Election in Haiti 2010/11

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The election in Haiti began on November 28, 2010. In addition to the election of the new President of Haiti, it included the election to the Chamber of Deputies and the election of eleven of the 30 senators . The elections were originally scheduled for February 28, 2010, but were postponed to the end of the year after the severe earthquake on January 12, 2010 . Around 4.7 million Haitians were called to vote.

In the first ballot, none of the presidential candidates passed the 50 percent mark required for direct election. The date for a runoff election was postponed to March 20, 2011 in early February 2011 after the Organization of American States (OAS) expressed doubts about the results of the runner-up and third place.

Legal basis

Haiti is a presidential republic . The head of state and supreme holder of executive power is the president, who is directly elected by the people for a period of five years . The term of office of the President is limited to one electoral term; re-election is only possible after an interruption of at least five years. René Préval , who has been in office since 2006 and had held office from 1996 to 2001, was therefore unable to run for re-election; his term of office ended on February 7, 2011.

The Haitian President appoints the Prime Minister, who must be confirmed by Parliament. The legislature lies with the bicameral parliament , consisting of the 30-member Senate and the Chamber of Deputies with 99 members. While elections to the Chamber of Deputies are held every four years, the Senators' term of office is six years. A third of the senators are elected every two years.

background

The presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, destroyed by the earthquake

The presidential and parliamentary elections were overshadowed by the tense humanitarian and political situation in Haiti. Haiti is one of the least developed countries in the world. Social unrest last led to the dismissal of the government in 2008.

More than 250,000 people died in the severe earthquake on January 12, 2010; destroyed numerous buildings in the capital Port-au-Prince and the surrounding provinces. The facilities of the Electoral Commission and the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti were also affected , which is why it was no longer possible to hold the elections on February 28, 2010. In June 2010, President Préval set November 28, 2010 as the new election date. This was also due to international pressure, as no functioning government had been in office since the earthquake and the UN peacekeeping forces had taken on a variety of administrative tasks.

In October 2010, a cholera epidemic broke out in the Artibonite département north of Port-au-Prince , which soon spread to the capital and caused more than 1,500 deaths by November 22, 2010. Despite the sanitary emergency, preparations for the elections continued as planned; the demands of some presidential candidates to postpone the elections were rejected by the state authorities.

Presidential election

Candidates

34 people had applied for the office of President. Of these applicants, however, only 19 candidates were accepted by the Provisional Election Commission for the presidential election on November 28, 2010. One candidate withdrew his candidacy, so that 18 people ran for the presidential election. The best-known applicant who was not allowed to vote was the musician Wyclef Jean .

The most promising candidates were Mirlande Manigat , the wife of the former President Leslie Manigat , the Jew Célestin , who was sponsored by René Préval , the two-time Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis , the entrepreneur Charles Henry Baker , who came third in the 2006 presidential election, and the popular singer Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly .

Election campaign

The presidential election campaign was overshadowed by isolated clashes between supporters of the various parties. Several people were killed in shootings, and supporters of Michel Martelly reported an attempted attack on the opposition politician. There were also violent protests against the UN soldiers in Haiti, who were blamed for the spread of cholera .

International election observers feared that fear of the epidemic could affect voter turnout. In addition, many Haitians could not register for the elections because necessary documents were lost in the earthquake. The opposition warned of possible electoral fraud in the run-up to the presidential election. The favored opposition candidate Mirlande Manigat said that up to 500,000 forged ballot papers had been prepared for the government candidate Célestin. The head of the national electoral register also assumed attempted fraud.

First ballot

According to the opposition, numerous irregularities were also registered on election day. There have been reports of manipulated electoral rolls, polling stations that have not opened until late, and attempts to intimidate voters. Twelve of the 18 presidential candidates had even during the current election in a joint press conference a cancellation called for the elections.

In the northern Haitian cities of Acul du Nord and Trou du Nord, the ballot had to be completely canceled after unrest. The storming of a polling station was reported from the capital Port-au-Prince. Election observers of CARICOM but declared that the elections were valid despite "serious irregularities".

Results

On December 7, 2010, the Provisional Electoral Council ( Conseil électoral provisoire - CEP) announced the results of the first ballot. Only 23 percent of the registered voters took part. None of the candidates passed the 50 percent mark required for direct election. According to the electoral council, Mirlande Manigat won the most votes (31.37 percent), followed by the government candidate Célestin (22.48 percent) and the popular singer Michel Martelly (21.84 percent).

candidate Political party be right in percent
Mirlande Manigat RDNP 336.878 31.37
Jew Celestin INITE 241,462 22.48
Michel Martelly Repons Peyizan 234.617 21.84
Jacques-Édouard Alexis Renmen Ayiti 87,834 8.18
Jean-Henry Céant MPH 32,932 3.07
Charles Henry Baker Respè 25,512 2.38
Jean Chavannes Jeune ACCRAH 19,348 1.80
Yves Cristalin LAVNI 17.133 1.60
Leslie Voltaire Ansanm Nou Fò 16.199 1.51
Josette Bijou independent 10,782 1.00
Génard Joseph Parti Solidarité 9,164 0.85
Wilson Jeudy Force 2010 6,076 0.57
Yvon Neptune Ayisyen Pou Ayiti 4,217 0.39
Jean Hector Anacacis MODEJHA 4.165 0.39
Léon Jeune KLE 3,738 0.35
Axan Delson Abellard KNDA 6,076 0.57
Garaudy Laguerre Mouvman Wozo 2,802 0.26
Gérard Marie Necker Blot 16 Désanm 2,621 0.24
Eric Smarki Charles PENH 2,597 0.24
Remaining candidates 12,869 1.20

After the results were announced, violent unrest broke out, particularly among the disappointed supporters of Martelly.

