Haiti’s Aug. 9 legislative elections were an unmitigated disaster. Most of the official results are highly contested and still in limbo. But that has not stopped candidates for the scheduled Oct. 25 presidential race, especially those close to Haitian President Michel Martelly, to plan campaign fundraising stops in Haiti’s diaspora.

For example, on Sep. 7, Steeve Khawly, the presidential candidate of the pro-Martelly party Bouclier (Shield), will come to New York for a evening “meet & greet” at the $7 million Manhattan penthouse of trial attorney Sanford Rubenstein, who was one of the lawyers for police brutality victim Abner Louima in 1997.

“I have been in touch with at least five Haitian presidential candidates,” Rubenstein told Haïti Liberté. “It is an opportunity for them to get to know the Haitian diaspora leaders, especially those in the clergy.” The soirée with Khawly at Rubenstein’s penthouse has been arranged by the Rev. Jean-Baptiste Thomas of Brooklyn’s Eglise Baptiste d'Expression Française.

Two years ago, Rubenstein hosted a similar cocktail party at his posh duplex on East 64^th Street for Martelly when he visited New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

Rubenstein said that he would be in touch with the Haitian Consul about again hosting Martelly if he came to the UN gathering at the end of this month.

Another inside source told Haïti Liberté that Martelly would also be in New York next week at Rubenstein’s home, but the lawyer said that he was unaware he would be receiving the president on that date.