By Tequila minsky, Heritagekonpa Magazine

Haiti finally has a prime minister (almost), after almost four months of political wrangling.

Haitian lawmakers ratified Michele Pierre-Louis to be the country's next prime minister. On Thursday afternoon, the Haitian Senate voted 12-0 with five abstentions in favor of Ms. Pierre-Louis, thus breaking the deadlock. There had been repeated delays in this last vote as lawmakers jockeyed for party cabinet positions.

The Senate dismissed Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis on April 12 of this year after soaring food prices led to a week of riots, seven deaths and hundreds of businesses destroyed. Haiti has been without a prime minister, since, and the Chamber of Deputies voted down the first two replacement nominees, Ericq Pierre and Bob Manuel. Last week, Haitian Deputies approved president Rene Preval's choive Michele Duviver Pierre-Louis as prime minister.

Born in Jeremie and having attended high school in Port-au-Prince, Michele Duviver Pierre-Louis, received her Masters Degree in Economics at Queens College of the City University of New York.

She has exhibited a lifetime of service to the people of Haiti. Most recently, she has been the director of Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty (FOKAL), an organization that implements programs in education, library training and support, debate, civil society, community development, water projects, environment, and gender issues. FOKAL also supports culture and cultural expression through literature and poetry, theatre and film, and the visual arts. FOKAL is part of the Open Society Institute founded by George Soros.

Prior to her work with FOKAL, Ms. Pierre-Louis worked as a consultant, trainer and evaluator for numerous organizations and projects that focused on rural economy, credit, rural engineering, community health, literacy, and adult education.

Ms. Pierre-Louis has worked with and for many peasant populations through the years and it is hoped that this awareness and experience will be translated into programs that will benefit a majority of Haitians who have been systematically ignored. [Her recent rural water projects involve community empowerment and responsibility for the water systems.]

For nine years (80s and early 90s), she co-owned and managed a bakery, which was destroyed by arson in 1991, during the first days of the October military coup. She also worked as an assistant general manager of the National Airport.

Without a prime minister, Haiti has been unable to sign foreign aid contracts, organize a donors' conference or hold Senate elections-for the third whose term is expiring. (Serving six-year terms. Every two years, one third of the senators' terms expire.)

Under Haiti's Constitution, after being ratified, Pierre-Louis needs to present her political agenda and cabinet to the Chamber of Deputies and Senate for a second round of voting to win approval for a government program. From the Senate, she will need 16 of the 18 Senate votes.

Ms. Pierre-Louis is the second woman to become prime minister in Haiti. Claudette Werleigh was prime minister in late 1995 to early 1996.