A former presidential candidate and head of the Senate was selected Tuesday to head Haiti’s new nine-member transitional presidential council in a deal that also designated a former minister of public works as Haiti’s next prime minister.

Edgard Leblanc Fils, 68, was named president of the transitional presidential council shortly before noon and nearly two hours behind a scheduled vote, following an agreement between the majority of the panel’s seven voting members. The same majority then selected Fritz Bélizaire, a one-time minister of public works, as prime minister to replace the outgoing Ariel Henry.

“We can discuss, negotiate, make concessions and arrive at a result,” Leblanc said.

The surprise turn of events occurred after the political groups on the council switched their last-minute support from former Sen. Louis Gérald Gilles, who represents the December 21 coalition on the panel, and cemented a deal backed by Gilles, the political party Pitit Desalin and the coalition known as EDE/RED/Compromis Historique.

An engineer and co-founder of the Organization of the People in Struggle, Fils is part of a collective of political parties whose membership includes PHTK, the political party of former President Michel Martelly. He was president of the Haitian Senate from 1995 to 2000 during the first administration of President of René Préval. Bélizaire, who is also an engineer, served as public works minister 2007-08, during Préval’s second presidential term.

Fils said there was a two-hour delay because council members were engaged in negotiations to reach a vote by a majority and “the acceptance of this exercise proves that we can.”

“We believe in the council,” Fils said in remarks following the announcement he had been selected president. “The first thing that is important for us is cohesion among us; political will and determination to overcome conflicts and arrive by consensus, and at times, discussions and negotiations... to free the country from actions that have created a lot of suffering and victims.”

Brokered by an international coalition led by the 15-member bloc known as CARICOM. the new transitional presidential council has a tough road ahead. More than two months after a united front of armed gangs began targeting the airport, prisons, police stations, seaport and other key government structures in the capital, Port-au-Prince remains under siege and paralyzed. More than 2,500 Haitians have died or been injured since the start of the year, millions are going hungry and thousands have fled to cities outside the capital or displacement camps around the capital.

Under a political accord agreed upon among their sectors and political parties, council members have until February 2026 to provide Haiti with a newly elected president, parliament, local representatives and possibly a new constitution. But to get there, they have to form a new cabinet of ministers and ready the country to receive the deployment of a multinational security force led by Kenya to help restore security.

They also have to convince Haiti’s population of 12 million population that they can bring about change for the better.

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