RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Several tens of thousands of Haitians demonstrated on Monday, March 29, in the streets of Port-au-Prince against the referendum to reform the Constitution that the country’s president, Jovenel Moise, plans to hold next June.
This is the second consecutive day of protest against the consultation. The demonstrators were removing the posters in which the Government asks the population to vote in support of the constitutional referendum.
Many of the demonstrators, who denounce Moise’s will to impose a dictatorship in the country, carried the national flag, blue and red. Still, some also carried the ensign of Russia to claim the support of that country to their cause, as a contrast to the United States’ support to the president in his plan to hold elections in September.
“Long live democracy, down with the dictatorship”, “Long live the Constitution, down with the referendum”, were some of the slogans that could be read on the banners carried by the demonstrators.
Read: Haiti – A country trapped between two presidents, kidnapping gangs and chronic poverty
Several leaders of opposition political parties were seen on the track, among them the head of the political party “Pitit Dessalines” (Sons of Dessalines), Moise Jean Charles, who gave the closing speech of the march in Champ de Mars, the only public square of the capital, located a few meters from the National Palace.
This Monday marks the 34th anniversary of the adoption of the 1987 Constitution. On this occasion, three national days of mobilization were called throughout the country to demand respect for the current Magna Carta, the last of which will be held this Tuesday.
At the end of the protest in Champ de Mars, the National Police launched countless tear gas and fired in the air to disperse small groups of demonstrators who wanted to pass exactly in front of the National Palace.
Moise is pushing for the new Constitution because he considers that the current fundamental law is the origin of the recurrent political instability that Haiti has experienced in the last decades.
The new constitutional text draft has been drawn up by a group of experts and is now open for discussion. Still, the opposition refuses to participate in this process and does not recognize Moise’s authority as head of state since, in its opinion, his mandate ended last February 7.
The draft Constitution expressly vetoes the possibility for Moise to run for reelection, something he cannot do under the current legislation.
The Government intends to hold the constitutional referendum in June and two months later, in September, to organize legislative and presidential elections.