Runoff

A runoff between Manigat and Célestin was scheduled for January 16, 2011, but was postponed indefinitely after the Organization of American States (OAS) expressed doubts about the outcome. There would have been evidence of electoral fraud in favor of Celestin, whereupon the organization recommended that the Haitian electoral council expel the candidate. The results so far are to be counted again. The incumbent President René Préval assumes that he will not be able to leave office at the end of his mandate on February 7, 2011, as there will be no new head of state until then.

On January 26, 2011, the runner-up Jew Célestin announced that he would no longer run for the runoff election. The reason given was the maintenance of stability in Haiti. On February 3, the electoral council in Port-au-Prince announced that Michel Martelly, who had previously placed third, would run against Mirlande Manigat in a runoff election scheduled for March 20, 2011. Célestin was eliminated.

In the run-up to the run-off election, Martelly was the favorite, who had received 53.4 percent of the vote in polls shortly before the vote. The election itself went largely smoothly, after the ballot papers were missing at the beginning. The police reported two dead in connection with the vote. However, the electoral council postponed the announcement of the preliminary results from March 31 to April 4, 2011 after the evaluation of the votes revealed a “high degree of fraud and various irregularities” . The final result of the runoff was originally expected on April 16. On April 4, the electoral commission announced that, according to the preliminary official election results, Michel Martelly is the 56th President of Haiti with 67.6 percent of the vote. Mirlande Manigat reached a preliminary 31.7 percent.

candidate Political party be right in percent
Mirlande Manigat RDNP
Michel Martelly Repons Peyizan

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article 134 of the Constitution of the Republic of Haiti , unofficial English language translation (accessed November 28, 2010).
  2. ↑ Die Welt : In Haiti, the government falls over rice prices , April 12, 2008.
  3. ↑ Reuters : INTERVIEW-Haitian president says Feb. 28 elections postponed , January 27, 2010.
  4. ↑ L'ONI relèvera-t-il le défi? In: Le Nouvelliste (Port-au-Prince), November 22, 2010.
  5. ↑ BBC News : Haiti cholera deaths still rising as election nears , November 22, 2010.
  6. ↑ Reuters : Factbox: Several frontrunners in Haiti presidential race , November 27, 2010.
  7. ↑ Rheinische Post : Wyclef Jean is not allowed to run for election ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rp-online.de archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , August 21, 2010.
  8. ↑ Spiegel Online : Shootout during election campaign , November 27, 2010.
  9. ↑ Der Tagesspiegel : Unrest over cholera in Haiti , November 16, 2010.
  10. ↑ Die Zeit : Haiti Longs for Government , November 26, 2010.
  11. ^ Donaukurier : Cholera and allegations of fraud overshadow the election in Haiti ( memento of November 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) , November 27, 2010.
  12. ↑ Spiegel Online : Candidates call for the chaos election to be canceled , November 28, 2010.
  13. ↑ Le Figaro : Haïti / présidentielle: plusieurs incidents , November 28, 2010.
  14. ↑ Der Standard : Elections in Haiti are effective November 30, 2010.
  15. ↑ a b cf. Les Haïtiens appelés aux urnes pour élire leur président at lepoint.fr, March 19, 2011 (accessed on March 20, 2011)
  16. ^ Provisional Electoral Council: Presidential Election of 2010–2011, First round: November 28, 2010 , accessed July 15, 2019.
  17. ↑ cf. Violent clashes in Haiti ( Memento from December 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) at tagesschau.de, December 9, 2010 (accessed on January 16, 2011)
  18. ↑ cf. APA : Runoff election for presidency in Haiti postponed . January 16, 2011 (accessed January 16, 2011).
  19. ↑ cf. Keck, Christine: The looter in the holy of holies . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung , January 12, 2011, p. 3.
  20. ↑ cf. Dillmann, Hans-Ullrich: Dispute over candidacy in Haiti . In: the daily newspaper, January 12, 2011, p. 10.
  21. ↑ cf. AFP : Arrests after rioting in Haiti's capital . January 14, 2011, Port-au-Prince (accessed via LexisNexis Economy ).
  22. ↑ Government candidate leaves . In: the daily newspaper . January 27, 2011, accessed January 27, 2011 .
  23. ↑ cf. Mirlande Manigat et Michel Martelly au second tour ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at haitielections2010.com, February 3, 2011 (accessed February 3, 2011). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.haitielections2010.com
  24. ↑ Haiti: Second election round largely free of disruption . In: Berliner Morgenpost , March 22, 2011, No. 80, p. 4.
  25. ↑ AFP: Irregularities delay announcement of election results in Haiti . March 30, 2011, Port-au-Prince (accessed via LexisNexis Economy ).
  26. ^ AFP: runoff election for the presidency in Haiti . March 19, 2011, Port-au-Prince.
  27. ↑ a b Martelly becomes the new president. In: ORF . April 5, 2011, accessed April 5, 2011 .
  28. ↑ haitielections2010.com: Haïti Elections 2010 :: Toutes les infos sur les élections haïtiennes de 2010 ( Memento of the original dated February 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.haitielections2010.com archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed April 5, 2011