Garry Conille, who briefly held this position from 2011 to 2012, has since worked as UNICEF regional director.
A nine-member council charged with overseeing Haiti’s political transition has named politician Garry Conille as the Caribbean nation’s next prime minister.
Tuesday’s decision comes amid a period of unrest for the country, which has seen gangs take control of much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Conille is a familiar face in the role of prime minister: he served for four months, from October 2011 to February 2012, and resigned after a clash with then-president Michel Martelly.
He now succeeds interim Prime Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert, appointed to this position after the official resignation of the previous Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, at the end of April.
The process of selecting a new prime minister has been fraught with challenges, fraught with false starts and controversy.
Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, Haiti has not held federal elections.
Henry, an unelected official chosen days before the assassination, served as interim president in Moise’s place after his shooting death.
But Henry’s failure to organize a vote to replace Moses exacerbated tensions in the country. In January 2023, the last elected federal officials – 10 senators – saw their mandate expire.
Meanwhile, the country’s gangs sought to fill the power vacuum, asserting power over more than 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, including roads in and out of the city.
The United Nations estimates more than 362,000 Haitians were displaced by the bloodshed that followed. In the first three months of 2024 alone, gang violence has killed more than 1,500 people and injured hundreds more.
In March, Henry announced his decision to resign as Prime Minister, despite international and domestic pressure to do so.
He recently traveled to Kenya to bolster support for an international security mission to strengthen Haitian police. But while Henry was abroad, gangs attacked key prisons and police stations, as well as the capital’s airport, leaving him stranded outside the country.
In the process, a regional cooperation bloc known as the Caribbean Community or CARICOM negotiated the creation of a transition advice to restore democracy in Haiti.
Nine members were chosen, seven of whom would have voting rights. The council is expected to be dissolved in 2026, after a new presidential election is held.
Conille’s appointment as prime minister was the result of a six-to-one vote. Since 2023, he has been regional director for Latin America of UNICEF, a United Nations agency that provides humanitarian aid to children.
But confusion accompanied the process of choosing a new prime minister.
Last month, four of the transition council’s seven voting members chose a former sports minister, Fritz Belizaire, to fill the role, but walked back that announcement after critics said proper protocols had not been implemented. followed.
Even Tuesday’s announcement was met with skepticism. Line Balthazar, the president of the Tet Kale party, told a local radio on Monday that the selection process so far seemed improvised.
The Montana Accord, a Haitian civil society group, also questioned the transition council’s commitment to transparency, noting that it did not explain how it reached its decision.
“The suffering of the population is worsening, while gangs take control of more territory and commit more crimes,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday, calling for “consequential measures” to restore stability in Haiti .
Meanwhile, gang leaders have warned they will not necessarily accept the transition council or its choices.
“We are not going to recognize the decisions made by CARICOM,” said Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, the leader of the G9 Family and Allies gang. told Al Jazeera in March.
