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WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) — The Orga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS) said on Wednes­day it was send­ing a high-level mis­sion this week to help Haiti work towards new elec­tions after its dev­as­tat­ing earthquake.

Albert Ramdin

The six-member OAS del­e­ga­tion, led by Assis­tant Sec­re­tary Gen­eral Albert Ramdin, will visit Haiti from Thurs­day to Sat­ur­day at the request of the Hait­ian gov­ern­ment, the 35-member bloc said in a statement.

“The mis­sion will seek to engage the Hait­ian author­i­ties and other impor­tant stake­hold­ers in the country’s elec­toral agenda,” an OAS state­ment said.

Leg­isla­tive polls, orig­i­nally set for Feb­ru­ary and March, were post­poned after the Jan­u­ary 12 earth­quake that demol­ished the cap­i­tal Port-au-Prince, killing more than 220,000 peo­ple and leav­ing 1.3 mil­lion Haitians homeless.

“At this junc­ture and in light of the enor­mous recov­ery and recon­struc­tion task ahead, it is crit­i­cal to help Haiti ensure con­ti­nu­ity in state affairs and to uphold the legit­i­macy of author­i­ties ema­nat­ing from the will of the peo­ple,” Ramdin said.

Rene Preval, who also served as pres­i­dent from 1996 to 2001, is con­sti­tu­tion­ally barred from seek­ing a third man­date. His cur­rent term expires in Feb­ru­ary 2011 and pres­i­den­tial elec­tions are expected in December.

OAS del­e­gates will hold dis­cus­sions with Preval, Prime Min­is­ter Jean-Max Bel­lerive, gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, elec­tion offi­cials and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from across Haiti’s polit­i­cal spec­trum, pri­vate sec­tor and civil society.

Ramdin, who attended a recent Haiti donors meet­ing in New York, said “these con­sul­ta­tions will allow the OAS to bet­ter assist Haiti in the plan­ning and prepa­ra­tion of elec­tions, in con­cert with per­ti­nent inter­na­tional partners.”

MINUSTAH, the United Nations sta­bi­liza­tion force which plays a major role in orga­niz­ing and run­ning elec­tions in Haiti, was par­tic­u­larly badly hit by the quake and well over 100 UN per­son­nel per­ished in the disaster.

The Caribbean nation — the poor­est coun­try in the west­ern hemi­sphere — has had a long his­tory of dic­ta­tor­ship fol­lowed by years of polit­i­cal tur­moil and civil unrest.

In 2004, 1,000 US Marines fol­lowed by thou­sands of UN peace­keep­ers brought order to Haiti after a bloody rebel­lion against pres­i­dent Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s rule. A pro­vi­sional gov­ern­ment was then installed.