The terms of most members of the Haitian parliament expire today with no plan in sight to hold elections to replace them.
Yesterday, thousands of Haitians staged a protest march against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the capital Port-au-Prince. President Aristide, a former priest once widely hailed as a hero of democracy but now accused by his critics of trampling on civil rights, became Haiti's first democratically elected leader in 1991.
Since his reelection in 2000, he has been at odds with opponents over the tainted results of parliamentary elections that year. The dispute has prevented new elections taking place as required by the constitution.
The march yesterday, the latest in a series of mounting protests in recent months, began after a mass by Roman Catholic Bishop Pierre-Andre Dumas who criticised the corruption, repression and anarchy that he said Mr Aristide's government had created.
"We must regain our strength and take back the country," Monsignor Dumas told a crowd of several hundred at Saint Pierre Church in the capital.
The group swelled to a crowd of at least 10,000, witnesses said, as it marched through the streets in one of the few anti-Aristide demonstrations in recent months to end peacefully.
Similar rallies in the towns of Petit Goave and Miragoane, turned violent, however, according to radio reports. One armed Aristide supporter was shot dead by a police officer in Miragoane, they said.
Many businesses in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere observed the fourth day of a general strike that was originally called for just two days by opponents of the president.