Haiti transition council members named
A decree named the seven voting members and two non-voting observers after the government demanded documents to approve their postings
An official decree on Tuesday named the members of Haiti’s transitional ruling council, a further step toward installing a body meant to bring a semblance of order to the nation.
A decree in Haiti’s official gazette Le Moniteur on Friday last week announced the establishment of the council, a month after Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he would step down amid a wave of attacks by armed gangs in the capital.
However, a day later, the nine groups and political parties to be represented on the council said they were “deeply shocked” by the text, saying it introduced “major modifications” to an agreement reached a week earlier.
In the Friday decree, the outgoing government acknowledged the creation of the council without mentioning its members by name.
The government then called on “the personalities designated by the stakeholders” to submit documents to authorities for approval.
That appeared to delay the setting up of the council, stirring fears the government could reject some of the names.
However, Tuesday’s new decree in Le Moniteur seemed to partially address that concern by explicitly naming the seven voting members and two non-voting observers.
The members are former diplomat Smith Augustin, ex-senator Louis Gerald Gilles, former central bank governor Fritz Alphonse Jean, ex-Senate president Edgard
Leblanc Fils, entrepreneur Laurent Saint-Cyr, lawyer Emmanuel Vertilaire and Leslie Voltaire, a former minister and diplomat.
Frinel Joseph, a pastor, and former World Bank official Regine Abraham have been appointed as non-voting observer members.
However, it also said that members would “be required to submit the necessary documents within a reasonable timeframe, and that if they are unable to do so, they will be obliged to resign.”