PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s newly installed transitional council on Tuesday elected former Sports Minister Fritz Belizaire as the country’s prime minister, as it moves forward with its monumental task of trying to establish a stable new government amid violence. suffocating.
Belizaire replaces Michel Patrick Boisvert, former Minister of Economy and Finance and current interim Prime Minister. Belizaire is little known, and some members of the Council did not even know about it.
The nine-member transitional council, seven of whom have voting rights, is tasked with electing a new prime minister and cabinet in a bid to help quell gang violence choking the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond.
More than 90,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince within a month and, in total, more than 360,000 people have been left homeless in recent years as groups of gunmen have devastated communities in rival territories.
Hours earlier, the council elected Edgard Leblanc Fils, former presidential candidate, as its president.
“This is a good choice for a prime minister,” Fils said of Belizaire in a brief speech to about two dozen attendees. “What is important for us is this will, this determination to go beyond divisions, to overcome conflicts and to achieve consensus.”
He said the council met the day before with military and police officials to discuss Haiti’s security crisis and how best to resolve it. “We publicly acknowledge the suffering,” he said when speaking of the population.
Bélizaire’s announcement came as a surprise. There was a murmur among the audience when Fils announced that four voting members of the council had elected Bélizaire as prime minister.
Leslie Voltaire, one of the council’s voting members, told The Associated Press, “I don’t know him,” when asked if he had supported Bélizaire.
Bélizaire served as Haiti’s sports minister during René Préval’s second presidential term, from 2006 to 2011.
“He’s an unknown figure,” said Robert Fatton, a Haitian political scientist at the University of Virginia. “He doesn’t seem to have his own constituency of his. Maybe that made him the likely prime minister, so that different parties can accept him as such.”
Louis Gérald Gilles, a council member who supported Belizaire, told The Associated Press that the council wanted to quickly elect a prime minister. “The Haitian population cannot wait any longer,” he said. “The issue of security is essential for calm in society.”
Following the brief announcement, which came about two hours after the event was due to begin, the council again worked behind closed doors to discuss its cabinet options. However, Voltaire said he did not expect the council to announce the cabinet selection on Tuesday.
The majority that supported Bélizaire as prime minister was made up of Fils, the new president of the Council, as well as Smith Augustin, Louis Gérald Gilles and Emmanuel Vertilaire.
Fatton called it an “unlikely” alliance: “We’ll see if it can last.”
The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can organize presidential elections shortly before disintegrating, which must occur in February 2026 or earlier.
Haitians are divided on whether a transitional government can help calm the troubled country, whose capital has been under siege since gangs launched coordinated attacks starting on February 29.
Gang members burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport, which has remained closed since March, and broke into Haiti’s two largest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates. The country’s main seaport also remains largely paralyzed by gang violence.
However, one thing is certain: Haitians want security. “Haitians are very impatient right now. They want to see results,” Fatton said.
The council is expected to support the deployment of a UN-backed Kenyan police force to help combat the gangs, although it is not known when that might happen.
Former Prime Minister Ariel Henry was on an official trip to the East African country when the coordinated gang attacks began, and he has not been able to return to Haiti since. He tendered his resignation last week.
