The much delayed Senate election was held in Haiti last week. The Provisional Electoral Council has just announced the results, though not in a very user-friendly form.

The Senate comprises 30 seats and renews partially. This time, because of deaths and other reasons, 12 seats were contested in 9 departments. The CEP reports that 11.3% of the electorate voted, with only 2.3% voting in the department l’Ouest, which includes Port-au-Prince. Candidates from the Fanmi Lavalas party of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide were not allowed to stand, or at least no solution was found that allowed them to compete. This may account in part for the low turnout. There was violence in one constituency, Centre, and no results have been recorded.

To be elected candidates needed 50% +1 of the votes cast. No candidate was elected at the first ballot and the CEP has announced that the second ballot will take place on 7 June.

Alterpresse reports that in two departments, l’Artibonite (Nord) and the Nord-est, four candidates will compete for the two vacant seats on offer, while in the seven remaining departments two candidates will compete for the single seat in each.

These are the remaining parties and their first-round scores according to Alterpresse, which is much more user-friendly:

l’Artibonite: OPL, 26,22% des votes; Haiti en Action (HAA), 22.28%; l’Espoir, 14.54%; an independent, 13.74%

Nord-est: l’Espoir, 24.48%; Fusion, 18.54%; OPL, 13.20%; OPL, 11.90%

La Grand Anse (Sud-ouest): l’Espoir, 38.67%; Fusion, 22.06%

Les Nippes (Sud-ouest): Combat, 23.95%; l’Espoir, 16.50%.

Le Nord: l’Espoir, 49.49%; MODELH, 21.86%

Le Nord-ouest: OPL, 34.93%; l’Espoir, 29.29%

L’Ouest: l’Espoir, 29.31%; l’Union, 12.56%

Le Sud: l’UCADDE, 27.97%; l’Espoir, 22.70%

Le Sud-est: l’Espoir, 49.06%; OPL, 43.19%

Recall that President René Préval is from l’Espoir.