New Delhi, March 3 -- Haiti's government opened a 10-day registration period Monday for political parties to run in an upcoming general election, a critical step for a country that hasn't held one in more than a decade as deadly gang violence persists.

Heavily armed soldiers and police surrounded the headquarters of Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council as a handful of political operatives for long-established parties picked up the necessary paperwork.

Joining them was Pierre Dieu-Donne Delice, a psychologist who heads a new party called Tools for Another Haiti. Delice told The Associated Press that he and other party members are tired of the transitional government in power since President Jovenel Moise was killed at his private reside...