Haiti to vote in delayed elections

These elections promise to renew Haiti’s constitutional order and reactivate the government machinery, which has been ground to a halt for four years.

The spokesman for Haiti’s provisional electoral council, Richardson Dumel, told AFP he was not anticipating major repercussions from the slow start, and expected delays would be “made up over the course of the day”.

The elections – long postponed by a crisis between Haiti’s executive power and opposition – will determine all members of the Chamber of Deputies and two-thirds of its Senate.

Also, parliamentary runoff elections are scheduled for October. 25, the same day as the first round of presidential and local elections.

Some lower house seats, particularly in the capital Port-au-Prince, have as many as 30 candidates.

The record number of office-seekers has raised concern about the vote’s roll-out, following a campaign season filled with partisan violence that reached its peak with several murders.

After voters, poll officials and worldwide observers are crammed into polling stations, little room is left for candidates’ representatives, who were promised a space in hopes of stemming ballot fraud.

On Saturday, police arrested some 20 people in central Haiti for possession of illegal arms.

Haiti, a country of 10 million people that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, has more than 58 per cent of its population living under the poverty line.

Turnout is not expected to top 15%, according to pre-election surveys.

This is the first round of the elections for a new parliament with more than 2,000 candidates.

The electoral processes could last until the end of the year and will aim to restore the Caribbean country’s Parliament, which has been absent since January.

The opposition has accused him of abusing his powers. In the absence of elections, Martelly has been accused of stacking the deck in his favor by appointing mayors and other municipal officials to replace those whose terms expired.

“We are a non-violent people”, Dumel said.

Inviting all Haitians to participate and exercise their democratic right to vote for the renewal of their institutions of governance, the secretary-general added that the UN stands “side by side” with the Haitian people and will continue to extend its full support to this important process.