PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) — Haitian lawmakers Sunday night rejected economist Fritz Jean as the country’s new prime minister sending the provisional government in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country into a state of uncertainty.

Jean, named by Interim President Jocelerme Privert needed at least 60 of the 119 members of the Lower House to support his nomination.

But when the vote was taken on Sunday evening, he received 38 votes with 36 against with one legislator abstaining.

“Mr Prime Minister, 38 deputies voted in favour to your general policy statement, as the majority required in terms of section 158 of the 1987 amended Constitution is at least 60 votes, which constitutes the absolute majority required, your general policy statement is rejected.”

The vote leaves President Privert without a person to run the government’s day-to-day affairs and he also failed to get support for the new Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) that is needed to organise the twice-postponed presidential run-off vote now tentatively scheduled for April 24.

President Michel Martelly left office on February 7 without any successor being elected and last week Sandra Honore, the top UN envoy for Haiti, told the United Nations Security Council that Haiti was at a “critical juncture” in consolidating its democracy and the next few weeks would be decisive.

Jean had been nominated and then sworn in at a ceremony at the National Palace in the hopes his experience and reputation as an economist and former governor of Haiti’s central bank would overcome objections from opposition lawmakers.

In his inaugural speech on Sunday, he told lawmakers that the new government “is committed to providing to all institutions involved in the electoral process the necessary means for achieving the objectives.

“The new CEP will be put into condition to strengthen the mechanisms of voting. We will ensure to recreate the confidence of key players involved in the electoral process, knowing that the results will have to reflect the real choice of the people,” he said.

He told the lawmakers that the government, if approved by them, would play its role in creating a peaceful climate ensuring that “these elections… will allow our country to return to constitutional order.

He said his government would also deal with the issue of justice, adding “we want a constitutional state where every citizen is equal before the law, in which each citizen is accountable for his actions.

“The current situation in Haiti requires the urgent to redress public finances through the adoption of measures allowing institutions of perception to execute their strategic reform plans; to improve performance,” the US-educated economist said, adding “it is our responsibility to meet the sanitation challenges in order to restore confidence, eliminate apprehensions and dissolve anxiety”.

Jean had promised that until the next administration is elected, his administration “in coordination with the monetary authorities, will stop the appropriate measures to stabilise our currency and create conditions for better planning of decisions of economic agents”.