– What comes next? –
After Martelly handed him the presidential sash, national assembly president Jocelerme Privert sought to reassure a population on edge.
The former pop music star’s departure “does not halt the course of history, our history.”
Lawmakers now have five days to elect an interim president whose mandate cannot exceed 120 days.
Privert himself is among the “serious candidates,” according to several lawmakers, along with high-ranking Judge Jules Cantave.
Prime Minister Evans Paul, in a speech late Sunday at his home in the Haitian capital, called on the ruling party and the opposition to work together “so that the country can recover its dignity, and clean up an image… sullied by the shameful spectacle of lynchings and armed violence,” after recent street protests tied to the ongoing political upheaval.
The agreement sets a new election for April 24, with a new president installed May 14, though Privert has stressed those were only proposed dates.
“Personally, I think this time frame is short: 120 days to accomplish all that will be difficult, but I hope that the sense of urgency will benefit us,” said lawmaker Jerry Tardieu.
The United States and United Nations welcomed the deal, which the world body’s chief Ban Ki-moon urged parties to implement.
Ban “encourages all actors to promote measures aimed at fostering calm and stability (and) reaffirms the commitment of the United Nations to extend its full support to the Haitian people in the fulfilment of their democratic aspirations,” his spokesman said.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby, for his part, said Washington “welcomes the agreement… to ensure the continuity of governance and the completion of the ongoing electoral process.”
“Echoing the Core Group statement of February 6, we trust ‘that all actors will keep the best interests of Haiti and its people above all other considerations,’” he added.
A potential long-term power vacuum is the latest challenge for a country that is already the poorest in the Americas.
In reducing potential foreign investment, the political instability is also further increasing inflation, which hurts most the 60 percent of Haitians living under the poverty line.
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