Haiti seeks new prime minister after food riots

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti's political leaders began the search for a new prime minister on Sunday after a week of riots sparked by skyrocketing food prices led to the ouster of the impoverished Caribbean nation's government.

The political grapevine buzzed with the names of possible replacements for Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, who was fired on Saturday in a vote by 16 opposition senators who said he had not done enough to ramp up food production and reduce the cost of living.

By tradition, Alexis was likely to remain in office until a new government leader and cabinet were chosen. President Rene Preval will propose a candidate to parliament, which must ratify the selection.

"The new prime minister needs to be someone who can unify. He should not be partisan," said Anthony Barbier, a sociology professor at Haiti's University of Notre Dame and a member of the Fusion political party.

"It should be someone with great sensitivity toward the poor so that he can look for solidarity in favour of those less privileged," he said.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas and one ravaged by political upheaval, dictatorship and military rule since a slave revolt threw off French rule 200 years ago, has struggled to install stable democratic institutions since the end of the Duvalier family reign in 1986.

The latest upheaval follows a week of rioting by Haitians enraged at the soaring cost of rice, beans, cooking oil and other staples.

Preval, who also served as president from 1996 to 2001, is the only elected leader to serve a full term and successfully pass power to a democratic successor.