Haiti presidential council picks leader, next prime minister to head transition

A former presidential candidate and head of the Senate was selected Tuesday to head Haiti’s new nine-member transitional presidential council in a deal that also designated a former minister of sports minister as Haiti’s next prime minister.

Edgard Leblanc Fils, 68, was named president of the transitional presidential council shortly before noon and nearly two hours behind a scheduled vote, following an agreement among four of the panel’s seven voting members. The same majority then selected Fritz Bélizaire, a one-time minister of youth and sports, as prime minister to replace the outgoing Ariel Henry.

“We can discuss, negotiate, make concessions and arrive at a result,” Leblanc said.

The naming of Bélizaire immediately threatenedthe collapse of the council. Three voting council members and their groups —Fanmi Lavalas, Montana Agreement coalition and the private sector — accused fellow members of violating the April 3 agreement that created the council, which among other things outlined how they would name a prime minister, and threatened to leave the council if the decision appointing Bélizaire wasn’t rescinded.

In a statement, the Montana Agreement denounced what it said was a “middle of the night” decision against the public that violates the political agreement. The four council members, the Montana coalition of political parties and civil society organizations said, appointed “a coordinator of the council, a prime minister and all the government, without respecting the participatory mechanism they signed.”

“The political and economic mafia forces have decided to take control of the Presidential Council and the government so that they can continue to control the state,” the statement said.

The surprising turn of events occurred after the political groups on the council switched their last-minute support from former Sen. Louis Gérald Gilles, who represents the December 21 coalition on the panel, and cemented a deal backed by Gilles, the political party Pitit Desalin and the coalition known as EDE/RED/Compromis Historique.

An engineer and co-founder of the Organization of the People in Struggle, Leblanc is part of a collective of political parties whose membership includes PHTK, the political party of former President Michel Martelly. He was president of the Haitian Senate from 1995 to 2000 during the first administration of President of René Préval. Bélizaire, who is a civil engineer and once worked in the ministry of public works and communications, but served as sports minister 2006-08, during Préval’s second presidential term.

Leblanc said there was a two-hour delay because council members were engaged in negotiations to reach a vote by a majority and “the acceptance of this exercise proves that we can.”

“We believe in the council,” Leblanc said in remarks following the announcement he had been selected president. “The first thing that is important for us is cohesion among us; political will and determination to overcome conflicts and arrive by consensus, and at times, discussions and negotiations... to free the country from actions that have created a lot of suffering and victims.”

Brokered by an international coalition led by the 15-member bloc known as CARICOM. the new transitional presidential council has a tough road ahead. More than two months after a united front of armed gangs began targeting the airport, prisons, police stations, seaport and other key government structures in the capital, Port-au-Prince remains under siege and paralyzed. More than 2,500 Haitians have died or been injured since the start of the year, millions are going hungry and thousands have fled to cities outside the capital or displacement camps around the capital.

Under a political accord agreed upon among their sectors and political parties, council members have until February 2026 to provide Haiti with a newly elected president, parliament, local representatives and possibly a new constitution. But to get there, they have to form a new cabinet of ministers and ready the country to receive the deployment of a multinational security force led by Kenya to help restore security.

They also have to convince Haiti’s population of 12 million population that they can bring about change for the better.

Biden administration withholds comments

In the international community reaction to the appointments was mixed. Some foreign diplomats see the development as worrisome, while others are welcoming it.

In a tweet on X, formerly Twitter, Luis Almagro, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, congratulated Leblanc’s appointment, calling it “a crucial step in the implementation of Haiti’s national political agreement.” He also added that the “transparent and rule-compliant appointment of a Prime Minister as well as the rapid formation of a new government are vital for the stability of the country.”

“It is essential to maintain the momentum, support the deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission by the United Nations Security Council @UN and pave a credible path for Haiti’s democratic renewal,” Almagro tweeted.

At a press conference in Miami, Brian Nichols, assisstant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, reserved comment on the appointments, saying he was awaiting official notification of the names by the government. But he stressed that the council is a temporary process to allow Haitians to choose their democratic leaders, and that to focus on the current situation as the end state “would be a mistake.”

Haitians, however, have been focused on the council and the opening it seemingly presented for some politicians, sanctioned by U.S. and Canada, to once again gain a foothold in the country’s muddy politics during the behind-the-scenes negotiations to name a coordinator and prime minister.

