The first poll since fromer President Aristide's overthrow will be followed by a second runoff vote scheduled for January 31, the cabinet chief of Haiti's interim government, Michel Brunache, said.
"They are the set dates," Brunache said, adding that an official announcement would be made at a meeting between the provisional election council and the government.
The polls were put off twice due to organizational difficulties, including
the need to issue national identification cards to some 4.5 million people of
voting age as part of the process of reinstating elections.
In addition, distribution of election materials is slow in the poorest country of the Americas, with some remote villages only reachable by foot due
to the lack of roads and infrastructure.
Haiti's constitution requires a new president and parliament to be sworn in
by February 7.
A total of 35 candidates are expected to be listed on the presidential ballot, including two former presidents, Rene Preval and Leslie Francois Manigat, and one woman, Judie Roy.
Three other aspirants were rejected earlier this week, two because they
held US citizenship and one for inadequate documentation.
The rejection of Dumarsais Simeus, a popular businessman with dual
citizenship who lived in the United States for over 40 years, generated a loud dispute over the authority of the elections commission.
Meanwhile some 1,300 people will compete for 130 seats in the parliament.
The elections continue to be under threat from the violence that has
plagued the country since Aristide fled into exile in South Africa.
Since then Haiti has been led by an interim government, supported by a
7,000-strong UN peacekeeping force that has struggled to maintain order as the country moves toward re-establishing a constitutionally elected government.
UN forces killed four suspected gang members in an intense shootout involving a detachment of Brazilian UN peacekeepers in a troubled
Port-au-Prince neighborhood, UN officials said.
After the assailants opened fire, over 200 troops were mobilised to flush
them out in an operation lasting more than eight hours, according to Colonel El Ouafi Boulbars, a spokesman for the UN mission in Haiti.