Haitian President Jovenel Moïse announced on Wednesday April 14 that the government had tendered his resignation. “The resignation of the government, which I accepted, will make it possible to address the glaring problem of insecurity and to continue discussions with a view to reaching the consensus necessary for the political and institutional stability of our country. Minister Claude Joseph is appointed PM [premier ministre] “, tweeted Mr. Moïse.
The resignation of the Government, which I accepted, will make it possible to address the glaring problem of insecurity and continue… https://t.co/NbD6e1CSZb
The new head of government is the foreign minister of the resigning government. He replaces Joseph Jouthe, who is also the president of the Superior Council of the National Police and who, in thirteen months at the head of the government, has not been able to stem the upsurge in insecurity.
For several months, Haiti has been sinking into a serious institutional crisis. The country is particularly plagued by kidnappings carried out by gangs enjoying virtual impunity. Latest example:kidnapping, Sunday, of ten people, including seven religious – five Haitians and two French – near Port-au-Prince. Another illustration of the danger of general chaos hovering over the small country, the escape in February of more than four hundred inmates from a prison on the outskirts of the capital, an operation in which twenty-five people were killed, including the facility manager.
The hotly contested president
Mr. Moïse, the object of strong contestation from the opposition and a good part of the Haitian population, who demand his departure, is in his sixth prime minister appointed in four years. If he believes that his mandate will end on February 7, 2022, for the opposition and part of civil society, it ended on February 7, 2021. A disagreement that is due to the fact that Mr. Moïse was elected after a ballot canceled for fraud, then re-elected a year later.
Deprived of a parliament, the country sank further into the crisis in 2020 and the president rules by decree, fueling growing mistrust of him. In this unstable context, Mr. Moïse decided to organize a constitutional referendum in June, denounced as a masquerade by the opposition.
At the end of March, the United Nations Security Council called on Haiti, in a unanimously approved declaration, that its electoral preparations “Be made with a view to a free, fair, transparent and credible presidential election in 2021”. Written by the United States, the declaration also highlights “The urgent need to keep [les élections législatives] delayed since October 2019 ”.