No winners in 1st round of Haiti Senate election marked by low voter turnout

No winners in 1st round of Haiti Senate election

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — None of the candidates for Haiti’s Senate received the majority vote needed to win outright in balloting this month, leaving 11 vacant seats up for grabs in the runoff election.

The 30-seat Senate has been short-handed for 1½ years as elections were delayed by hunger riots, devastating storms and political infighting.

Results released late Monday by Haiti’s provisional electoral council also showed 11 percent of eligible voters turned out for the April 19 election.

The vote was boycotted by supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose Fanmi Lavalas party’s candidates were disqualified because they failed to produce documents signed by the exiled party leader.

Nine of the 20 candidates advancing to the run-off are from President Rene Preval’s Lespwa party, and the party could win seats in each of Haiti’s administrative regions. Two other parties had multiple candidates advance.

Lespwa currently controls six of 18 seats in the Caribbean nation’s Senate. A Lespwa majority would help Preval win support for constitutional reforms to increase executive powers and build support for his economic programs.

Voting for one of 12 vacant seats in the rural Central Department was canceled on election day after protesters raided polling places and a poll supervisor was shot. He survived. That vote has not been rescheduled.

Some voters also had difficulty reaching the polls because authorities halted public transportation in Port-au-Prince to preserve order. Only about 44,000 ballots were cast in a capital region home to nearly 3 million people.

At least four senators have said the election should be invalidated because of the poor turnout and are threatening to vote against seating the winners, Radio Kiskeya reported.