Haitian lawmakers rejects Martelly's pick for PM

Haitian lawmakers have rejected President Michel Martelly's pick for the country's next prime minister, Bernard Gousse, a legal scholar and former justice minister, the senate president told AFP. The vote was split late Tuesday with 16 lawmakers in the 30-seat senate voting 'no', said senate president Rodolphe Joasile, adding that he would inform Martelly on Wednesday that he would have to pick another candidate. Earlier Tuesday, a majority 58 deputies in the lower house had supported Gousse, but according to the Haitian constitution, if one wing of parliament rejects an appointment the president must choose again. It is the second time lawmakers have refused to ratify a prime minister appointed by Martelly since his inauguration in May. The obstacles have left the president struggling to get his fledgling administration up and running, amid widespread frustration over a string of problems, from housing to the economy, exacerbated by Haiti's disastrous earthquake in January 2010.