By: Staff Writer
March 28, 2025
Former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, speaking on a World Bank online forum, said that he is not happy with the progress Haiti’s Transitional Council has made towards putting the country back on a democratic path since being formed in April, 2024
Golding, who is also one third member of the CARICOM organized Eminent Person’s Group working with Haiti, also said: “It is not an ideal situation but it was designed to seek to ensure inclusiveness of the disparate political actors and political elements in Haiti.
“We have worked with them now over the last 18 months, and I can’t tell you that I’m happy and satisfied with the progress.
“The political differences have continued to disrupt the process and to interfere with the program that had been hammered out at a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica in March of last year, but it is the best arrangement that we think that can work, and therefore we continue to provide support, to provide advice, bearing in mind that this the solution to the Haitian problem has to be Haitian led and Haitian managed.”
The Transitional Presidential Council is a temporary body constituted by the Council of Ministers on 12 April 2024 and sworn in at the National Palace on 25 April to exercise the powers and duties of the president of Haiti either until an elected president is inaugurated or until 7 February 2026, whichever comes first.
This was created when the previous prime minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, was told to demit office by prominent gang leaders before he returned to the country from his trip to Kenya where he was building international support to quell the gang violence in his home country.
Golding also said: “Haiti has suffered enough from external interference, and therefore we have to be very respectful of Haiti’s sovereignty, bearing in mind that it is the country which blazed the trail for the independence of black countries, and we provide support, but we do not instruct. We do not dictate.”
He added: “None of the plans that the Transitional Presidential Council has set about in terms of constitutional reform and the holding of elections by November of this year, none of those plans can proceed unless there is a restoration of security.
“You cannot hold elections unless people feel free to leave their homes and to go to the polling locations to cast the votes, and that issue has not been going well. We are grateful that the Kenyan government has so far provided almost 1000 troops on the ground. But in discussions we had with the Kenyan commander two weeks ago, he indicated that for their effort to be effective, they need an additional 1500 boots on the ground.”