New York Times Editorial

The list of what needs to be fixed in Haiti is dis­tress­ingly long, and progress has been frus­trat­ingly slow. But two areas require urgent atten­tion from the Hait­ian gov­ern­ment and its main inter­na­tional back­ers, the United Nations and the United States:

KEEP WOMEN AND CHILDREN SAFE. More than a mil­lion peo­ple are still dis­placed, many liv­ing in crowded refugee camps with only rudi­men­tary pro­tec­tion from the summer’s tor­ren­tial rains. Sex­ual assaults are wide­spread, and for girls and women, who are fright­ened even to use show­ers or toi­lets, life is horrible.

The camps need more lights and more secu­rity patrols. It was good news that the U.N. decided to send 680 more police offi­cers to Haiti — bring­ing its police force there to about 4,400 — includ­ing an all-female unit of about 100 Bangladeshi offi­cers. More needs to be done.

PLAN FOR ELECTIONS. To move for­ward with rebuild­ing plans, Haiti needs a legit­i­mately elected government.

Vot­ers were sup­posed to choose a new Par­lia­ment in Feb­ru­ary; the Jan­u­ary earth­quake made that impos­si­ble. Par­lia­ment has dis­banded, and Pres­i­dent René Pré­val, whose term expires next Jan­u­ary, is rul­ing by decree. The coun­try still does not have an offi­cial date for the next pres­i­den­tial and par­lia­men­tary elections.

Mr. Pré­val has said infor­mally that he wants elec­tions on Nov. 28, but he has yet to issue the nec­es­sary decree. With­out a sched­ule, donors will not com­mit the $38 mil­lion needed to orga­nize elec­tions. Haiti’s elec­toral coun­cil, whose nine mem­bers were hand-picked by Mr. Pré­val, has been roiled with cor­rup­tion and infighting.

Haiti needs to start work­ing right now to update elec­toral records, set vot­ing pro­ce­dures for dis­placed peo­ple, issue iden­tity cards for the many Haitians who have lost all of their doc­u­ments, and edu­cate vot­ers on where to vote. And it needs an elec­toral coun­cil to run the vote made up of hon­est, com­pe­tent pub­lic ser­vants, not polit­i­cal hacks.

This month, Sen­a­tor Richard Lugar, the top Repub­li­can on the For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee, issued a report in which he urged the State Depart­ment to press Mr. Pré­val to set an elec­tion date and to reor­ga­nize the elec­toral coun­cil to restore its legit­i­macy among skep­ti­cal Haitians. Mr. Pré­val has been frus­trat­ingly dis­en­gaged from so many of his country’s urgent prob­lems. He needs to ful­fill his respon­si­bil­ity and set the stage for fair elec­tions. The last thing Haiti needs right now is a pro­longed con­sti­tu­tional crisis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/opinion/20sun3.html?emc=eta1