A couple of weeks ago I envisaged only a couple of postings on Haiti, but there have already been more than that and current events suggest there may be quite a few more still to come.

According to Le Monde, President Préval’s nomination as prime minister, Ericq Pierre, has been rejected by the Chamber of Deputies. M. Pierre’s nomination was approved by the Senate on 7 May. However, he was not so fortunate when it came to the lower house. Haiti en Marche reports that M. Pierre’s nomination was rejected by 51 to 35 with 9 abstentions.

The official reason was that M. Pierre’s personal details were not in order – his identity cards showed him as both Ericq Pierre and Pierre Ericq. A number of years ago, his nomination had been rejected because the birth details of his grandparents and great-grandparents could not be validated. These problems are apparently due to the absence of certain records in the Haitian system, but they are enough for M. Pierre’s prime ministerial ambitions to have been stymied twice.

The party situation in Haiti is complex, but it has been noted in a number of Haitian newspapers that L’Espoir (LESPWA), the party close to the President Préval, refused to vote for M. Pierre. This raises the issue of whether the president ever wanted or expected M. Pierre’s nomination to be ratified and, if so, why not? However, Haiti en Marche puts forward the theory that the Chamber of Deputies wanted to get its own back on the Senate. A few weeks prior to the dismissal by the Senate of the previous prime minister, the Chamber of Deputies had overwhelmingly voted in favour of him during a confidence vote. Given M. Pierre had just been ratified by the Senate, Haiti en Marche theorises that a game of tit-for-tat was being played. Alternatively, party discipline in Haiti may have, in effect, completely broken down, which, if so, does not bode well for the appointment of a new prime minister any time soon.