Following an election at the Kinam hotel this Sunday, January 30, 2022, organized by the National Transitional Council set up by the members of the Montana accord, the former governor of the Central Bank, Fritz Alphonse Jean , was elected president and former senator Steven Benoît elected prime minister for the two-year transition that the signatories of this political agreement intend to implement.
The roll call of the members of the National Transitional Council showed the presence of 42 members out of 44 after the withdrawal of the two representatives of the political party Fanmi Lavalas. Former Central Bank Governor Fritz Alphonse was elected transitional president under the Montana deal with 25 votes cast to 15 for his competitor, former senator Edgard Leblanc Fils.
Regarding the elections for the Prime Minister, former senator Steven Benoît came out on top with 21 votes cast out of 42 against and 17 votes for Jean Hénold Buteau, 2 votes for Bonivert Claude and one vote for Iswick Théophin.
Since neither Steven Benoît nor Jean Hénold Buteau had obtained 50% plus one of the votes, a second round was organized to decide between them. Following this second round, former senator Steven Benoît was elected Prime Minister with 26 votes against 14 for Jean Hénold Buteau.
During the first round of these elections two members of the National Transitional Council, two voted white for the presidency and another for the Primature.
“According to these results and the standards established for these votes, Fritz Alphonse Jean is declared the winner”, according to the electoral commission of the National Transitional Council.
“After these elections, PEN will nominate a second member, we will write to Ariel Henry asking him to nominate a member from the signatories of his agreement; other civil society organizations will appoint the other two members to form the presidential college of five members, ”explained Thursday on Magik9 Jacques Ted Saint-Dic, one of the officials of the Montana Accord Monitoring Office.
“After which, we will move towards the installation of a transitional government with a Prime Minister who will come out of Montana and the collective of five members of the presidential college,” he said. If Ariel Henry refuses to leave power “the country will decide…”, added Mr. Saint-Dic.
For Jacques Ted-Saint-Dic, the steps of Prime Minister Ariel Henry are outside any consensual framework. He stressed that the Montana accord remains open to anyone who wants to commit to changing the country.
At the same time, some society organizations have already sent the names of their representatives to Prime Minister Ariel Henry for the formation of the Provisional Electoral Council.
“The next tenant of the national palace will be a president elected freely and democratically by the majority of the Haitian people,” the Prime Minister had already declared last week. A way for Ariel Henry to remind the protagonists of the other agreements who plead for power with a President of the Republic and a Prime Minister that there will be no Head of State during the transition period.
For Ariel Henry, “it is almost certain that by February 7 we will have a Constituent Assembly and a Provisional Electoral Council,” the Prime Minister said on Tuesday, responding to an invitation from the Senate. “For me, before the summer we will have a new Constitution which will allow us to organize the elections in order to have new elected officials who take charge of the Haitian State. Three months after the establishment of the Constituent Assembly, there should be elections to adopt or reject this new constitution proposed by the Constituent Assembly,” promised Ariel Henry.