The president of Haiti was just assassinated. Who is in charge of the country now?
Wednesday’s assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse is expected to send Haiti into more political disarray.
One of the complications: It’s not clear who will succeed Moïse.
Jean Wilner Morin, the president of the national association of Haitian judges, told CNN that the president of the Supreme Court would normally be next in line. But Supreme Court President René Sylvestre died last week from COVID-19. The oldest member of the court currently heads a shadow government put in place earlier this year by the opposition.
Morin said interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph could fill the void, but he would have to be approved by Haiti’s parliament. However, Moïse had been ruling by decree since January 2020. The bicameral Parliament was disbanded after the country failed to hold legislative and local elections. And the new prime minister Moïse appointed this week, Ariel Henry, has yet to be sworn in.
Alex Dupuy, a Haiti-born sociologist who teaches at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, told The Associated Press that the best scenario would be for the acting prime minister to meet with the opposition parties and hold elections.
“But, in Haiti, nothing can be taken for granted. It depends how the current balance of forces in Haiti plays out,” Dupuy said.
There are currently only 10 elected officials in the country, and all are senators. In a possible power play, some Haitian government critics are discussing installing Joseph Lambert, the head of the 10-member Senate, as provisional president.
Moïse was killed during an armed attack that also left his wife injured early Wednesday at his home above the hills of Port-au-Prince.
This article will be updated.
This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 12:32 PM.
