Summary Council includes 9 representatives from religious institutions, business groups and civil society.
PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - Haiti announced Thursday it was forming a new electoral council tasked with organizing elections by the end of the year amid a serious political crisis in the desperately poor Caribbean nation.
The council, formed as part of an agreement between President Michel Martelly and opposition political parties, includes nine representatives from religious institutions, business groups and civil society. Government representatives and political parties are not allowed.
It marks the fifth electoral council Martelly has formed since he came to power in May 2011.
None of the previous councils has yet managed to organize elections in Haiti, contributing to a deepening political vaccuum and mounting street protests that have sometimes turned violent.
Haiti has failed to hold elections in three years and parliament s mandate expired last week, leaving President Michel Martelly the sole leader of a country on edge.
Martelly has attempted to calm the situation by naming Evans Paul, a figure from the opposition, as his prime minister and signing the deal to hold new elections by the end of this year.
Paul s appointment was never ratified by the outgoing parliament and his constitutional position appears weak. Nevertheless, on Monday he pushed on and named 44 ministers and state secretaries.
But most ministers are former members of the government led by the previous prime minister, Laurent Lamothe, who is close to Martelly.
