PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — Haitian politicians inked a last-minute agreement to install a transitional government Saturday, just hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down with no replacement in line.

The agreement, signed by the presidents of both chambers of the National Assembly, keeps the country from plunging into an immediate power vacuum on Martelly’s exit, after an election to choose his replacement was postponed over fears of violence.

“It wasn’t easy, but like I said, I wasn’t going to leave this country on uncertain terms come February 7, so we worked non-stop these past three weeks,” Martelly said during an official ceremony to sign the document.

In light of the annulled vote, which would have occurred on January 24 and given the country time to put a new leader in power, Parliament will elect an interim president with a term of up to 120 days, the four-page agreement said.

The January vote, a run-off between Martelly’s favoured candidate, Jovenel Moise, and Opposition flag-bearer Jude Celestin, was called off following violence and Opposition protests by demonstrators alleging that foul play had helped the government candidate take the first round.

“We will hold a joint (legislative) session … to note the end of President Martelly’s term and to ask the prime minister and Government to remain in office to settle current affairs,” Senate President Jocelerme Privert told AFP.

“The election of the interim president will take place later.”

The country’s run-off election is now scheduled for April 24, with the new permanent leader to take power on May 14, but Privert stressed those were only proposed dates.

“We are pleased that the stakeholders have all committed themselves to democracy, peace and stability, amid a constitutional vacuum created by the absence of an elected president to replace Mr Martelly,” said Ronald Sanders, head of the special Haiti mission of the Organization of American States.

While consensus was reached in a “brotherly atmosphere,” Martelly stressed that this did not mean the political crisis had been resolved.