HAITI: Haitian officials have set national elections for December 27th, paving the way for a nationally elected leader to take over the reins of government by a February 7th deadline.
The long-delayed fixing of an election date was mostly received with relief that an end could be in sight to the power struggles and chaos that have lately beset this poorest of western countries.
Haiti has been without an elected president since a US aircraft carried former president Jean Bertrand Aristide into African exile on February 29th, 2004. It has also been without a functioning legislature for four years. Recurring gang violence has devastated the capital's teeming slums.
Interim prime minister Gerard Latortue, a retired UN official tasked by the world body with governing in transition and preparing elections, told journalists on Thursday that the December vote - already delayed three times - was "final and firm".
"The bigger question is how the counting will be done," said Wendell Theodore, a commentator for Radio Metropole, one of several stations that spread the news ahead of an official decree.
Processing of voter ID cards has also been painfully slow, with most of the 3.3 million registered voters still waiting for their credentials.
Despite the delays, Haitians appear eager for another chance finally to choose their own leaders.