Former Port-au-Prince mayor and veteran politician Evans Paul was nominated as prime minister by President Michel Martelly on Thursday in the latest attempt to resolve a political crisis over long-delayed elections in Haiti.
Paul, who rose to political prominence in the 1990s as an ally of controversial two-time former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, must be confirmed by parliament before he can start putting together a new government.
His nomination was announced by Martelly via Twitter early evening on Christmas Day.
If approved, Paul would take over from Florence Duperval Guillaume, who was named interim prime minister on Sunday as a temporary replacement for Laurent Lamothe.
Lamothe was forced to resign earlier this month following several weeks of protests, quitting after Martelly accepted the recommendations of a presidential commission appointed to defuse the crisis. Paul, 59, was a member of the commission, which called for the prime minister’s removal.
His resignation also came after warnings from the United States and the United Nations that the impoverished Caribbean nation was on the brink of political chaos again.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is still recovering from a 2010 earthquake that leveled much of the capital, Port-au-Prince. In recent weeks, demonstrators in several cities have accused the government of corruption.
Paul, a former journalist known as K-Plim or The Pen, was elected mayor of Port-au-Prince in 1990 as an ally of Aristide, a fiery former liberation theology priest who was twice overthrown as president in 1991 and 2004.
Paul later split with Aristide, becoming one of his most vocal critics. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2006, receiving 2.5 percent of the vote.
If elections are not held before Jan. 12, the fifth anniversary of the earthquake, parliament will shut down, leaving the country without a functioning government until presidential elections in late 2015.
(Writing and additional reporting by David Adams; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG
Isn’t there a conflict of interest here??
Evans Paul was on commission that recommended Lamothe’s betrayal, even as Lamothe was functioning well.
Was appointment as PM part of the deal?
And now, the criminals in our Senate demand Prolongation, until election, as their price to recognize Evans Paul. Criminals to recognize a criminal.
Parliament should die on January 12. Allow people opportunity to replace criminals with – at least – new criminal.
People have forgotten that Evan Paul led an attack on the Papal Nunce after Aristide won the 1990 elections with 67% of the 340,000 votes cast out of a population base of 9,000,000.
The Nunce was stripped naked and forced to duck-walk around his yard while people pissed and shit on him. His assistant was chopped with machetes and seriously injured. He died in a DR hospital.
The nuns at the building were beaten and raped. They took refuge in the Petionville casserne of the FAdH.
He tried to kill Archbishop Ligonde.
Two blind musicians were necklaced. Perhaps they played off key!
Haitians seem to have forgotten Evans Paul, the murderer and criminal.
I don’t. I was there!!!
Why not call for the removal of Haiti’s Governor “SLICK WILLY Bill Clinton”. From the day he went to the U.N. and the U.S. States Department requesting to be appointed special envoy to Haiti. I’ve mentioned on this publication Haiti will be dupped into a systematic mess Period!