Clarens Renois

Haiti is trapped in a grim scene frozen in time two years after Haiti's earthquake disaster which killed between 200 000 and 300 000 people.

Michel Martelly faces a mammoth task after he is sworn as Haiti's new president on Saturday, inheriting a shattered Caribbean nation.

Haiti won plaudits for holding a calm and relatively peaceful presidential run-off on Monday as partial results suggested Michel Martelly could win.

Haitian voters prepare on Sunday to choose between a popular singer and a former first lady as the quake-ravaged country's next leader.

Supporters beat drums while workers spruced up his private villa as Haitians prepared on Tuesday for the possible return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Haiti desperately sought on Wednesday to halt a cholera epidemic that threatens to spiral out of control after reaching the capital's crowded slums.

More than a dozen have died of cholera in central Haiti, adding to concerns that the outbreak is edging closer to the densely populated capital.

The death toll in the Haiti quake has swelled to 200 000, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said on Wednesday.

For Judie Roy, the only woman among 34 candidates for president of Haiti in elections to be held in January, the face of poverty in one of the world's poorest countries is female. "All that is misery, all that is poverty is female in Haiti. That must be changed," says the 41-year-old mother of six.