The council, which consists of seven members and two observers, was sworn in last week. The transition plan was agreed in Jamaica with the participation of then-Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Caribbean Community countries, the United States, Canada, France and Brazil.
Leblanc Fils served as speaker of the upper house of the Haitian parliament from 1995 to 2000. He will play a coordinating role as the transitional council's head, Haitian daily Le Nouvelliste reported on Tuesday.
The nine-member governing body also chose Fritz Belizaire, former youth and sports minister, as Haiti's interim prime minister, the newspaper reported.
Haiti's transitional presidential council will temporarily exercise a range of presidential powers, such as selecting and appointing an interim prime minister, an inclusive council of ministers, ensuring continuity of governance, and establishing a national security council to facilitate the accelerated deployment of the multinational security mission authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 2699 in 2023.
On February 29, gang violence erupted in the downtown area of Port-au-Prince while Henry was visiting Kenya to seek an agreement for the deployment of foreign forces in Haiti to fight organized crime. The gangs said their goal was to prevent the prime minister from returning to Haiti. They took control over many parts of the city and stormed Haiti's largest prison, freeing an unconfirmed number of inmates. The Haitian government declared a state of emergency in the capital region.