2009 Haitian Senate election
19 April 2009 (first round)
21 June 2009 (second round)

Elections for a third of the seats in the Senate of Haiti were held on 19 April 2009 (they were scheduled for March or April 2008, but were postponed), with a run-off to be held on 21 June 2009.[1][2][3] Per the Constitution of Haiti, voters should renew ten of the thirty seats in the Senate, but as Pierre Emmanuel Limage (representing Fwon Lespwa, the party of President René Préval, for Artibonite), died in a car accident and Ultimo Compère (representing Fwon Lespwa for Centre; his term would have expired in 2008 regularly) and Rudolph H. Boulos (representing the Fusion of Haitian Social Democrats for Nord-Est) resigned, there were twelve open seats instead.[4]

Background

The seats for which elections were held were divided among parties as follows prior to the elections:

Preparations were finished in late May 2008.

Candidates

40 candidates were not allowed to contest the election, including Guy Philippe and all 17 from Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas, reportedly due to procedural mistakes and missing signatures or possibly even two lists of candidates submitted in some constituencies. 79 candidates were approved.[5] The disqualification was strongly criticised by local and international organisations alike, with some even claiming that the elections were not really democratic. A majority for president Préval's Fwon Lespwa party could aid him in amending the constitution to increase the president's power and allowing a second consecutive term.[6][7]

Results

Turnout was very low.[8] Run-off elections were expected for many seats due to the high number of candidates.

Voting for Ultimo Compère's vacant seat in the Centre department had to be rescheduled after voters ransacked polling places and a poll supervisor was shot in Mirebalais. Results took a few days, as they were all tabulated in Port-au-Prince and therefore all ballots had to arrive there before they could be counted.[9] None of the candidates in any of the departments managed to get more than half of the votes in the first round, so the two candidates in each departments were set to face each other in a run-off on 7 June 2009.[2] Turnout for the first round was around 11%.[10] The run-off was on 13 May 2009 announced to have been postponed to 21 June 2009, due to legal problems with election challenges; by that date, no date had been set for the re-run of the election in the Centre department.[3]

According to final results including annulment of illegal votes, the following parties had candidates in the run-off:[11]

In the second round, LESPWA won five seats, and five parties won one seat each (OPL, AAA, FUSION, KONBA, UCADDE), as well as an independent.

PartyFirst roundSecond roundTotal
seats
Votes%SeatsVotes%Seats
Lespwa131,64729.680178,48243.2255
Struggling People's Organization90,54920.41085,83420.7911
Fusion of Haitian Social Democrats34,1917.71041,62110.0811
L'Artibonite in Action44,89610.12037,1889.0111
Union of Haitian Citizens for Democracy, Development and Education14,8063.34116,9434.1011
Working Together for Haiti18,7514.23015,9093.8511
Christian National Union for the Reconstruction of Haiti30,2056.81014,4993.5100
Respect 12,9762.93000
MODELH–PRDH11,0242.49000
Independent Movement for National Reconciliation7,7941.76000
Rally of Progressive National Democrats7,3821.66000
National Unity Party 4,4811.01000
Social Renewal Party2,4610.55000
Movement for the Installation of Democracy in Haïti1,9310.44000
Popular Agreement Party9370.21000
Pont1600.04000
Independents23,2545.24016,6434.0311
Against all6,1711.39–5,8411.41––
Vacant1
Total443,616100.001412,960100.001112
Source: CEP, CEP

References

  1. ↑ "IFES Election Guide | Elections: Haiti Leg Jun 2009". Archived from the original on 2009-08-25. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
  2. 1 2 "Earth Times: Show/266447,no-winners-emerge-from-senate-elections-in-haiti-june-runoff-set.HTML". Archived from the original on 2012-08-29. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  3. 1 2 "Haïti/Sénatoriales : Le second tour officiellement fixé au 21 juin". Archived from the original on 2010-01-29. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
  4. ↑ "Prensa Latina". Archived from the original on 2008-01-01. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  5. ↑ "DerStandard.at". Archived from the original on 2009-02-12. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
  6. ↑ http://www.newsobserver.com/1573/story/1488164.html
  7. ↑ https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gwk_RJA8imQ2nmsEHQfRcrTkzcJgD97LS7HG0
  8. ↑ "Breaking News, World News and Video from al Jazeera". Archived from the original on 2009-04-21. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  9. ↑ https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gwk_RJA8imQ2nmsEHQfRcrTkzcJgD97MHOC80
  10. ↑ https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gwk_RJA8imQ2nmsEHQfRcrTkzcJgD97RLGUO2
  11. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2009-05-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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