HAITI-ELECTION/UPDATE Haiti's first election in four years marred by sporadic violence

Record ID: 144631

  • Title: HAITI-ELECTION/UPDATE Haiti's first election in four years marred by sporadic violence
  • Date: 9th August 2015
  • Summary: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (AUGUST 9, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF SCHOOL ON JOHN BROWN AVENUE WHERE VOTING WAS POSTPONED BECAUSE OF VIOLENCE WITH PEOPLE IN FRONT AND BOXES STREWN ABOUT (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) HAITIAN CITIZEN, JOHN SAINTILUS, SAYING: "Everywhere you go people are coming out to vote. And they've said they are coming out to vot
  • Embargoed: 24th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Haiti
  • Country: Haiti
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8QXZ3PPSYL4E90QX4FW0MXIE1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Haitians lined up to vote on Sunday (August 9) for the first time in four years, in a test of stability for an impoverished country continually rocked by political turmoil.
    Men armed with rocks and bottles attacked polling stations in the capital of Port-au-Prince and at least three were forced to close, according to election officials.
    The Caribbean nation of about 10 million people has struggled to build a stable democracy ever since the overthrow of the dictatorship of the Duvalier family, who led Haiti from 1957 to 1986, and ensuing military coups and election fraud.
    Aspiring voters spoke to Reuters about the intention on the part of the Haitian people to take part in the vote.
    "Everywhere you go people are coming out to vote. And they've said they are coming out to vote. But when you look around, you see materials on the ground all over the place, bureaus being destroyed. Finally they (the looters) ridicule the people's self-determination as well as democracy itself," Port-au-Prince resident John Saintilus told Reuters.
    The country was also devastated by an earthquake in 2010 that flattened large parts of the capital, including the presidential palace, killings tens of thousands of people.
    Haiti's parliament dissolved in January after scheduled legislative elections in 2011 and 2014 were cancelled. The previous presidential election, which began in 2010 and carried over into 2011, was marred by low turnout, violence and a delayed, disputed runoff.
    Since January, the 119-member Chamber of Deputies has sat empty, and the Senate, with only 10 of its 30 members, has failed to field a quorum. Sunday's election will select a new lower house of parliament and two-thirds of the Senate.
    President Michel Martelly, who cannot run for re-election, has dozens of candidates running throughout the country under the so-called Haitian Bald Headed Party (PHTK), named after his famously smooth scalp.
    In speaking to reporters, Martelly said challenges were to be expected during the vote.
    "In general everything is fine. There are some bureaus that are having some difficulties. But we have lived through this kind of scenario in previous elections. Certainly this is one of the reasons why we want to have a permanent electoral council that has experience safeguarding elections so as to discover weaknesses during elections. But whenever it's a new council working an election, of course there will be certain irregularities," he said.
    The Verite Party of former president Rene Preval and the Lavalas Family party, linked to twice-deposed former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, are also running candidates.
    Results are expected in six to 10 days and runoffs are set for Oct. 25, the same day as the first round of presidential voting.
    Following a violent campaign, the election will test the Haitian National Police, which has taken full control of security during election season from a U.N. peacekeeping force.
    The National Network for the Protection of Human Rights reported five election-related assassinations in the last month and 26 wounded.
    At one precinct at a school in the capital near the gang-infested Belair neighbourhood, voting was suspended after it came under attack, said Guerline Benjamin, an election supervisor at Ecole Nationale Isidore Boisrond.
    It was unclear who was trying to disrupt the voting, though people in the crowd blamed Martelly supporters.
    Election observers expect low turnout, in part because of widespread confusion about where people might be registered to vote.
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