National Assembly (Haiti)
National Assembly (Haiti)
Main page
1820733

National Assembly (Haiti)

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
National Assembly (Haiti)

The National Assembly (French: Assemblée nationale, Haitian Creole: Asanble Nasyonal) consists of the bicameral legislature of the Republic of Haiti, consisting of the upper house as the Senate (Sénat) and the lower house as the Chamber of Deputies (Chambre des Députés).[A88] Both assemblies conduct legislative sessions at the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.[A103]

Since 10 January 2023, every seat in each house is vacant as elections have been repeatedly delayed and the final elected legislators' terms expired on January 10. Many sources call Haiti an anarchy as there have only been two elections in 19 years and the country has been running by Presidential decree since 2023. However, since there is a lack of a President, and only a Transitional Presidential Council exists, with limited power, many consider Haiti to be an anarchy with no rule of law.

Additionally, many outlets consider Jimmy Chérizier to be the most powerful man in the country, a gang leader who led the 2024 Haitian jailbreak which resulted in the resignation of the powerless Prime Minister - at that time, Ariel Henry - and total control of the nation's capital in his gang's hands.

The National Assembly was preceded by the Council of State, a legislative council appointed by the head of state, mostly from among generals. The Council of State was first formed by Jean-Jacques Dessalines under his 1804 imperial constitution. Following his 1806 assassination, his northern general and the new Chief of the Provisional Government Henri Christophe called a Constituent Assembly to meet in Port-au-Prince in November. However, a power struggle ensued between supporters of Christophe and his fellow general Alexandre Petion.

Christophe had sought to ensure a majority of parishes from his power base in the Northern and Artibonite departments in the Assembly, but Petion authorized the election of deputies from parishes in the Western and Southern departments, counteracting Christophe. This resulted in a constitution which was more favorable to Petion's demands for a republican form of government. Under Petion's guidance, the constitution was approved, and the Assembly elected Christophe president and elected a powerful unicameral 24-member Senate.

Christophe and Petion came to violent blows, with Christophe eventually retreating to Cap Francais (now Cap-Haitien) and forming an "Assembly of the mandatories of the people" which elected him President and adopted his own constitution in February 1807. The Senate, meanwhile, met in Port-au-Prince, and formally replaced Christophe with then-Senator Petion as president. This resulted in two separately-governed countries.

Petion eventually tired of the 1806 constitution's limitations on his power, and he eventually drafted a major revision to the constitution in 1816, which established a bicameral parliament, consisting of the House of Representatives of the Communes and the Senate, as well as a separate judicial branch headed by the Tribunal of Cassation. The new parliament also elected Petion president for life, and allowed him to govern more or less by decree. This era, which continued under Petion's successor Jean-Pierre Boyer, ended in 1843, when Boyer resigned and went into exile.

A new provisional government assembled a Constituent Assembly, which drafted a new constitution and restored much of parliament's former power to the Parliament against the new president Charles Rivière-Hérard. But under his successor, Philippe Guerrier, the Parliament was temporarily replaced by a smaller appointed Council of State which held legislative power for the next two years until it was turned into a Senate in 1846 under Jean-Baptiste Riché.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.