The arrival of the immense Hurricane Matthew on Haitian land early on Tuesday morning has plunged the Caribbean’s oldest nation into another period of despairing uncertainty. Haiti is ill-prepared to deal with what Matthew brings – category 4 force winds and a 190-mile outer band of powerful rains pounding the towns and villages along the southwestern coastline and extending all the way to the Dominican Republic. Haiti’s soil already holds the lives of far too many of its children taken by extreme natural disasters.

Matthew comes at an especially tense moment for Haiti. This Sunday, Haitians were meant to go to the polls to choose from 27 candidates to cast their vote for the new president of the republic. However, in the wake of Matthew the election has been postponed indefinitely. The poll was to have been a restart of a controversial first round held in October 2015 that cost millions, only to dissolve in fraudulent results and widespread national protests. This time around, the campaign had been prolonged by repeated delays and clashes between the electoral council and the candidates.

Politics and natural disasters have a way of converging to disturb the state of things in Haiti. In most recent memory the devastating 2010 earthquake that struck the capital Port-au-Prince and its environs led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, bringing unimaginable trauma. A global outpouring of support drew sympathy and attention but few lasting resources. It also came in an election year. The elections were held at a time when the country, and the world, were still coming to terms with the earthquake. The cost was significant. International assistance addressed short-term needs while repeating the same approaches that had made the scale of the disaster so expansive. In 2004, seven months after the ousting of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Tropical Storm Jeanne deposited 13 inches of water in Haiti and claimed more than 3,000 lives. And as far back as the 19th century, a massive earthquake in the north of Haiti in May 1842 preceded an uprising against president Jean-Pierre Boyer less than a year later.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The presidency of Michel Martelly was dogged with claims of corruption and state abuse. Photograph: Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

Rarely has a disaster occurred in such close proximity to a scheduled major political event as it has this week. Whenever the poll eventually takes place, the stakes will be high. The several political quagmires that followed the election of president Michel Martelly (2011-2016) have further undermined Haitian politics, with claims of corruption and state abuse. The forthcoming elections are expected to, at the very least, demonstrate a willingness to improve. Yet popular distrust of local and international powers is great.

Most upsetting are the effects of these conditions on Haitians. Programmes intended to expand the economy in areas such as tourism have brought little benefit for Haiti’s more than 10 million people. Instead, Haitian emigration has increased tremendously and to new locations in Central and South America as thousands of the country’s citizens find fewer reasons to endure the economic hardships and political instability. Any improvement hinges on a restoration of the political process through the election of a new president. It is also clear that other countries, particularly the United States, are expected to play a role in whatever direction Haiti takes. Last month, at an address to the United Nations, interim president Jocelerme Privert called for more support from the international community to restore stability after the elections.

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All of that was before Tuesday morning. Now Hurricane Matthew brings a new challenge for Haiti’s leaders and the international community that has vowed to help the proud nation. The efficacy of the infrastructure repairs put in place since 2010 will be tested. Concerns that Haiti’s fragile democracy must not be knocked off course have to be weighed against the human tragedy that will result from ineffective action.

If Haiti’s contending politicians must do anything now, it is to insist that the lessons of the past six years, which saw a deadly cholera outbreak added to the impact of the quake, are heeded. For a vulnerable country that has suffered greatly from weaker tropical systems, the effects of Hurricane Matthew could be catastrophic. The Haitian state and the international community have a duty to provide an effective emergency response. But so do members of Haiti’s civil society and its large diaspora. It was these groups that made some of the strongest interventions after the earthquake. Haiti’s neighbours, including spared Jamaica, also have a role to play once the full impact of the hurricane is known.

Outside forces have much to atone for. In many ways it is the failures of international support since 2010 that have had greater consequences for Haiti than its longstanding political failures. There is now a desperate need for a new type of engagement with Haiti. After Matthew, Haiti simply cannot endure any more broken promises.

• This article was amended on 6 October 2016 to reflect the fact that the elections had been postponed indefinitely