PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC – Haiti’s Senate voted during the early hours of Friday to dismiss Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis in a move observers say could imperil efforts to attract foreign investment to the impoverished, French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country. 

When the vote was taken just after midnight, 18 of 29 Senators voted to dismiss Pierre-Louis, 61, with most of those opposing her coming from President Rene Preval's Lespwa Movement party.

“Eighteen senators voted against the prime minister, which means the president has to replace her,” said Senate leader Kely Bastien.

“We will write to the president to inform him of our decision,” he added.

Senator Joseph Lambert, a member of Preval's party, said Pierre-Louis did little to improve the Haitian people’s lot since she was appointed to office just over a year ago.

“Prime Minister Pierre-Louis proved she did not have the capacity nor the leadership to meet the population's expectations and satisfy its basic needs. That's why we were obliged to fire her,” he added. 

Pierre-Louis had refused to attend the special session, stating the decision to oust her was a fait accompli. 

“At a time when efforts are under way for Haiti to join the international community – and  has possibilities of investment, national and international, to better the lives of the Haitian population – my government decides not to participate in this hearing,” she said in a letter to the Senate. 

“I leave the senators of the republic to face their responsibility in front of the nation,” she added.

Senator John Joel Joseph, a member of Preval's party, said legislators took umbrage at her decision not to attend the hearing.

“It is an insult that she decided not to come,” he said.

But several of Pierre-Louis’s supporters denounced the vote as “illegal” and “unconstitutional.”

Last Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned Preval after learning about the senators’ summons to Pierre-Louis.

Mari Tolliver, a spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince, declined to elaborate on the conversation but warned about further instability in Haiti.

“We have made it known to the Haitian government that the perception of instability could be very damaging to Haiti at this time,” she told reporters.

Pierre-Louis, an educator who headed the Haitian branch of George Soros' Open Society Institute, assumed office in September last year, when Haiti was being ravaged by one of four tropical storms and hurricanes.

The storms killed about nearly 800 people, left tens of thousands homeless and resulted in US$1billion in damage.

Pierre-Louis also took office five months after Parliament ousted her predecessor in the wake of riots over the astronomical cost of food.

CMC/nk/pr/09