office, leaving the country without a single democratically elected government official.
The expiration of the officials’ terms at midnight on Monday formally concluded their time in office – and with it, the last semblance of democratic order in the beleaguered Caribbean nation.
Haiti – which is currently engulfed in gang violence and the worst malnutrition crisis in decades – now officially has no functioning parliament as the senators were the last of 30 to remain in office after successive failed efforts to hold elections.
There is now no constitutional representation at any state level, the latest sign that the country has become a failed state.
“The constitution, which until now we have been referring to as the framework for political transition, is essentially just a letter, because none of the institutional architecture that it describes is currently in place,” said Renata Segura, deputy director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Crisis Group, a peacebuilding thinktank.
www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/10/haiti-no-elected-officials-anarchy-failed-state