The nine-person “transitional council” was officially established on Thursday during a secret event at the national palace in Port-au-Prince.
The nine-member transitional council is expected to help set the agenda of a new cabinet.
It will also appoint a provisional electoral commission, which will be required before elections planned for 2026 can take place. They are also set to establish a national security council.
As its members took their oaths, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, announced in a letter that he was stepping down.
“We have served the nation during difficult times,” wrote Henry.
Henry’s finance minister, Michel Patrick Boisvert, will be interim prime minister until the transition council appoints a new head of government, a cabinet and a provisional electoral council set to pave the way for an eventual vote.
“Today is an important day in the life of our dear republic, this day in effect opens a view to a solution,” Boisvert said after the nine-person transition council were sworn in on Thursday morning.
Regine Abraham, a non-voting council member, thanked Haiti’s security forces and international mediators, and said the council would focus on security, a national consultation on constitutional reform, preparing for elections, rebuilding the judiciary system and the economy.
“We are seeing the total collapse of our institutions and failure of a government,” she said.