Sherwin Bryce-Pease, New York

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has led tributes at a memorial in New York to honour the 101 staff who perished in the Haiti earthquake in January. Joined by family, friends and colleagues, he paid tribute to those who died in the service of others.

The deaths were the greatest single loss in UN history. The dead included civilians, military and police personnel. The memorial comes as the focus returns to the mammoth task of rebuilding the country - constitutional form that was already underway when the earthquake changed the equation.

"The proposal for constitutional reform had been approved by parliament unanimously last September and this is a very important constitutional reform that will consolidate all these elections, into five year mandates for everybody instead of elections every year," says acting head of the UN mission in Haiti, Edmond Mulet.

Elections postponed

Parliamentary elections due last month were postponed indefinitely with the current President's term due to expire in February next year. The two elections are now likely to be held together, although there is no date set yet.

The electoral commission is currently weighing up the pros and cons of moving ahead. Their main concern is the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people.

Even as those fallen are remembered, the UN remains firm that Haitians must keep their processes of democracy alive.

A magnitude 7.0 quake struck Haiti on January 12 shattering the capital and other towns in the western hemisphere's poorest state killing up to 300 000 people.