Haitian parliamentary election, 2000

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Parliamentary elections in 2000 were held in Haiti in two separate sets of elections, on May 21, 2000 and July 9, 2000, for all 83 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and nineteen seats in the Senate, and later that year, at the same time as November 26, 2000 presidential election for eight Senate seats. The parliamentary elections of 2000 refer most often to the spring first and second rounds of the elections, rather than the fall legislative elections at the same time as the presidential elections, as the former generated the most controversy. After the first round of the spring elections on May 21, 2000, the number of Senate candidates chosen by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to participate in a second round was disputed by opposition parties and OAS Electoral Commission, who regarded the way the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) calculated the votes as unconstitutional. As a result, the opposition parties boycotted the second-round of elections, and the OAS Electoral Commission withdrew its observers.^[1][2] After a second-round voting took place on July 9 for 46 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and two seats in the Senate on July 9, the Fanmi Lavalas party won eighteen of the nineteen Senate seats and 72 of the 83 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Voter turnout was reported to be around 60% for the first round of elections and negligible for the second round of elections.^[2]

Although the elections had been delayed several times and irregularities were reported on voting day, the balloting was judged to be free and fair.^[3] According to the Center for International Policy, the elections were Haiti's best so far.^[4] Controversy however affected the Senate race over the calculation of whether Senate candidates had achieved the majority required to avoid a run-off election (in Haiti, seats where no candidate wins an absolute majority of votes cast has to enter a second-round run-off election). The validity of the Electoral Council's post-ballot calculations of whether a majority had been attained was disputed.

The results of the Chamber of Deputies were not disputed,^[4] but controversy followed the decision of the CEP to declare first-round winners in seventeen of the Senate's nineteen seats. The CEP had changed its methodology on calculating the absolute majority for the Senate elections; it based the absolute majority on the number of votes cast for a limited number of candidates (usually the first four candidates with the most votes), instead of the total number of valid votes cast for all candidates. By applying the original methodology of absolute majority based on all votes cast to the first-round of Senate elections, the OAS contended that the ten Senate seats, rather than two, as asserted by the CEP, were eligible for run-off elections,.^[4][5] The OAS told the CEP of its error, but it declined to amend its calculation. The OAS suspended its observation activity and the opposition parties boycotted the run-off elections.^[5] The head of the Electoral Council, Léon Manus, maintained that the calculation method "was in keeping with past practice",^[4] and initially told the OAS not to interfere. He later changed his mind and did a recount, and spoke to Préval and Aristide, who "made forceful statements which Manus took as threats to his life", as a result of which he left the country.^[6] Voting stations during the run-off elections for 46 deputies and two senators on July 9, 2000 were virtually empty. After this run-off election, Fanmi Lavalas was deemed to have won eighteen of the nineteen open Senate seats.^[4] The various contestations about which candidates should have gone through run-off elections obscured the fact that the very popular Fanmi Lavalas party would have likely won the disputed seats if they were subjected to a run-off; journalist Michele Wucker writes that OAS observers "reported that the irregularities would not have affected the final outcome significantly."^[7]

In response to the disputed election the US cut off aid and blocked previously agreed loans from the Inter-American Development Bank.^[4] "In 2001, a bankrupt Aristide agreed to virtually all of the concessions demanded by his opponents: he obliged the winners of the disputed Senate seats to resign, accepted the participation of several ex-Duvalier supporters in his new government, agreed to convene a new and more opposition-friendly CEP and to hold another round of legislative elections several years ahead of schedule. But the US still refused to lift its aid embargo."^[4]

The legislative elections on November 26, 2000 were to address the portion of the Senate that President Préval had kept intact after his dissolution of the Parliament in January 1999. These nine senators' terms had not yet expired by January 1999. During the joint presidential and legislative elections of November 26, 2000, boycotted by all the major opposition parties, these seats were won by Fanmi Lavalas Party. By the time President Aristide started his second term in February 2001, Fanmi Lavalas held 27 of the Senate seats.

Results

Chamber of Deputies

Senate

References

Elections and referendums in Haiti Presidential elections 1950 1957 1987 1988 1990 1995 2000 2006 2010–11 2015–16 Parliamentary elections 1790 1791 1801 1806 1817 1822 1827 1832 1837 1842 1843 1847 1852 1857 1862 1863 1867 1870 1873 1875 1879 1882 1887 1890 1893 1896 1899 1902 1905 1908 1911 1914 1917 1930 1932 1936 1940 1946 1950 1955 1957 1961 1964 1967 1973 1979 1984 1986 1987 1988 1990–91 1993 1995 1997 2000 2006 2010–11 2015 Senate elections 1808 1812 1815 1930 1932 1936 1940 1946 1950 1955 1957 1961 1964 1967 1973 1979 1984 1987 1988 1990–91 1993 1995 1997 2000 2006 2009 2010–11 2015 Referendums 1918 1928 1935 (Feb) 1935 (Jun) 1939 1961 1964 1971 1985 1987