Haitian parliamentary election, 2015-16
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Parliamentary elections were held in Haiti on 9 August 2015, with a second round planned initially on 25 October. Two-thirds of the Senate and all members of the Chamber of Deputies were up for election.
The second round of the parliamentary elections that has been suspended in 2015 should take place in October 2016, alongside with the first round for a third of the Senate and the first round of the whole new presidential election.
According to international observers, early rounds of voting have experienced significant fraud, including people voting more than once due to failure of indelible ink, vote buying due to lack of secrecy, poor training of election workers, poor tracking of political parties, and other problems. This has resulted in the nullification of some results and scheduling of re-runs. The United States has withdrawn funding for the October 2016 round, though it financially supported previous rounds and observation by the Organization of American States.
The 99 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected in single-member constituencies using the two-round system; a second round will be held if no candidate wins a majority of the vote in the first round. The second round will be held together with local elections and the first round of the presidential election. In March 2015 a new electoral decree stated that the new Chamber of Deputies have 118 members, and the Senate will retain the 30 members. On 13 March, President Martelly issued a decree that split the Cerca La Source in two constituencies, and therefore increasing the number of deputies up to 119.
One-third of the 30-member Senate is elected every two years, also using the two-round system. However, the previous scheduled Senate elections in May 2012 were not held, meaning two-thirds of the seats are due for elections in 2015.
The Haitian election calendar were made as follows:
A total of 2,037 candidates registered to contest the elections, representing 98 different political parties. However, 522 candidates were disqualified in a first instance, leaving 186 candidates for the Senate and 1,329 for the Chamber of Deputies. The Provisional Electoral Council updated the list of candidates on 26 June, with the inscription of 47 candidates for the Senate and 294 for the Chamber of Deputies that had been previously rejected, making a grand total of 233 candidates for senator and 1,624 for deputy.
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