Haiti remembers quake dead amid political crisis
5 years after category seven quake the nation paused for "Day of Reflection and Commemoration."
PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - Haiti marked the fifth anniversary Monday of the massive earthquake that ravaged an already desperately poor nation, even as it sought a way out of its latest debilitating political crisis.
Five years after the unprecedented category seven quake killed at least 300,000 people and left more that a million homeless, the nation paused for a "Day of Reflection and Commemoration."
President Michel Martelly led the official tributes, calling for unity to better prepare Haiti for its next challenge, but the government s three-year failure to organize elections has undermined his authority.
Laying flowers at a monument in Place St Christophe in the still damaged capital, he payed tribute to the sacrifice of Haitian and foreign rescuers who flocked to Port-au-Prince in 2010.
"Five years later, are we ready to face other catastrophes that could strike Haiti?" he asked.
But Haiti s most immediate challenge is institutional breakdown combined with persistent poverty, not natural disaster.
As of Monday, the mandate of parliament had ended with no date set for a new election, raising the prospect that Martelly might be left ruling by decree like the country s former dictators.
A last minute accord signed Sunday to resolve the institutional impasse was not ratified by parliament before its authority expired, creating a perilous political and institutional vacuum.
Martelly s supporters have blamed the opposition for failing to pass an electoral law that would allow voting, but his opponents accuse him of provoking a stalemate in order to rule alone.
There have been mounting street protests against the government as the political crisis deepens, but on Monday the city was more quiet than usual as Haitians mourned their dead.
At Port-au-Prince s still ruined cathedral, members of the country s Catholic majority gathered to lay flowers and ponder the future.
In the immediate aftermath of the quake more than 1.5 million were homeless. The number living under canvas and in refugee shanty towns has fallen to 70,000, but Haitians remain pessimistic.
"Nothing has changed," lamented 24-year-old international affairs student Mirlie St-Preux. "Reconstruction has focused on a few public buildings. We need more foreign aid."
