CEP Resolution validating the definitive results of the Senate third for the Sud department

A resolution of the CEP, adopted in extraordinary session on 22 February 2017, validating the definitive results of the election for the third of the Senate in the Sud department. It rules on a challenge to the eligibility of the winning candidate. On 1 February 2017 Fritz Carlos Lebon, a Senate candidate for the Sud, wrote to the CEP president alleging that his competitor Pierre François Sildor held Canadian nationality and had made false declarations to the CEP on registration; invited to explain, he argued that Sildor was a Canadian Deputy Warden in Haiti and responsible for CIDA, both senior public functions reserved to Canadian citizens, and concluded that he should be excluded under Constitution article 13.

The Council examined correspondence with the Canadian Embassy, whose ambassador replied that wardens do not coordinate consular operations but only support embassy consular staff, are not employees of the Government of Canada, hold no diplomatic or political function, serve voluntarily and unpaid, and need not be Canadian citizens or even temporary residents. It also weighed a certificate from the Directorate of Immigration and Emigration of 25 July 2015, hologram 2328166, attesting that Sildor held no foreign nationality, and noted that article 13-3 of the 1987 Constitution, on loss of Haitian nationality through occupying a political post in the service of a foreign government, was repealed by the constitutional amendment of 9 May 2011.

The Council therefore declared Lebon's complaint unfounded, found no false declaration or fraud warranting referral to the national electoral disputes bureau, and ordered publication of the definitive results.