World Notes HAITI

The promise of democracy was deferred again in Haiti two weeks ago as the Electoral Council announced that elections scheduled for Nov. 4 would be postponed until perhaps December because of a lack of funds. The news threatened to unravel the caretaker administration of President Ertha Pascal Trouillot, whose six-month-old transition government has already been tarnished by charges of corruption and incompetence. "She cannot make good on her pledge to hold genuine elections, so her administration has lost its reason to exist," observed Gerard Pierre-Charles, a left-wing political analyst. "We are sliding inexorably toward the temptation of a military coup."

A former Supreme Court judge who was appointed last March by the Unity Assembly, Trouillot was expected to lead Haiti to free elections. But some of her erstwhile supporters are having doubts. Seven political parties in the Assembly have called for her resignation and threatened to boycott the vote if she is still President.