Listen to Caribbean News Desk for Dec 15, 2014

Last Updated on Monday, 15 December 2014, 22:17 by GxMedia

Haiti’s ex-Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe

Port-au-Prince, Dec 15 (EFE).- Ex-Haitian prime minister Laurent Lamothe has thanked those who supported him during the country’s recent political unrest which led to his stepping down at the recommendation of a special committee.

“I leave the post of prime minister with the feeling of work done,” Lamothe said in the speech broadcast on Sunday in which he thanked his ministers, government workers and Haitian citizens for the 31 months of his term.

“We are happy, but we are not satisfied when we see the number of people in extreme poverty has (only) dropped from 31 percent to 24 percent in 2014 thanks to (our) work,” he said.

The speech was recorded on Saturday night, but was released Sunday due to technical problems.

Lamothe announced his resignation on his Twitter account Sunday, two days after President Michel Martelly agreed with a presidential advisory committee’s report recommending the resignation to overcome country’s political crisis.

“We can say today, that after 31 months, the results are there. We’re leaving. We are going with the sentiment that we did all we could for the country,” he said.

“Despite all of these accomplishments, if this is what can truly unblock the political crisis, I’ve decided (to do so),” he added.

The advisory committee also asked for the resignation of Supreme Council of Judicial Power president Anel Alexis Joseph and the judges of the Provisional Electoral Council.

The panel also requested the release of political prisoners and asked Haitian senators to approve amendments in the electoral law to facilitate the holding of elections in the country.

Elections were to be held in October but were postponed with no specific dates as the electoral law is needed to hold the process and it was blocked in the senate.

Two weeks of protests in the capital and other cities denounced alleged corruption and demanded the resignation of Martelly and Lamothe.

The demonstrations usually ended with violent confrontations between police and protesters, who on Saturday held the police responsible for having killed a protester. 

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