UN mission in Haiti hopeful of end to parliamentary impasse over government

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti today welcomed the decision by some of the country’s political parties to back the new Prime Minister’s political programme, which would end the four-month parliamentary impasse over the formation of a new government.

The mission, known as MINUSTAH, said in a statement that the move “represents an important step in the efforts that all the political actors should take to reach an agreement that places the best interests of the country and the Haitian people above their own interests.”

For more than four months, Haiti has not had a government duly confirmed by the Parliament because of political wrangling, but MINUSTAH said the parties’ decision means their lawmakers are set to vote in favour of the declaration by Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis outlining her planned political programme while in office.

In its statement the mission stressed that the absence of a government for so long had affected the ability of the State institutions to operate and had also acted as an obstacle to many cooperative and development projects which the international community had pledged to finance.

MINUSTAH added that the impasse had also harmed the ability of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, to tackle the soaring prices of basic foods and oil and to reduce the risks to the population from the annual hurricane season.