Everyone in the know, especially the members of the Presidential Transition Council (PTC), has been aware for a month that Washington's choice for Prime Minister was Garry Conille. So why the charade? Why waste time in a country where the population anxiously awaits progress? Why was the selection process expedited only after U.S. Ambassador Dennis Hankins publicly lamented the PTC’s lack of urgency? Why, above all, this unanimous, Stalin-like vote? Not a single dissenting voice? Why did Councilor St. Cyr choose the day of the vote to travel? Was he not informed that the Council's most important decision since its inception would be made that day? If not, this secrecy is yet another symptom of the discord within the body. If he was informed, then the representative of the private sector showed a lack of statecraft, especially since he did not delegate his vote to a colleague. Was it distrust or carelessness? Is he content to merely be a figurehead?

By unanimously casting their votes for Conille (presumably, since details of the vote process are scarce), the voting members of the Council may not realize they have endowed him with incomparably more power than their own, particularly as sources of friction will soon emerge. In the absence of at least one negative vote, several rounds of voting could have preserved the appearance of due process. It would have also served as a warning to the appointee that he does not have carte blanche to govern as he pleases, unlike Ariel Henry. The PTC has opened a broad avenue for him, paved with good intentions if his address to the nation and his multi-point program, which resembles a general policy declaration, are any indication. But Conille, having been in this position before, knows that politics is a matter of balancing powers. One of its natural laws, in the context of a two-headed executive, is a constant struggle to amplify government authority and counter any encroachment from the other head, especially when it is multi-faceted. It is inevitable that Mr. Conille will emerge as a prominent figure when everything seems to be falling apart on the PTC side.