Who is the rightful lead of Haiti following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse?

By Victoria Hansen

On July 7th, 2021, the President of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in his own home.[1] The President’s death left the nation wondering who was going to be the next leader of the country.[2] The Haitian Constitution states “[i]n the case of vacancy of the Presidency of the Republic either by resignation dismissal, death or in case physical or mental permanent incapacity duly declared, the Council of Ministers, under the presidency of the Prime Minister, exercises the Executive Power . . . .”[3] Based on what the Constitution says, it appears that the obvious answer to who is now the leader of Haiti would be that it is the Prime Minister. Unfortunately for Haiti, the answer to that very question is not so cut and dry. To fully understand why that is the case, we must look to the beginning of Jovenel Moïse’s presidency.

Moïse was elected as the Haitian President in 2016.[4] Many accusations stating that Moïse had only won by committing fraud led to Moïse not assuming power over the executive office until 2017.[5] According to the Haitian Constitution, Presidents are elected to serve a five-year term.[6] In Moïse’s eyes, because he did not gain power until 2017, he believed that his term did not end until 2022.[7] Many others argue that his term began when he was elected in 2016 and that Moïse’s term ended in February of 2021.[8] Either way, President Moïse had no intention of stepping down from the presidency until 2022, so he did not call for the general elections to occur.[9] This caused many members of parliament’s terms to lapse and left the Haitian government with only 11 elected officials.[10]

Throughout his Presidency, Moïse appointed and dismissed many Prime Ministers.[11] In April of 2021, Moïse appointed Claude Joseph as the Prime Minister.[12] Joseph served as Prime Minister for only two months before Moïse announced that Ariel Henry was going to be taking his place as Prime Minister.[13] This change in personnel was announced to the public only two days prior to the President’s assassination.[14] Due to the President’s untimely demise, Ariel Henry was never sworn in as the Prime Minister.[15]

Now that the President has passed on, who is the rightful successor? Is it Ariel Henry, the man that Moïse announced would be replacing the current Prime Minister? Or is it Claude Joseph, the man who was the sworn in Prime Minister at the time of the President’s death? If you asked the Haitian Senate this question, the answer would be neither of them.[16] The Senate has put forth a third person that it believes is the rightful successor of Moïse: Joseph Lambert, the current senate president.[17] So what is the right answer?

Joseph Lambert is likely not the rightful successor of President Moïse. Some may argue that because the Haitian people no longer saw Moïse as President, it should not be a Prime Minister that he appointed that takes over.[18] This argument falls short for two reasons: 1) no other person claimed to be the current president and 2) Moïse was still acting as President at the time of his death. More importantly though, the Haitian Constitution does not mention any instance in which the Senate President would become the President of the country.[19] The only mention of someone taking over for the President states that the Prime Minister would assume the executive power.[20]

With Joseph Lambert out of the picture, it leaves both Ariel Henry and Claude Joseph as the potential successors of President Moïse. There is a difficulty that both of these men face to becoming President: the fact that many people did not recognize President Moïse as the current President due to the fact that his term had expired.[21] If Moïse was no longer the President, then were either of the people named as Prime Minister still the Prime Minister? A look at the Haitian Constitution was informative in that it does not lay out a specific term for those appointed as Prime Minister.[22] Based on the wording of the Constitution, it appears that the Prime Minister is appointed and dismissed exclusively by the president.[23] With that being the case it follows that each President appoints their own Prime Ministers and the end of the President’s term would lead to the end of the Prime Minister’s term. Even though President Moïse’s term had technically ended, he was still acting as the current President and because he was acting as President, the Constitution should be followed and the successor should be one of his Prime Ministers regardless of the fact that they were technically appointed outside of his term.

Ultimately, it should be Claude Joseph who takes over as the President of Haiti. The reason for this outcome is simple: he was the Prime Minister at the time of the President’s death and the Constitution states that the Prime Minister is the one who takes over in these situations.[24] It is true that President Moïse had announced his intentions to make Ariel Henry the new Prime Minister prior to his death.[25] However, his announcement of that intention is not enough. Due to the fact that Ariel Henry was not yet sworn in as the Prime Minister at the time of the President’s death, he is not the rightful successor because he was not yet the Prime Minister.[26]

[1] Michael Barbaro, The Assassination of Haiti’s President, The Daily (July 9, 2021) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/podcasts/the-daily/haiti-president-assassinated.html.

[2] Id.

[3] Haiti Const. Art. 149.

[4] Supra note 1.

[5] Id.

[6] Haiti Const. Art. 134-1.

[7] Supra note 1.

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10]Id.

[11] Haiti Names New Prime Minister, Jamaica Observer (July 6, 2021) https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Haiti_names_new_prime_minister.

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] Becky Sullivan and Carrie Kahn, Ariel Henry Will Become Haiti’s Prime Minister, Ending a Power Struggle, NPR (July 19,2021), https://www.npr.org/2021/07/19/1017884122/haiti-interim-prime-minister-to-step-down.

[15] Id.

[16] Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Haiti’s Interim Prime Miniser Says He Is Optimistic on Forming a Unity Government, NPR (July 17, 2021), https://www.npr.org/2021/07/17/1017075387/haiti-prime-minister-claude-joseph-optimistic-unity-government.

[17] Id.

[18] Supra note 11.

[19] See generally Haiti Const.

[20] Id.

[21] Supra note 16.

[22] See generally Haiti Const. Sec. C.

[23] Id.

[24] Supra note 14; Haiti Const. Art. 149.

[25] Supra note 14.

[26] While I concluded that Claude Joseph is the rightful successor in this case, I do want to acknowledge that he has stepped down as the Interim President and allowed Ariel Henry to take his place. See supra note 14.