Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: Government and Politics
three people to serve four-year terms on a Departmental Council.
Members of the council do not have to be chosen from
among assembly members. In addition to its role in electing
members to the council, the Departmental Assembly nominates
candidates for the CEP and judges for the courts of
appeal and the courts of first instance. It also selects a representative
to serve on the Interdepartmental Council. The nine
members of the Interdepartmental Council become members
of the Council of Ministers, which also includes the prime minister
and his cabinet of ministers. Representatives of the departmental
assemblies who become members of the Council of
Ministers carry ministerial rank and voting rights on issues of
decentralization and development.
The executive branch is headed by a president elected by
popular vote to a five-year, non-renewable term. The president
names a prime minister, who, once confirmed by the National
Assembly, or parliament, heads the government, selecting a
council of ministers or cabinet and appointing their secretaries
of state. The cabinet of Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis
in December 1999 was composed of fifteen ministers (see table
27, Appendix). The president presides over the Council of
Ministers, which must be composed of no fewer than ten members.
He or she also appoints representatives to coordinate and
control public service functions, excluding public safety, in
each department.
The legislative branch is headed by the National Assembly
composed of a Senate (Senat) and a Chamber of Deputies
(Chambre de Deputes). The three senators of each department
are elected to staggered six-year terms, with one-third of
the Senate coming up for election every two years. The eightythree
deputies are elected from smaller electoral districts
determined by population distribution. Large urban areas can
be represented by no more than three deputies.
Haiti derived the formal aspects of its
legal system from
Roman law, the Napoleonic Code, and the French system of
civil law. Like the executive and legislative branches of government,
the judiciary is also decentralized, based on an ascending
order of courts, beginning at the municipal level with the
Court of the Justice of the Peace and rising to the Court of Cassation
(Supreme Court) . Justice of the peace courts are located
in each of Haiti's municipalities. Each court has at least one
judge and other officials. To be nominated as a justice of the
peace, an individual must have a law degree, be at least twenty-
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