“We have said for years now that it’s important for Haiti to have a broad, inclusive government,” Nichols said. “The debate over who forms the membership of the transitional presidential council was an intense one.”

Nichols stressed the urgency of the situation, adding that the deployment of the Multinational Security Support mission, led by Kenya, remains urgent and the United States is doing all that it can to advance the assistance to help Haitian police officers combat ruthless armed gangs behind the ongoing escalation in violence.

“Every day that goes by is a lost opportunity to provide greater security for the Haitian people,” he said.

Support for the Kenya-led mission was among four criteria individuals had to agree to in order to sit on the presidential council. Though approved in October, the mission has faced delays due to a lack of funding and legal hurdles in Nairobi. When the recent round of attacks erupted, Henry was in Nairobi finalizing the agreement to allow 1,000 Kenyan police officers to deploy to Haiti to serve as the backbone of the mission. That agreement remains in place, Nichols said, despite the departure of Henry, who was pressured by Washington to support the new political transition and to resign as gangs demanded his ouster.

“We believe that the agreement entered into by the legal government of Haiti continues to be valid and the government of Kenya has reiterated its intent to deploy their forces,” said the diplomat, who is attending a U.S. chiefs of missions conference at the Doral-based U.S. Southern Command and meeting with the Haitian diaspora this week. “I’m not going to get into the specifics of dates and how that works for operational security reasons but we are in daily contacts with a host of partners.”

On paper, Leblanc is supposed to be nothing more than a coordinator, someone to help the council prioritize and focus on the litany of challenges ahead — restoring security and the economy, and taking Haiti to new elections, as well as providing a signature for accords, go abroad for meetings and receive heads of state.

But in the minds of the council members, four of whom had presented their own candidacies, the role had been viewed as if it were a real presidency, having much more power than what is written in the political accord about how the group is to function.

Ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, council members and their political parties and sectors were engaged in heavy behind-the-scenes discussions and lobbying that saw the old political guard and the country’s powerful private sector at loggerheads over who should lead the council, and who would cement the 4-3 voting majority needed to adopt policies. The week-long negotiations, which took a drastic turn in the last 24 hours before the announcement, pitted political tacticians against those who were dogmatic in refusing to talk to some party leaders with the ability to influence the blocs.

How it happened

Two sources, familiar with the negotiations told the Miami Herald that the key behind Tuesday’s decision is Jean-Charles Moïse, the firebrand former senator and leader of the Pitit Desalin political party. Moïse had initially refused to participate in the transition after being invited to do so by Caribbean leaders.

Since joining the U.S.-backed council, he has emerged as a formidable player, building an alliance with former foreign minister and prime minister Claude Joseph, whose EDE/RED/Compromis Historique coalition is represented on the council. While one bloc was negotiating with Leblanc over a scheme where he and two others would rotate the presidency among them over the life of the council, the other side was in talks with Leblanc to give him the winning majority as the sole winner. Going into the vote on Tuesday, Moïse had not only outsmarted his political adversaries by helping to secure Leblanc but he also imposed his choice to lead the government. He got the four council members to sign a document supporting Bélizaire as prime minister to replace Henry, who stepped down last week.

Bélizaire was handpicked by Moïse and his selection ran counter to the open process the council announced it would launch to choose the next head of Haiti’s government.

While Tuesday’s decision marks progress in a process that began on March 11 — when Caribbean leaders met in Jamaica to help Haitians find a political deal as marauding gangs threatened the collapse of the government — it is also the second time in a week that council members announced plans to do one thing and in the end did something else. Ahead of last week’s swearing-in of the council, members said the venue would be the old prime minister’s office, Villa d’Accueil, and not the presidential palace because of security concerns.

It turned out they were sworn-in at the presidential palace anyway, a decision that had been decided two days earlier and as they embarked on a misleading press tour. This week, they again turned to the media, inviting journalists to come observe the voting. They published rules and even had two ballot boxes waiting.

Then after two hours, Frenel Joseph, one of two non-voting observers, emerged to announce there had been a change of plans. He then named Leblanc and later Bélizaire as part of the leadership of Haiti’s new political transition.

An earlier version of this story described Bélizaire as a former minister of public works; he was minister of youth and sports.