News­day Editorial

To recover from the cat­a­strophic earth­quake in Jan­u­ary, Haiti needs more than the help of the world. It needs strong lead­er­ship of its own. But it’s becom­ing clear, as the Novem­ber elec­tion draws near, that pick­ing a pres­i­dent may be as dif­fi­cult a task as clear­ing the rubble.

For those in Haiti and in Hait­ian dias­pora com­mu­ni­ties, such as our grow­ing one on Long Island, the lat­est news is dis­tress­ing. Haiti’s Pro­vi­sional Elec­toral Coun­cil has rejected the pres­i­den­tial can­di­dacy of hip-hop singer Wyclef Jean.

Despite Jean’s lack of polit­i­cal expe­ri­ence and his many years of liv­ing in the United States, some feel he’d give Haiti new vis­i­bil­ity. In any case, his pop­u­lar­ity is sym­bolic of the yearn­ing for lead­er­ship, and his exclu­sion is hardly unique.

Lavalas, the party of for­mer Pres­i­dent Jean-Bertrand Aris­tide, is excluded. And the process is bro­ken. The con­sti­tu­tion pre­scribes a decen­tral­ized way of choos­ing the elec­toral coun­cil, but this coun­cil is a cre­ation of out­go­ing Pres­i­dent René Pré­val, who’s not run­ning. Other con­cerns: The earth­quake post­poned elec­tions set for early this year, crip­pling the leg­isla­tive branch until after this November’s vote. And thou­sands of poten­tial vot­ers have no home, no address.

So, if Haiti is to get the bold lead­er­ship it needs to be a full part­ner with the global com­mu­nity in its own recov­ery, world lead­ers must press Pré­val to deliver a fair and well-run elec­tion. Haiti has so lit­tle. It deserves at least that.

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/editorial-haiti-needs-a-credible-election-1.2241924