Haitian prime minister offers resignation

Deutsche Welle, 24 February 2012

The prime minister of Haiti, Garry Conille, has submitted a letter of resignation to President Michel Martelly. Martelly has announced an address to the nation, without saying whether he would let Conille go.

Haitian President Michel Martelly posted on his Twitter and Facebook accounts on Friday that Prime Minister Garry Conille had submitted a letter of resignation, confirming earlier reports on the issue which cited unnamed government sources.

"The president of the Republic … has this morning received the resignation of the prime minister, Doctor Garry Conille," a post on Martelly's Twitter account read.

"The president will address the nation this evening at 7 p.m. (midnight GMT) on this matter," the next post said, without elaborating on whether Conille's offer of resignation would be accepted.

Conille and Martelly had endured an uneasy working relationship during their four months of cooperation, clashing over several issues including a citizenship row and the allocation of aid contracts after the deadly 2010 earthquake that leveled much of the capital, Port-au-Prince. 

The Haitian daily newspaper Le Matin had recently reported that "almost all ministers had rebelled" against Conille in recent weeks.

Haiti is still struggling to rebuild after the earthquake, which devastated an already impoverished country.

"The political deadlock and institutional paralysis between the government, parliament and the president does not reflect the commitments they have undertaken vis-a-vis the Haitian people and are not likely to create the necessary conditions for recovery of the economy and the consolidation of democracy," the head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, Marciano Fernandez, said on Thursday.

Conille, a gynaecologist and former United Nations official who is popular with the West, was formally approved by parliament last October. He is the third Haitian prime minister to be appointed by Martelly since he took office as president last May.

msh/acb (AFP, dpa, Reuters)