PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti on Sunday named a new prime minister two weeks after his predecessor was ousted over rocketing food and fuel prices that sparked violent demonstrations claiming several lives.
President Rene Preval chose Ericq Pierre, 63, a respected Haitian economist with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, to be the country's prime minister, Senate President Kelly Bastien and Chamber or Deputies president Pierre-Eric Jean-Jacques told AFP.
Pierre, whose nomination must now pass a vote in parliament, would succeed former premier Jacques-Edouard Alexis, who was forced to resign on April 12 after a no-confidence vote followed food riots that killed six people and wounded around 200.
It was the first major political crisis to seize the country since Preval was elected president of the impoverished nation in February 2006, after two years of turmoil sparked by the departure of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Thousands of people took to the streets around Haiti earlier this month due to the latest jump in food and fuel prices, in sometimes violent demonstrations that forced United Nations troops deployed here to intervene.
One Nigerian peacekeeper was killed in the riots and three Sri-Lankan peacekeepers were wounded.
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