(30 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – 30 April 2024
1. SOUNDBITE (French) Frinel Joseph, Spokesperson for Haiti’s transitional presidential council:
"According to this agreement, the majority also took the opportunity to make this choice or proposed a Prime Minister. Fritz Belizaire was chosen. I’m sure you’ll have a lot more to say about this afterwards, and especially perhaps with the various members of this majority.
++ ENDS ON SOUNDBITE ++
STORYLINE:
Haiti’s newly installed transitional council chose former Sports Minister Fritz Belizaire as the country’s prime minister Tuesday as it presses forward in its monumental task of trying to establish a stable new government amid stifling violence.
Belizaire replaces Michel Patrick Boisvert, the former minister of economy and finance who was the current interim prime minister. Belizaire is little known and even some members of the council didn’t know him.
The nine-member transitional council, seven of whom have voting rights, was choosing a new prime minister and Cabinet in a bid to help quell gang violence that is choking the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond.
More than 90,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in the span of one month, and overall, more than 360,000 people have been left homeless in recent years as gunmen raze communities in rival territories.
Belizaire had the support of four of the council’s voting members.
Earlier, the council chose Edgard Leblanc Fils, a former presidential candidate, as its president. “This experience proves we are capable of negotiations,” Fils said after announcing Belizaire as the new prime minister.
The announcement of Belizaire came as a surprise. A murmur rose through the attendees as Fils announced that four council members with voting powers had selected Belizaire as prime minister.
Leslie Voltaire, one of the voting council members, told The Associated Press, “I don’t know him,” when asked whether he supported Belizaire.
After the brief announcement, which was made nearly two hours after the event was supposed to start, the council went behind closed doors again to talk about their choices for Cabinet. Voltaire, however, said he didn’t expect the council to announce Cabinet selections on Tuesday.
The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections some time before it disbands, which must be by February 2026.
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