UN News Centre

Edmond Mulet (right) with Hait­ian Pres­i­dent René Pré­val (file)

11 May 2010 – The United Nations and its inter­na­tional part­ners have pledged full “tech­ni­cal, logis­ti­cal and mate­r­ial” sup­port to help Haiti hold timely elec­tions, viewed as a cru­cial step in renew­ing the State after the huge human and mate­r­ial losses suf­fered in January’s dev­as­tat­ing earthquake.

Pres­i­den­tial elec­tions are due next Feb­ru­ary, and leg­isla­tive polls before that. A task force, com­pris­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the UN, Haiti, the Caribbean Com­mu­nity (CARICOM), the Orga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS), the Euro­pean Union (EU), Brazil, Canada and the United States, held its first meet­ing yes­ter­day in Port-au-Prince, the cap­i­tal, as part of an effort to pro­vide coor­di­nated inter­na­tional sup­port for the forth­com­ing polls.

“The Task Force took stock of the con­sid­er­able chal­lenges posed by the effects of the 12 Jan­u­ary earth­quake on elec­toral prepa­ra­tions, includ­ing in par­tic­u­lar on the reg­is­tra­tion of vot­ers and the update of elec­toral lists, which it was agreed would begin as soon as pos­si­ble,” the UN Sta­bi­liza­tion Mis­sion in Haiti (MINUSTAH) said in a news release.

The meet­ing was co-chaired by Hait­ian Pres­i­dent René Pré­val and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Edmond Mulet.

“Under the lead­er­ship of the Gov­ern­ment of Haiti, Task Force mem­bers offered to pro­vide all nec­es­sary tech­ni­cal, logis­ti­cal and mate­r­ial assis­tance to the elec­toral process, with a view to sup­port­ing the Government’s efforts to ensure par­tic­i­pa­tory, legit­i­mate and timely elec­tions,” the release said.

In March, dozens of nations and orga­ni­za­tions pledged some $9.9 bil­lion in imme­di­ate and long-term aid to help Haiti recover and rebuild after the quake, which killed more than 200,000 peo­ple, left 1.3 mil­lion more home­less and destroyed count­less build­ings, includ­ing Gov­ern­ment facil­i­ties, hos­pi­tals and schools.

In his most recent report to the Secu­rity Coun­cil in April, Mr. Ban said the elec­tions in early 2011 were cen­tral to the Government’s vision for a renewed State, a vision he appealed to the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity to support.