Security Council delegation in Haiti to push for polls

Representatives of the 15 member states of the UN Security Council arrived in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on Friday for a three-day visit that is to include meetings with President Michel Martelly, other senior government officials, and UN representatives based in the country.

"With this mission, the Security Council looks to ... urge Haiti's political actors to work cooperatively and without further delay to ensure the holding of free, fair, inclusive and transparent legislative, partial senatorial, municipal and local elections," a statement from the MINUSTAH, the UN's peacekeeping mission in Haiti said.

Shortly before the Security Council delegation arrived, a nine-member provisional electoral council was sworn in, tasked with organizing long-delayed elections for later this year.

"It's a new step for the country on the road to democracy," Prime Minister Evans Paul said, referring to the new council. "Democracy does not work without elections."

Haiti has not had legislative or parliamentary elections for three years.

Attempt to appease protesters

President Martelly, who has been ruling by decree since the country's parliament was dissolved earlier this month, recently appointed Paul, a moderate opposition figure as well as a new cabinet in an attempt to bring an end to sometimes violent protests against his rule.

The Associated Press reported that a couple of thousand took to the streets of the capital again on Friday to demand that Martelly step down. Martelly, who took office in 2011, is due to leave office after a presidential election at the end of this year, when his term expires.

Shortly after their arrival, the Security Council ambassadors visited the headquarters of the MINUSTAH mission, and were also due to visit various projects in the country, which has yet to recover from a devastating 2010 earthquake.

pfd/bk (AP, Reuters, AFP)