PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Lawmakers rejected Haitian President Michel Martelly’s new choice for prime minister yesterday, blocking his efforts to install a government and move ahead with rebuilding a country shattered by last year’s earthquake.
The Haitian Senate voted by a narrow margin to reject Bernard Gousse, a controversial lawyer and former justice minister. The vote capped a long and rancorous debate in the upper house of the impoverished Caribbean nation’s parliament.
It was the second rejection of Martelly’s choice for premier in less than two months and marked a messy start to his young presidency.