Development: On 14 July Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant and his 18-member cabinet.
Significance: Lafontant’s resignation was not a surprise given calls for him to step down over the government’s recent mishandling of a rise in petrol fuel prices which prompted deadly unrest. Nevertheless, it is the biggest crisis to face President Moïse and his Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale (PHTK) government since taking office in February 2017. Appointing a new prime minister, who must be ratified along with the new government’s plan by both houses of the national legislature (comprising the 119-member chamber of deputies and the 30-member senate), is a notoriously challenging task in Haiti. While the PHTK has the largest representation in the legislature, it is short of a majority. With protesters also calling for Moïse to go, he is under particular pressure to find an acceptable replacement to Lafontant as soon as possible.
- A gastroenterologist, and reportedly close personal friend of Moïse, Lafontant was unknown in local political circles ahead of his ratification in March 2017.
- Lafontant had faced a potential vote of no confidence on 14 July, had he not resigned, and various sectors had called for him to go. These included the country’s most powerful business sector lobby, Forum Économique du secteur; presidents of both chambers of congress, Senator Joseph Lambert and Deputy Gary Bodeau; human rights group Collectif du 4 décembre; Haiti’s Catholic Episcopal Conference; and the national federation of Haitian mayors.
- The crisis stemmed from the government’s 6 July decision to increase petrol fuel prices in line with a six-month deal reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in February 2018. The IMF had called for the government to lower petrol subsidies in order to mobilise “revenues and rationalise current expenditure, to make room for critical public investment in infrastructure, health, education, and social services”.
- Such was the social unrest in response, which left either three or seven dead on varying reports, that Moïse was forced to backtrack and suspend the move. However it is worth pointing out that, since the unrest, on 12 July IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice said that Haitian authorities were working on a revised reform plan which, the IMF believes, would still include a lowering of petrol subsidies, albeit in stages along with “the implementation of compensatory and mitigating measures to protect the most vulnerable people”.
- The government’s misstep over the proposed rise in fuel prices comes amid more general discontent with the PHTK government over corruption. This followed a resolution passed earlier this year by the senate requesting that the superior court of audit and administrative disputes (CSC/CA) conduct a review of the management of funds from Petrocaribe, Venezuela’s discounted oil initiative, over the eight-year period from September 2008 to September 2016, under the governments led by René Préval (2006-2011) and President Moïse’s predecessor and close ally Michel Martelly (2011-2016).
- As well as Préval and Martelly, other names which featured in the report included members of the current government such as Moïse’s chief of staff Wilson Laleau, who previously held the portfolios of trade & industry and economy & finance, while an energy company, Comphener SA, owned by Moïse, also featured for allegedly securing contracts in an irregular manner.
Looking Ahead: President Moïse has yet to give any indication as to a possible replacement for Lafontant, who must be ratified by 60 votes in the lower chamber and 16 votes in the senate.