Haiti – Houston, we have a PM

The prime ministerial crisis in Haiti has finally been resolved.

On 30 August, the Chamber of Deputies approved Prime Minister Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis’s general programme for government. The result was overwhelmingly in favour – 71 for, 1 against and 8 abstentions. This was not too much of a surprise, given the composition of the government had been tailored to win the support of the parties in the Chamber.

On 5 September the Senate finally approved the programme too. This was always going to be the difficult part. It took two divisions. Recall that 16 votes (of the 18 sitting senators) were required for the programme to be ratified. At the first attempt, only 15 senators approved the programme and two abstained (the president of the Senate didn’t take part in the vote). After a break and some fraternal arm-twisting within the OPL party, another vote was taken and this time the PM won the required 16 votes.

It is just possible that the recent hurricanes and tropical storms that have hit Haiti very badly had a political effect and that, in the end, representatives felt that some sort of executive authority was required.

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