Pierre

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC):

One month after the Senate dismissed Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, lawmakers in Haiti have rejected President René Préval's latest nominee for the post.

The Lower House of Parliament on Monday night voted by a margin of 51-35, with nine abstentions, to reject economist Ericq Pierre as Alexis' replacement.

"We didn't really believe in the plan that he had for the people of this country," Levaillant Louis Jeune, a leading opposition legislator told reporters.

Pierre, 63, a senior official with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) had been nominated by President Préval to replace Alexis who was dismissed on April 12 over criticism that his government failed to show leadership and mismanaged the economy before violent food protests that left seven people dead.

Vote of confidence

People stand near the body of a man, who died when his boat capsized, on the shores of Gressier, Haiti, last Monday. An overloaded boat carrying 100 people overturned off the coast of southern Haiti, killing at least 11, UN and Haitian authorities said. - AP

Préval will have to nominate another candidate who must win a vote of confidence in the two houses of Parliament, Stephen Benoit, a member of Preval's Lespwa party, said Haitians must unite behind the next nominee. "We need to have a new prime minister in office soon," he said.

Préval nominated Pierre for the same position in 1997, but he was rejected after promising to push a United States-backed economic plan that would have resulted in thousands of government workers being laid off and privatised state-run enterprises.