Protesting Haitians should end weeks of sometimes violent street marches and join a dialogue to create a transitional government, Prime Minister Evans Paul said on Monday, during his first day as the temporary head of the troubled Caribbean nation. Paul was prime minister under former President Michel Martelly, who left office on Sunday without an elected successor after a botched election saw a second round of voting cancelled due to the protests. Under an 11th-hour agreement at the weekend, Paul will stay in office until parliament chooses an interim president. “We should demand peace and dialogue. That is the only weapon that we should use, it is dialogue,” Paul told Reuters.
“We don’t need to mobilise people on the streets anymore, because all the demands expressed on streets are now on the table of state institutions.”
Under the agreement, Paul, who made his own run for the presidency in 2006, would be succeeded by a consensus prime minister once parliament chooses a president.
A presidential runoff due to be held last month was scrapped after protesters took to the streets in force and opposition candidate Jude Celestin threatened to boycott the vote over allegations that fraud in the first round favoured ruling party candidate Jovenel Moise, who came first.
The protests have left one person dead.
Full Article: PM calls for peace on Haiti’s first day with no president | Reuters.