Haiti’s PM offers his resignation
PORT-AU-PRINCE – Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille offered his resignation Friday to President Michel Martelly, an official said, after days of political tension between the premier and government ministers.
“I feel obliged to present my resignation,” Conille wrote in a letter to Martelly, according to lower chamber of parliament head Louis-jeune Levaillant, who read from a copy of the letter.
A source close to Martelly had also confirmed the letter of resignation, which comes as a blow to the president’s efforts to ramp up stalled reconstruction efforts in the wake of a massive earthquake two years ago that levelled much of the capital Port-au-prince.
Conille’s appointment to head the government of Haiti was formally approved by parliament last October, ending several months of political crisis in the disaster-ravaged Caribbean nation.
The prime minister in Haiti is appointed by the president and mainly serves as cabinet chief, but Conille has recently clashed with several ministers in Martelly’s government.
No successor has been announced, and his resignation would open new political turmoil in Haiti as the ramifications of the devastating earthquake, which sank the already-impoverished-country-deeper into poverty, continue.
Conille, a physician by trade, was the third prime minister appointed by Martelly since the president took office last May, but the first approved by parliament.
He had previously served as chief of staff in Haiti to former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who serves as co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, which oversees billions of dollars in postquake aid to the country.
Conille was educated in Haiti and received graduate training in health administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Fulbright scholar.
He has also worked as the United Nations Development Program’s resident representative for Niger.