One year after the establishment of the Transitional Presidential Council (TPC), the Montana Accord Monitoring Office (BSA) is publicly withdrawing support. In a statement released on April 3, 2025, the BSA demanded that the immediate dissolution of the TPC, which it accuses of betraying its mission, and compromised any prospect of a return to legitimate governance in Haiti.
This rupture comes as public support for of the TPC has plummeted. This is largely due to its composition of members co-opted through imposed political compromises, often under regional and international pressure. The TPC had been entrusted with the delicate task of steering the post-Jovenel Moïse transition. The Monitoring Office had agreed to participate in the TPC, which is largely dominated by partisan apparatuses and foreign interests.
According to the signatories of this declaration—including Monique Clesca, Magali Comeau Denis, Jean-Claude Barré, Camille Chalmers, and other civil society actors—the TPC has failed to embody the spirit of democratic and inclusive transition. On the contrary, it has consolidated power, neglected security, governance, transparency, and social justice.
The TPC's rating of 14 out of 100 by Transparency International is cited as a dramatic indicator of its moral and administrative bankruptcy.
The involvement of three members of the TPC in a bribery scandal at the Banque Nationale de Crédit is a serious incident that adds to the recurring accusations of embezzlement, personal enrichment, and cronyism. The TPC, far from laying the foundations of a new democratic order, has transformed itself into an organ of discretionary, opaque, and illegitimate power.
The April 3 statement came shortly after Fritz Jean, the current interim president, publicly announced that the institution would leave power on February 7, 2026. For the BSA, this announcement is a delaying tactic. The BSA alleges that this is a tactic to prolong the de facto regime, which does not have popular base or constitutional foundation. All while purporting to prepare for elections organized with the stated objective of neutralizing critical opposition and manipulating the electoral framework.
By denouncing the Council's desire to set aside the 1987 Constitution and introduce a new amendments without popular consultation, the BSA warns of the risk of an authoritarian shift disguised as institutional reform. According to the BSA, these factors, coupled with the TPC's inability to restore security, alleviate poverty, or respond to the humanitarian emergency, justified their withdrawal of support.
The BSA calls for the dissolution of the TPC and the urgent implementation of an alternative transitional framework. This should be based on a sovereign national conference, the effective participation of popular sectors, the establishment of a transitional justice mechanism, and the reaffirmation of the principle of popular sovereignty as the basis for any reconstruction.
The BSA's withdrawal of support marks a turning point in the Haitian political landscape. It reveals the depth of disenchantment with a transition that, in the eyes of the BSA, was simply a continuation of the old order under another name. By denouncing a betrayal of the transition, the BSA seeks to redirect the national debate toward a demand for legitimacy, accountability, and justice.
The break with Fritz Alphonse Jean and the rejection of the current transitional framework are therefore not simply tactical moves: they constitute an act of political responsibility and an attempt to reframe the transition within the horizon of law, inclusion and national dignity.
Translated by CHIP editors
Posted April 13, 2025