Above: President Michel Martelly in 2010 (FP)

Haitian President Michel Martelly said Haiti’s lack of a functioning government was “killing us.” Haitian lawmakers have now twice rejected choices Martelly has proposed to be the country’s Prime Minister, a political stalemate that the United Nations (and one US senator) has called concerning. Martelly, who was speaking on Radio Canada, said the stalemate was like “having a head, but the hands cut.” Martelly expressed a desire to relaunch the Haitian economy, improve education and address the issue of reconstruction. Martelly did say the political crisis had not prevented progress in the education sector, with 146,000 new students set to go to school for the first time in their lives this year. [Haiti Libre]