PORT-AU-PRINCE, July 23 (NNN-Xinhua) — Haitian President Jovenel Moise named Fritz William Michel as the new prime minister, after Jean Michel Lapin announced his resignation on Monday.
“Following the resignation of Mr. Lapin, I chose, in consultation with the leaders of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, citizen Fritz William Michel as PM,” Moise tweeted.
Michel’s nomination must be approved by legislators.
“I have made a choice for Haiti,” Lapin said in an interview with the newspaper Le Nouvelliste.
Lapin’s tenure as prime minister was brief. He assumed office after his predecessor Jean Henry Ceant was ousted in March.
Michel, a former executive in the Ministry of Economy and Finance, is Moise’s fourth head of government in his two and a half years in office.
Michel faces the tough task of restoring public confidence in the government.
At a United Nations (UN) Security Council meeting on Haiti in April, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said with about 59 percent of the population estimated to live below the poverty line, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas. — NNN-XINHUA
