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PM Laurent Lamothe: Haiti to Hold Delayed Vote by Early Next Year

Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said Tuesday that his country will hold long-overdue elections no later than early next year if several opposition lawmakers don't stand in the way of the vote before their mandates expire in January.

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In an interview with The Associated Press, Lamothe said a group of six senators who have been holding Haiti "hostage" won't be able to do so anymore once their terms end. Still, Lamothe said, he hopes the officials will approve an electoral law before then, a move that could pave the way to organize the vote that is three years late.

Lamothe has promised before that the legislative and local elections will happen before year's end, but now the stakes are higher as the government faces mounting pressure from the United States and United Nations to organize the vote before the terms of 10 senators expire in mid-January and Parliament is dissolved. President Michel Martelly will then rule by decree.

"From Jan. 12 on, they will not have the (green) light to block the process," Lamothe said while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. "The president will take (responsibility) and organize the elections as soon as he can, as soon as possible."