Haiti: Chaos forces early end to parliamentary elections

(Baonghean.vn)- On Sunday, October 9, the parliamentary election in Haiti was forced to end earlier than expected due to problems at some polling stations.

Haitians exercise their citizenship rights after four years of delay. AFP

In the capital Port-au-Prince, three polling stations were ransacked. Many people threw and tore up ballots. The incident forced dozens of polling stations in 26 election centers to close early.

According to the government, 4% of polling stations affected by the riots were forced to close ahead of schedule, leaving about 290,000 voters unable to cast their ballots. Therefore, on August 12, the government will reopen polling stations in the affected areas.

It is known that this is the first parliamentary election held since the historic earthquake in Haiti in 2010 as well as since President Michel Martelly took power in 2011.

Not only did the parliamentary elections take place four years later than expected, they also had many problems. One of them was that there were 1,800 candidates running for parliamentarian positions while there were only 139 vacant seats in parliament.

Although the parties had reached an agreement, this did not prevent tensions from erupting as polling stations opened, with some people accusing the authorities of not allowing candidates to vote.

In response to reports of chaos at some polling stations, the Haitian president refused to comment on the incident. Elena Valentino, head of the European Union election observation mission, said that “although there were problems at some polling stations, in general these errors were resolved afterwards.” Pierre Louis Opont, president of the interim electoral council, said that he was generally satisfied with the way people voted.

Chu Thanh

(According to Le Monde)