By Jonathan M. Katz, The Asso­ci­ated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s pres­i­dent on Wednes­day rejected U.S. Sen­ate rec­om­men­da­tions on hold­ing an elec­tion for his suc­ces­sor, brush­ing off crit­i­cism that the cur­rent process will leave the shat­tered coun­try with­out a cred­i­ble leader.

A report issued this month by Sen. Richard Lugar, the rank­ing Repub­li­can on the U.S. Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee, “strongly encour­ages” Haiti to let its inter­na­tional part­ners help restruc­ture the eight-member Pro­vi­sional Elec­toral Coun­cil, which has been accused of corruption.

The report also rec­om­mends ensur­ing the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the key oppo­si­tion party of ousted for­mer Pres­i­dent Jean-Bertrand Aris­tide, which was blocked from par­tic­i­pat­ing in 2009 leg­isla­tive con­tests because of a dis­pute over rival can­di­date lists.

On Tues­day, Pres­i­dent Rene Preval ful­filled one rec­om­men­da­tion of the report by issu­ing a signed decree set­ting elec­tion day for Nov. 28.

But speak­ing at a news con­fer­ence in an open-air gazebo along­side the bro­ken remains of the national palace a day later, Preval told reporters he had no inten­tion of com­ply­ing with the rest, includ­ing chang­ing the elec­tion body, known as the CEP.

“I’m not doing the CEP with inter­na­tional part­ners. I’m doing the CEP with national part­ners,” Preval said. “The senator’s propo­si­tion is inadmissible.”

Seek­ing to show the coun­cil was not “hand-picked,” as he said in Eng­lish, Preval handed out copies of nom­i­na­tion let­ters for the panel’s mem­bers sub­mit­ted by var­i­ous national and reli­gious orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the National Coun­cil of Polit­i­cal Par­ties, Roman Catholic Church and National Con­fed­er­a­tion of Hait­ian Vodou.

He also defended the pro­hi­bi­tion on the exiled Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas party in last year’s elec­tions, a ban that came after rival fac­tions of the party sub­mit­ted com­pet­ing lists of candidates.

“Inter­na­tional donors need to look for an accord with the CEP and the polit­i­cal par­ties and the fac­tions of Fanmi Lavalas,” Preval said. “We are giv­ing (the par­ties) the sup­port that they need, and the fac­tions need to fig­ure it out (for themselves).”

Preval did not dis­cuss the forced res­ig­na­tion of an elec­toral coun­cil mem­ber accused of steal­ing a staffer’s pay or oppo­nents’ alle­ga­tions that the coun­cil gave spe­cial priv­i­leges to the president’s newly formed Unity Party ahead of planned Feb. 28 leg­isla­tive elec­tions, which were post­poned because of the Jan. 12 earth­quake that dev­as­tated the capital.

He also declined to answer ques­tions about another U.S. Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee report that crit­i­cizes Haiti’s earth­quake recov­ery, say­ing he would address that issue at a news con­fer­ence on recon­struc­tion next week.

Elec­tions have never been easy in Haiti, a coun­try whose found­ing pres­i­dent crowned him­self emperor. It took 186 years to hold what the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity con­sid­ered a demo­c­ra­tic elec­tion in 1990, which was then closely fol­lowed by a coup d’etat.

Preval, in fact, is the only Hait­ian ever to be elected pres­i­dent, serve a full term and hand off power to an elected suc­ces­sor. Unable to run for re-election in the Novem­ber con­test, he pledged to relin­quish power again as he did in the 1990s — after pro­test­ers alleged ear­lier this year that he was drag­ging his feet on hold­ing pres­i­den­tial the election.

Doing so will require sig­nif­i­cant help. The elec­toral council’s head­quar­ters were destroyed and its records lost in the quake, while mil­lions of vot­ers were either killed, made home­less or dis­placed. Its new head­quar­ters is a for­mer Gold’s Gym seized by drug agents.

The elec­tion will also be a cost bur­den for this grind­ingly poor Caribbean nation: $29 mil­lion accord­ing to elec­toral offi­cials at the news con­fer­ence with Preval, $38 mil­lion accord­ing to the U.S. Sen­ate report.

The Orga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States and United Nations have pledged sup­port. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a state­ment Wednes­day prais­ing the decree set­ting the elec­tion date and pledged the help of U.N. peace­keep­ers and advis­ers in prepar­ing and sup­port­ing the bal­lot. Ban urged mem­ber states to quickly pro­vide the money needed to run the vote.

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