PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A transitional council tasked with electing new leaders for Haiti is changing the way it operates in a move that surprised many as gang violence consumes the country.
Instead of having a single council president, four veteran politicians will take turns chairing the council every five months, according to two members who were not authorized to publicly share the changes because they had not yet been announced.
Members told The Associated Press on Wednesday night that the council will also now consider five members as a majority, instead of four. The council is made up of nine members, seven of whom have voting rights.
“That’s a real change,” Robert Fatton, an expert on Haitian politics at the University of Virginia, said of the changes. “I think it’s good that now they’re really going to share power. …It is something that is very rare in Haitian politics.”
The four members who will share power are the council’s original president, Edgard Leblanc Fils, former senator Louis Gérald Gilles, former presidential candidate Leslie Voltaire and former Dominican Republic ambassador Smith Augustin.
The changes come after internal turmoil that threatened to derail the council after it was sworn in on April 25. The disputes began five days later, when four council members announced not only a council president but also a prime minister, to the surprise of many.
However, it remains to be seen whether former Sports Minister Fritz Bélizaire will remain the elected prime minister. A council member told the AP they hope to make an announcement next week.
After a prime minister is announced, the council hopes to elect a new cabinet, a process that many expect will involve long and intense negotiations with powerful politicians.
“That will be the other important issue,” Fatton warned.
The changes come as Haiti prepares for the U.N.-backed deployment of a Kenyan police force to help combat gangs that have decimated areas of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
On February 29, the gangs launched coordinated attacks; They burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that has been closed since March 4, and raided Haiti’s two largest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates. The country’s largest seaport also remains paralyzed due to shortages of food, medicine and other critical items.
At least 1.4 million Haitians are on the brink of famine, according to the UN World Food Programme.
US military planes have landed in recent days with supplies including medications and oral hydration fluids, as well as civilian contractors, to prepare for the arrival of foreign forces, although it is unclear exactly when Kenyan police will deploy.
A team of senior Kenyan security officials is in Washington DC this week to finalize deployment plans, including the number of police officers to be sent.
As Haiti waits for foreign forces, gang violence has increased in recent days. They have attacked several communities near the center of Port-au-Prince, forcing more than 3,700 people to flee their homes.
On Tuesday, at least four people were killed and several others were wounded when someone opened fire on a bus traveling through Martissant, a gang-controlled area in southwest Port-au-Prince.
Kidnappings have also increased: A policewoman was killed Wednesday morning while trying to fight off gangs trying to kidnap her, police union leader Lionel Lazarre told the AP.
More than 2,500 people have been killed or injured in the first three months of the year, a 50% increase over the same period last year, according to the UN
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Associated Press reporter Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi contributed.