diff --git a/src/harness/harness.ts b/src/harness/harness.ts
index 92dc2df2d09..35af6778363 100644
--- a/src/harness/harness.ts
+++ b/src/harness/harness.ts
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@
 /* eslint-disable no-var */
 
 // this will work in the browser via browserify
-const _chai: typeof chai = require("chai");
-const assert: typeof _chai.assert = _chai.assert;
+var _chai: typeof chai = require("chai");
+var assert: typeof _chai.assert = _chai.assert;
 {
     // chai's builtin `assert.isFalse` is featureful but slow - we don't use those features,
     // so we'll just overwrite it as an alterative to migrating a bunch of code off of chai