Haiti's Senate sacks Prime Minister Pierre-Louis

Oct 30, 2009, 20:32 GMT

   Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Haiti's Senate on Friday sacked Prime Minister Michelle Pierre-Louis amid allegations of corruption, just one year after she took office in the empoverished Caribbean country.

She had refused to appear before the upper chamber of the Haitian Congress to offer an explanation about alleged irregularities affecting among others the use of 197 million dollars of emergency aid that Haiti received to palliate the effect of severe flooding last year.

Senators asked that Haitian President Rene Preval name a replacement for Pierre-Louis as soon as possible.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas, and one of the poorest in the world.

Following over 10 hours of heated debate overnight, 18 of the country's 29 senators in attendance withdrew their confidence from Pierre-Louis, who did not take part in the session arguing that the decision on her future had already been made.

Most of the opposition boycotted the vote on a no-confidence motion put forward by ruling-party legislators.

These developments were likely to affect the fragile stability of the country of about 8 million people, and also complicate the reconstruction efforts of the UN secretary general's special envoy for Haiti, former US president Bill Clinton.

There are about 7,000 blue beret soldiers and about 2,100 police officers in Haiti, with a UN mandate to help stabilize the country. The mission was deployed in the wake of violent clashes in 2004, which ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and sent him into exile.

Pierre-Louis, 62, had taken office on September 5, 2008 after the sacking of Jacques-Edouard Alexis in April that year, in the middle of a food crisis that caused rioting.