Haiti establishes long-awaited transition council to choose new PM, leaders amid crisis

Haitigovernment, on Friday (Apr 13) formalised the creation of a nine-member transitional presidential council, which will be tasked with choosing the country’s next prime minister and Cabinet, a long-awaited move amid the ongoing violence in the gang-ravaged Caribbean country.

Nine-member council established

The announcement about the formation of the council was in a decree published Friday in a Haitian government gazette.

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According to the official state journal, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was expected to resign immediately after the council was formed, will remain in power till a new premier is chosen.

A provision in the decree allows the current PM to make the “necessary arrangements” ahead of the new appointments.

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Those chosen, according to the official state journal, would then “participate, in agreement with the prime minister, in the formation of an inclusive ministers’ cabinet.”

It will haveseven voting members and two non-voting observers which will be tasked with choosing the new PM and an“impartial” electoral council, said the decree.

Thecouncil will havemembers frompolitical parties or social sectors, while two non-voting seats have been reportedly represented by someone from Haiti’s civil society and its religious sector.

However, the decree does not name the council members or mention a timeline for installing the council and replacing the incumbent PM who said he would step down in a monthonce his successor was in place.

“The establishment of the...politically inclusive council signals the possibility of a new beginning for Haiti,” Caricom, a Caribbean trade bloc, who helped form the council, said in a statement.

It added that the council “will take the troubled country through elections to the restoration of the lapsed state institutions and constitutional government.”

However, the first priority would be to “urgently address” the security situation in Port-au-Prince so that schools and businesses can reopen and people can travel freely and access basic supplies, saidCaricom,

It also calls on the council to help speed up the deployment of international troops Henry requested in 2022 to aid police in mitigating the rise of gang violence.

The council, according to the decree, will be headquartered in the National Palace in downtown Port-au-Prince, which as per media reports has repeatedly come under fire in recent weeks.

Situation in Haiti

Nearly 95,000 people have fled the metropolitan area of the capital Port-au-Prince in the last month as criminal gangs have cemented their control.

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Local media reports, after the announcement, reported more gunfire in parts of the capital city.

Pierre Fritz Chenet, a police officer, was fatally shot while visiting relatives on the port side of the city, a police union spokesperson said, as per Reuters.

More than 1,550 people have been killed across Haiti and more than 820 injured between January to March 22, according to the United Nations data.

(With inputs from agencies)