Two presidential candidates ruled out of Haitian election due to American nationality

by Vario Sérant
Caribbean Net News Haiti Correspondent

Thursday,  November 10, 2005

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti: A governmental committee created to check the nationality of the candidates has decided to expel from the electoral race the Haitian-American millionaire, Dumarsais Siméus, and another prominent businessman, Samir Mourra.

Siméus was running under the banner of the political party "Tèt Ansanm" (Heads Together) and Mourra for "Mouvement Progressiste Haïtien" (Haitian Movement for Progress).

The committee has provided to the Provisional Electoral Council (PEC) the evidence concerning American nationality of Mourra and Siméus. In a letter addressed to the PEC, the members of the governmental committee affirmed that the two candidates hold an American passport.

The PEC has to publish without delay the final list of the presidential candidates allowed to campaign.

One of the dismissed candidates was not long in reacting by characterising the governmental committee on nationality and the Provisional Electoral Ccouncil as illegal and unconstitutional. Samir Mourra reaffirms being "a native Haitian".

His colleague in misfortune, the millionaire Dumarsais Siméus, had recently stated, after his rehabilitation in the race by the Haitian Supreme Court, that he is "already the Haitian president". Siméus based this remark on the idea that "the Supreme court is the only constitutional authority of the country".

The president of the governmental committee on nationality, the Justice Minister Henri Dorléans, responded that the Supreme Court had not ruled on the nationality of Siméus, but rather on the charge of false statements which the PEC had evoked in its request.

38 presidential candidates are running, after the decision of the Supreme Court and the Office of Electoral Dispute to authorize the participation in the next elections of six candidates to the supreme office of the country.

This first verdict of the governmental committee on nationality is at a decisive stage in the electoral process. According to the president of the PEC, Max Mathurin, the electoral timetable will be published at the end of this week.

Since the beginning of 2005, the date of the elections has been pushed back in four occasions.

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