Bill Clinton urges Haiti leaders to confirm PM-Added COMMENTARY By Haitian-Truth

   FILE - In this July 21, 2011, file photo, U.N. special envoy to Haiti, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, left, talk to Haitian President Michel Martelly while inspecting numerous model homes displayed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haiti's leaders need to quickly confirm President Michel Martelly's new pick for prime minister and establish a functioning government within the week, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said in a statement Thursday, May 3, 2012.
FILE – In this July 21, 2011, file photo, U.N. special envoy to Haiti, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, left, talk to Haitian President Michel Martelly while inspecting numerous model homes displayed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haiti’s leaders need to quickly confirm President Michel Martelly’s new pick for prime minister and establish a functioning government within the week, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said in a statement Thursday, May 3, 2012.

Eduardo Verdugo, file / AP Photo

By TRENTON DANIEL

Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s leaders need to quickly confirm President Michel Martelly’s new pick for prime minister and establish a functioning government within the week, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said in a statement Thursday.

Clinton, who is the United Nations’ special envoy to Haiti, said its government has a responsibility to put the population first and set aside political differences and self-interest so donor money will flow again to rebuilding efforts as the Caribbean nation struggles to recover from the 2010 earthquake.

“I believe that the Haitian people deserve better from their leaders,” Clinton said in the statement. “The current political crisis disrupted progress towards a more prosperous Haiti for too long.”

The statement came on the same day that Haiti’s Chamber of Deputies gathered to vote on whether to approve Laurent Lamothe, a foreign affairs minister, as Haiti’s next prime minister. Lawmakers in the 99-member chamber will vote on the final part of a two-step confirmation process, the debate could go late into the night.

Deputy Arnel Belizaire, a Martelly critic who said he and his colleagues wouldn’t vote for Lamothe, criticized Clinton’s statement.

“Clinton can’t tell us what to do,” Belizaire said by telephone. “No authorities of other countries will tell us what to do.”

Even if Lamonthe’s nomination were to be ratified, the prime minister-designate would need to have his Cabinet and policy agenda approved by Parliament, which could take days or even a couple of weeks.

The Martelly government has had a prime minister for only four months since the president, a political newcomer, took office a year ago.

The outgoing prime minister, Garry Conille, announced his resignation two months ago after he clashed with Martelly over the government’s priorities.

The vacancy has stalled reconstruction efforts and the absence of a fully functioning government has discouraged donors from fulfilling billions of dollars in quake-related pledges.

Despite Clinton’s hopes, more vacancies lie in the horizon. The terms of 10 senators, or one-third of that legislative body, expire May 8. But their seats won’t be immediately filled because legislative elections that were supposed to have been held in November weren’t organized in time.

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COMMENT:HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG

The writing is on the wall as Haiti’s parliamentarians fail to show up for meetings.

The comments of criminal depute Belezaire set the tone for the final refusal to accept Laurent Lamothe as Prime Minister, even though Lamothe has spread several million around the Chamber of Deputies in an effort to guarantee his acceptance. Belezaire is one who accepted Lamothe’s largesse, and now betrays his promise. Shows you cannot trust a bribed Haitian Depute.

Clinton should know enough to keep his mouth shut, and his nose out of local politics. He is just providing morons, like Belezaire and Moise Jean Charles with the ammunition they need to justify paralyzing the Nation, yet again.

And, all the while, Aristide funds action against the Martelly government.

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