Haiti has started voting in its elections amid a cholera epidemic, political tensions and voter confusion.
The international community hopes the vote to select a new president and parliament and a third of the Senate can lead to a stable, legitimate government capable of administering billions of dollars of reconstruction aid pledged by donors.
Representing this world support, blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers are helping Haiti's police to secure and protect more than 11,000 polling stations set up in schools, prefabricated wooden huts and even in tents in crowded quake survivors' camps.
But with political tensions flaring, and rebuilding after the devastating January earthquake seemingly paralyzed by the advancing deadly cholera epidemic, many fear a contentious turbulent election may just drive Haiti deeper into turmoil.
A clutch of front-runners - a Sorbonne-educated opposition matriarch, a government technocrat who is a protégé of outgoing president Rene Preval, and a charismatic entertainer and musician - lead a varied field of 18 presidential candidates.
Although opinion olls have put 70-year-old former first lady Mirlande Manigat ahead, the lack of a clear favourite has increased the likelihood of the contest going to a deciding January 16th runoff between the two top vote-winners.
The biggest protagonists today may turn out to be apathy, confusion and fears of violence, which could keep many of the 4.7 million registered voters at home in a country whose shattered infrastructure deters easy movement.
Added to that is the raging cholera epidemic which has killed some 2,000 people, according to UN officials, and sickened tens of thousands as it stalks across the country.
But there were Haitians who said they were anxious to vote, seeing the nationwide ballot as a way to help usher in a better future after this year's succession of calamities adding to Haiti's sad history of natural and man-made disasters such as uprisings and corrupt dictatorships.
"The schools have crumbled, there is no work. We want school and university and work ... and now cholera has destroyed Haiti. I'm going to vote, because I'm a citizen and I have the right," said Rodrigue Elarion (32) who is unemployed.
Reuters