Leslie Voltaire took office as president of the Transitional Council (CPT) of Haiti and will succeed Edgard Leblanc Fils, in a ceremony held in Port-au-Prince in which the new leader promised to work with transparency, dedication and efficiency to change the living conditions of the Haitian people.

“The moment is serious. The time has come to reconcile the great nation of Haiti with itself so that future generations can escape the horrors of this inconceivable brutality, the time has come to unite. We have to govern in another way. The Haitian people are fed up with violence, lies and corruption,” Voltaire said at the act of transfer of power in the Villa d’Accueil.

The ceremony took place in the absence of Leblanc Fils, who left the Villa d’Accueil hours before the inauguration of Voltaire, appointed to be part of the Presidential Council of Transition (CPT) by the Fanmi Lavalas party.

Call to solve the challenges of Haiti

In his speech, Voltaire pledged to work in common agreement with the other members of the CPT and called for the unity of all to solve the challenges that the country has, especially the restoration of security because the “great change” that Haiti needs “cannot be achieved through violence and conflict.”

“We are mobilizing to ensure the success of the transition. We will move forward to restore security, strengthen the police and the prison system, create the conditions for (the holding of) elections, organize the national conference and the referendum on constitutional reform,” he added.

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Modification of the rotating presidency

On that date, the official newspaper Le Moniteur published a resolution on the changes in the rotating presidency of the CPT that modifies the document of last May 7 in this regard.

This resolution is released days after the official Anti-Corruption Unit (ULCC) asked for action to be taken against three members of the Council – Louis Gérald Gilles, Emmanuel Vertilaire and Smith Augustin – for abuse of functions, payment of bribes and passive corruption.

In principle, it was Smith Augustin who was to succeed Leblanc Fils, but the three defendants have been removed from the rotating presidency of the Council, although they remain in the institution.

Under the new agreement, from October 7 to March 7, 2025 the presidency of the CPT will be occupied by Voltaire, from March 7 to August 7, 2025 it will be exercised by Fritz Alphonse Jean and from then to February 7, 2026 (date on which a president of Haiti elected at the polls should take office) it will be Laurent Saint-Cyr’s turn.

Haiti has not had a president since on July 7, 2021, he was murdered in his Jovenel Moise residence by a group of mercenaries, mostly Colombians.

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Crisis in the Council

In his last speech to the nation published a few hours ago, Leblanc Fils said that he hoped that the three involved in the alleged corruption would agree to move away from the CPT until justice clarified the matter, but this did not occur: “unfortunately they did not understand that it was the right decision, this scandal affects the image of the entire Presidential Transition Council.”

“I cannot accept to participate in any process that weakens and further devalues the country’s justice system,” Leblanc said, explaining why he was the only one of the nine members of the CPT who did not sign the new resolution on the rotating presidency.

In his opinion, “the majority of the Council is taking the wrong path. He runs the risk of plunding the country into instability. It will worsen the situation and prolong the transition period.”

The change in the presidency of the CPT occurs when Haiti is still shocked by the massacre last week at the hands of the armed group Gran Grif in Pont Sondé (artibonite department) of more than 70 people, despite the fact that part of the Multinational Security Support Mission led by Kenya is on the ground to try to curb the violence.

In 2023, the violence caused, between deaths and injuries, 8,000 victims in Haiti and in the first half of this year alone it already rose to about 3,900, according to UN data.

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