No Winner?

Voting had been marred by a boycott by supporters of ousted former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose popular Lavalas party was prohibited from running by electoral officials because official papers did not have his signature, as well as a halt to public transportation in Port-au-Prince by authorities in an attempt to preserve order, and a raid and shooting of an election official at one polling station by protestors. (File photo)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, April 29, 2009 - With no clear winners coming out of voting in Haiti's Senate elections, 11 of the 12 seats that were up for grabs earlier this month will remain on the table in runoff election in June.

Haiti's provisional electoral council has released the results which show that none of the candidates received the majority vote needed for an outright win in the April 19th poll.

During the polls, voting for a 12th seat from the rural Central Department was ended after demonstrators ransacked polling places. Another date will be set for an election for that seat to be filled.

It was also revealed that there was a mere 11 per cent voter turnout for the elections.

Voting had been marred by a boycott by supporters of ousted former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose popular Lavalas party was prohibited from running by electoral officials because official papers did not have his signature, as well as a halt to public transportation in Port-au-Prince by authorities in an attempt to preserve order, and a raid and shooting of an election official at one polling station by protestors.

Food riots, deadly storms and political infighting has left Haiti's 30-seat Senate without a full house for more than a year.

Haiti will have to wait awhile

Looks like it will be awhile before Haiti knows the results on the election. Even with the low turn out it will take at least eight days before we know the results Ballots are being counted at polling places and tabulated at a warehouse computer center guarded by armed U.N. peacekeepers in an industrial park in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Turnout appeared to be extremely low in the capital, where voter apathy and fear of election-day violence were more common than political interest. President Rene Preval declined to comment on the turnout Sunday until official results are calculated.

U.S. Ambassador Janet Sanderson, who toured the tabulation center Monday, remarked that "Historically, off-year elections in the United States as well as in other countries tend not to be as well-attended as presidential elections. We'll have to see."

The international community gave at least $12.5 million, including $3.9 million from the United States, to help carry out the election.

Supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide — whose still-popular Fanmi Lavalas party was prohibited from running by electoral officials — had also encouraged citizens to stay away from the polls.

The party took credit for the apparently low turnout Sunday.

Voting for a 12th seat from the rural Central Department was halted by Haiti's provisional electoral council after demonstrators ransacked polling places and a poll supervisor was shot in the plateau town of Mirebalais. That race will be rescheduled.

On Monday, Haitian workers guarded by Chinese police in blue U.N. berets examined, scanned and tabulated the results reported by polling places across the country. The original ballots are archived elsewhere.

Since the Port-au-Prince facility is the only place where results are being tabulated, voters will have to wait for ballots to make hours-long journeys over Haiti's washed-out, dilapidated mountain roads and to be brought in by boat from surrounding minor islands.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission issued a statement Monday expressing its hope that the Haitian people and political parties will "await calmly the publication of results ... and that any dispute will be pursued through legal channels."

   

     

Election Equipment for Haiti

Haiti: 100 tonnes of UN-facilitated election equipment arrives


UN peacekeepers in Haiti load container with electoral material for the 19 April election
24 March 2009 – The arrival of a massive shipment of election equipment in Haiti has brought the process of legislative polls to a new phase, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) announced today.
Voting booths and associated material for nearly 11,000 voting locations, divided into 12,000 kits, will be distributed throughout the country by the mission, for the election of a third of the Senate, slated to be held on 19 April.

MINUSTAH, which is assisting with security and logistics for the elections has called for the widest possible participation, including people of all political currents, stressed that this is the best way to ensure the credibility and universal acceptance of the results in the impoverished Caribbean country.

The UN mission, set up in 2004 to help re-establish peace after an insurgency forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to go into exile, has welcomed the progress made so far in preparing for the vote, including the Provisional Electoral Council’s approval of 33 political parties.