Haiti lawmakers spurn candidate for prime minister

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By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 12 (Reuters) - Haitian lawmakers rejected President Rene Preval's nominee for prime minister on Thursday, in another blow to his efforts to establish a stable democracy in the impoverished Caribbean country.

It was the second rejection of a candidate for the post in the past month, leaving the president saddled with a lame-duck government.

The candidacy of Robert Manuel, a longtime friend and adviser to Preval, was rejected in a 57-22 vote in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house in Haiti's parliament.

Lawmakers cited residency requirements for their decision to spurn Manuel, who was nominated by Preval on May 26.

According to the Haitian Constitution, a candidate for prime minister has to have lived in the country for five consecutive years prior to taking office. Manuel, who was forced to abandon his homeland for political reasons in 1999, only returned near the end of 2005.

Manuel's supporters attributed his rejection to the corrosive influence of drug gangs and other criminal groups. "The truth is there is a group of deputies who are influenced by evil forces such as drug dealers," said Deputy Jonas Coffy.

Preval's first prime minister, Edouard Alexis, was fired by the Senate in April after violent protests against food prices and the rapidly escalating cost of living in the poorest country in the Americas.

Preval has faced increasing criticism since the food riots and his first candidate to succeed Alexis, Inter-American Development Bank official Ericq Pierre, was rejected by parliament on May 12. In Pierre's case, deputies who voted against him said he had failed to provide proof required under the consitution that he was descended from native-born Haitians.

Manuel, an architect and recognized security and law enforcement authority, served as secretary of state for public safety during a portion of Preval's first term as president from 1996 to 2001. He also managed Preval's successful election campaign in 2006.

Preval, who took office in May 2006, is the only elected Haitian leader to serve a full term and successfully hand over power to a democratically elected successor. Haiti has known little but political upheaval and brutal dictatorship since French rule ended in a slave revolt more than 200 years ago.

In his first term, it took Preval 21 months to put a new government in place after then-Prime Minister Rosny Smarth resigned in June 1997. (Editing by Tom Brown and Todd Eastham)