By Derwayne Wills

SAVE and except for Guyana and Suriname, which held elections just weeks before the July 2015 Meeting of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders, six national elections across the 15-member trading bloc have seen changes in governments for St Lucia, Jamaica, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.The prime ministers of Belize and St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Honourable Dean Barrow and Dr the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves respectively, have been the lone incumbents who retained the confidence of their respective country’s electorate.

Haitians last October rushed to the polls for the first round of presidential elections, but those elections have come to a stalemate owing to allegations of electoral fraud. A subsequent run-off election which features only the two top candidates from the first round was slated for January 2016, but because of allegations of electoral fraud and other illegalities, which culminated in political turmoil and mass protests throughout the country of 11 million people, the first round of elections was abandoned altogether.

Haitian President Michel Martelly’s term of office has since come to an end without that country successfully appointing a successor. Provisional President Jocelerme Privert, former head of that country’s Parliament, has, in the interim, been installed by Haiti’s Legislature to serve in the capacity of President for 120 days, beginning in February. Although Privert’s interim appointment was slated to end in mid-June, the politician continues as the country’s interim president in the absence of a vote in Haiti’s Parliament to extend his term.

Meanwhile, Haiti has accepted the recommendation of the international community to quash its first round of elections, held last October. Instead, a new election will be held in October of this year, with a second round of voting expected in January.

Through its Secretary General, Irwin LaRocque, CARICOM has lauded the decision of the Haitian authorities to quash the results of the first round of voting, which saw some 50 candidates contesting.

The SG told the press corps recently that there are persons who have challenged the first round of voting in Haiti, but moving to a second round with a “flawed” base would create a “problem.”

Haiti, which joined CARICOM in 2002, will be represented by its Prime Minister, Evans Paul, at the 37th Meeting of the leaders from the 15-member trading bloc, opening in Guyana tomorrow at Guyana’s National Cultural Centre.
Prime Minister Paul will update the region’s leaders, during the two-day summit, on progress made to host elections in his country.

Regional leaders will tomorrow meet newly-elected prime ministers of CARICOM member states — Dr Keith Rowley of Trinidad and Tobago, Andrew Holness of Jamaica, and Allen Chastanet of St Lucia — in a setting where the CARICOM agenda will take prominence.

After coming into office, Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced the formation of a commission — headed by former Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding –- mandated to investigate how best Jamaica can benefit from CARICOM.

In light of Britain’s exit from the European Union, questions were raised as to whether Jamaica would be taking a similar position. The CARICOM Secretary General has since challenged that contention, asserting that Jamaica is merely exploring how it can maximise on its membership in CARICOM.