Haiti's Martelly faces major challenges to rebuild fragile nation

Haiti's President Michel Martelly smiles during his inauguration ceremony, in Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, on May 14 2011.

 As celebrations calm down after Saturday's inauguration of Haiti's new President Michel Martelly, the popular singer will get no time for a political honeymoon as he takes over power in one of the poorest nations in the world.

The challenges are daunting, and even though Martelly starts in his new job with massive support from the Haitian people who elected him in a landslide victory with 67.5 percent of the vote, the pressure is on for him to deliver results fast.

"His administration will have to show progress fairly quickly in order to provide confidence to the population," Mark Schneider, a political analyst and senior vice president of the Washington-based think-tank the International Crisis Group, said in a recent report published in the U.S.

From trying to improve economic and social conditions for the population of some 9.7 million people to the challenge of maintaining national unity in the politically fragile nation, there is no shortage of pressing issues.

The 50-year-old Martelly has promised to accelerate the reconstruction from last year's devastating earthquake that left about 250,000 people dead and over 1.6 million homeless out of which over 600,000 still live in make-shift tented camps with limited access to basic services such as clean water.

The country also suffered an ongoing cholera epidemic that has killed close to 5,000 people and its economy is in desperate need for a boost of foreign investment and jobs in order to create the funds needed for universal primary education and to build houses for the quake victims.

The statistics would be overwhelming to any president: Over 80 percent of the Haitian population live below the poverty line on less than 2 U.S. dollars per day and over 50 percent live in extreme poverty on less than 1 dollar per day.

The poverty has forced 225,000 children into living as unpaid domestic helpers and over 90 percent of Haiti's children suffer from waterborne diseases and parasites. Only Less than 30 percent of children finish primary school.

"The government will need at least 3 billion U.S. dollars to create an

adequately funded education system," said the Inter-American Development Bank in a report on Haiti' s socio-economic situation following the earthquake.

Martelly will also have to develop excellent skills as a diplomatic negotiator in order to find a way to deal with a strong opposition in the country' s parliament, which is dominated by the party of the outgoing President Rene Preval' s Unity Party.

The international community continues to stand on the side of Haiti and

billions of dollars in additional economic aid is available for Martelly if he can keep up with pledges to fight corruption and accelerate the reconstruction.

"Haiti is a priority for Latin America and for the political stability in the region, and the international community will continue to support its efforts in the reconstruction phase," Nestor Osorio, the Colombian President of the United Nations Security Council during the month of April, told Xinhua in an interview.

Martelly has declined to comment on his specific plans for the first 100 days in office saying that part of the success of his government will rely on the "surprise" factor.

But he has given some clues to what is on the table when he in a recent

interview with CNN revealed that one of his priorities as president will be to "nominate high court judges" as part of plans to create an independent justice system.

"We have to establish a rule of law, we want justice for everyone," he said, adding: "I am excited to take command and make the right decisions for my country."

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