Haiti finally gets a new government

Fri Sep 5, 2008 7:19pm EDT

(Updates with prime minister installed)

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Haitian Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis belatedly took office on Friday with a promise to aid those left destitute by recent storms while preparing for looming Hurricane Ike.

"We are ready for the battle," Pierre-Louis said during her installation ceremony at the National Palace.

"My government will take all necessary measures to deal with the bad weather threatening the country over the next hours and to bring help to the population who fell victim of the past natural disasters."

Haitian lawmakers finally approved the installation of a new government early on Friday to replace the one dismissed in April after violent food price protests in the impoverished Caribbean country.

Haiti has been battered by a hurricane and two tropical storms in less than a month that together have killed more than 200 people, mostly in flooding and mudslides. Powerful Hurricane Ike was forecast to pass north of Haiti over the weekend, bringing more torrential rains.

Pierre-Louis, who is in her early 60s, concluded the installation ceremony by ordering government ministers to go to their departments and get to work.

FIVE-MONTH IMPASSE

She won final approval during overnight negotiations in the Senate. Initially only 15 senators voted to approve her program, with two abstentions. The economist needed at least 16 favorable votes to get to work.

Government supporters refused to accept the initial result and called a break in the middle of the night to persuade one of the abstainers to change his vote.

The vote ended a five-month impasse that began when senators censured and dismissed the government of Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis.

Alexis was fired because of soaring food prices that triggered violent protests in which seven people died.

Lawmakers rejected two of President Rene Preval's suggested replacements as prime minister before voting in favor of Pierre-Louis, head of a foundation that provides libraries, youth education programs and women's networks.

But Pierre-Louis was required to appear before both legislative chambers in separate sessions to present a detailed policy plan before taking office. That process was delayed by weeks of political infighting and squabbling over positions of power in the new government.

Pierre-Louis has said her priorities will be food production, job creation, security and the establishment of an environment favorable to national and foreign investment.

"The principle axis of my government will be social and economic inclusion and management based on resolve and accountability before Parliament, on dialogue with our institutions and on our economic, social and cultural partners," she said. (Writing by Jane Sutton and Michael Christie; Editing by Xavier Briand)




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