PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) — Haiti's parliament on Thursday rejected President Rene Preval's latest pick for prime minister, Robert Manuel, one month after turning down a previous candidate for the post.
Lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies voted 57 to 22 in favor of a recommendation to reject Manuel's nomination on the grounds that he failed to meet certain constitutional requirements for the post.
Manuel has not lived in Haiti for the past five years, and only obtained a citizenship card and registered to vote the day after he was tapped to become prime minister.
"The majority of deputies having voted for the committee's recommendation, the prime minister-designate's nomination is rejected," parliament Speaker Eric Jean-Jacques said.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has been without a prime minister for two months since Jacques-Edouard Alexis resigned in April after a no-confidence vote following food riots that killed six people and wounded 200.
Lawmakers rejected Preval's first nominee, Ericq Pierre, a close friend of the president, on May 12.
Manuel, 55, was minister of public security during Preval's first term in office (1996-2001). More recently he served as a special advisor to Preval, after organizing his 2006 presidential campaign.
An architect, writer and poet, Manuel is a former president of the association of Haitian writers.
"It is an insult against the president who, for a second time, has been repudiated by the Chamber," said member of parliament Robert Monde, adding that he hoped a new candidate could be quickly put forward to the lower house.
But Senator Joseph Lambert, who is close to President Preval, said democracy had prevailed.
"The president freely made his choice, and the parliamentarians freely made their decision. The process worked normally, without dictation from anyone," said Lambert, who is head of the Hope party.
Micha Gaillard, leader of the opposition Fusion party of social democrats, shared a similar view, but stressed that the lawmakers had forgotten the socio-economic realities in the country, including spiking food costs and security concerns that could once again push protesters into the streets.
"It is necessary to note the discord between President Preval and his own political platform," said Gaillard, while calling for the executive and the legislature to come together to resolve the crisis.
"We cannot continue in this way," said one parliamentarian who voted in favor of Manuel. "There are people who want to maintain the country in misery and disorder."
Seventy percent of Haitians live on less than two dollars per day, and half of Haiti's 8.5 million people are unemployed.
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