PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 12 (Reuters) - Haitian lawmakers voted against President Rene Preval's nominee to become prime minister of the impoverished Caribbean nation on Thursday, in the second rejection of a candidate for the post in the past month.

The candidacy of Robert Manuel, a longtime friend and adviser to Preval, was rejected in a 57-22 vote in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house in Haiti's parliament.

Preval's first prime minister was fired by the Senate in April after violent protests against food prices and the rapidly escalating cost of living in the poorest country in the Americas. (Reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva; editing by Todd Eastham)

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