It's finally happening.

After being postponed four times, Haiti's first presidential election since its last elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted two years ago is taking place Tuesday.

Some 10,000 UN soldiers and police have been deployed around the country alongside some 5,000 Haitian policemen, and more than 300 international observers have flown in to take part in what many hope could be a successful exercise in democracy that will bring stability and calm to this troubled country of 8.3 million - or at least put it on the right track.

"Elections are clearly not the whole solution. But you can't get a legitimate government that can begin to deal with Haiti's problems and build something out of this failed state without them," says Mark Schneider, vice president of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based non-governmental organization. "Of course we need to think of the day after, and how to ensure the international community stays the course to help build institutions here," he says. "But first we need a government."

"The big problem we have had in the past is that our elections have been totally rigged," adds human rights activist Jean-Claude Bajeux. "This is the first time in history our votes will be exactly counted."

Preparations for these elections by the US-backed interim government of Prime Minister Gérard Latortue and foreign election advisers have faced one obstacle after the next in the past months. But, now, with 3.5 million people registered and holding onto high-tech ID cards, Haitian election officials say fraud will be greatly reduced.

Yet, with close to $75 million spent on these elections, skeptics abound, wondering if pouring money, effort, and expectations into an election day here is the best answer to the country's woes.

Crippled by years of violence, economic stagnation, and lack of leadership, residents of the hemisphere's poorest country head to the polls Tuesday with a sense of possibility - but also a keen knowledge of past failures.

Twenty years ago Tuesday, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier was forced into exile, ending his family's 29 years of dictatorship and bringing hope for a fresh, democratic start. But after two decades of ineffectual, and often corrupt leadership, Haiti today is in a very sorry state.

Life expectancy is 52 years, over half the population can't read or write, 4 out of 5 Haitians live on $2 a day, and most big businesses have closed shop and left the country. The national police chief publicly admits about a quarter of his force is involved in kidnappings and corruption. And an unpopular, unelected, caretaker government has been in charge ever since an armed revolt ousted Mr. Aristide.

Thirty-three candidates are running in Tuesday's elections - including two former presidents, two men publicly accused of being drug traffickers, and a former colonel who once attempted a coup.

Leading the pack, according to a Jan. 21 survey conducted by CID-Gallup Latin America polls, is René Garcia Préval, a slim, bearded agronomist and Aristide protégé, who served as prime minister under Aristide, and then as president from 1996-2001. Préval has the dubious distinction of being the only elected Haitian president to serve out a full five-year term and the only not to go into exile since the fall of the Duvalier regime.

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