Making the best of an election in a failed state

摘要

NEARLY everywhere else in the Americas,elections have happily become routine affairs.Not so in Haiti,where many aspects of life resemble the more troubled parts of Africa.For the past two years,a United Nations mission has been trying to turn Haiti into a nation.A crucial step in this process was a presidential election,held on February 7th.Haitians turned out in large numbers and,despite some inevitable problems in some places,the day went well.Sadly,the counting of the votes did not (see page 39).