Tuesday, May 30, 2006

by Vario Sérant
Caribbean Net News Haiti Correspondent
Email: vario@caribbeannetnews.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Haiti’s Deputies Chamber endorsed Jacques Edouard Alexis for Prime Minister last week, thus conforming their choice with that of the Senate.

Of the 82 deputies present, two chose to abstain from the election, and Alexis received 79 favourable votes.

The newly-approved Prime Minister also obtained the confidence of each of the two Chambers for his programme of government.

President René Préval appointed a special subcommittee of the Deputies Chamber to analyse the proposals by Alexis and his manifesto was approved with unusual speed.

The deputies and senators who are not members of the presidential political party, "Espoir" (aka: Hope Platform), announced that their favourable votes for Alexis should not be interpreted as "a blank check".

They invited President Préval and the future government to support a broad consensus between the various political forces in order to stabilise political, economic and social conditions.

Alexis is 58 years old and a personal friend of President Préval as well as a leader of the presidential political party, the Hope Platform.

Under the first Préval administration, Alexis served as Prime Minister from March 1999 to February 2001 and in 1998 he was a minister for National Education, Youth and Sports.

Like the Head of State, Alexis is also an agronomist and was formerly a senior member of Faculty at the agronomy and veterinary medicine unit within the public university.

In addition, Alexis is also a founding member of Quisqueya University, a private University where he served as vice-chancellor from 1990 to 1995.

The future government will have two essential missions: "the installation of the institutions envisaged by the Constitution, in order to create the conditions of stability, and the creation of conditions favorable for private investment in order to generate jobs," stated President Préval following his victory at the February 7 presidential elections.

These presidential ambitions face astronomical challenges. Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas with approximately 75% the population surviving on less than two dollars per day. The unemployment rate is about 60%, average life expectancy is just 53 years and high infant mortality rates of 71.65 per 1,000 newborns. It will take years of hard work to overcome the damaged infrastructure and the chronic social insecurity to which most have become accustomed.

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