Prime Minister's Post Still in Dispute in Haiti

The day after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, the political crisis in Haiti does not dissipate as Claude Joseph and Ariel Henry are simultaneously claiming that the post of prime minister belongs to them.

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Foreign Affairs Minister Claude Joseph, who has served as interim prime minister since April, took effective control of the country after Moise's death. However, on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, his legitimacy was questioned by Henry, whom Moise appointed as Prime Minister on Monday. His official investiture, however, has not happened so far.

While Henry says it is "not his intention to add fuel to the fire", he emphasized that Joseph is only the Chancellor of the Cabinet and asked the Prime Minister-in-Charge to engage in a dialogue to reach an agreement.

Meanwhile, in several press conferences, Joseph has presented himself as the Prime Minister of Haiti and established contact with representatives of the international community, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The Haitian Constitution provides that the Prime Minister must replace the President in the event of death and call for elections. However, if the death of the President occurs after the fourth year of the mandate, as it happened in this occasion, the Parliament should appoint a President to complete the pending term.

Currently, this cannot be done because the Parliament has been closed since January 2020 due to the postponement of the 2019 legislative elections.  This closure has also prevented lawmakers from ratifying the appointment of prime ministers.

Amid the institutional chaos on Thursday, the United Nations Representative for Haiti Helen La Lime said her institution considers that Joseph “is the Prime Minister", the person who should govern until the holding of presidential elections. To support her assertions, the former U.S. Ambassador to Angola brought up the interpretation of the Constitution that Joseph had transmitted to her.