Senate (Haiti)

Senate Sénat
50th Haitian legislature
National seal of Haiti
Type
Type	Upper house of the National Assembly of Haiti
Term limits	No limits
History
New session started	14 January 2016
Structure
Seats	30
Political groups	Unity: 1 seat   KONA: 1 seat   OPL: 1 seat   Verite: 3 seats   KID: 3 seats   Pitit Desalin: 1 seat   LIDE: 1 seat   Pont: 1 seat   Fanmi Lavalas: 1 seat   PHTK: 6 seats   AAA: 1 seat   Lide: 1 seat   Vacant: 9 seats
Length of term	Six years
Elections
Voting system	Absolute majority
Last election	201
Next election	2016–17
Meeting place
Port-au-Prince
Website

This article is part of a series on the
Politics of Haiti
Constitution Constitutional Court Law
Legislature Haitian Parliament Chamber of Deputies President of the Chamber Cholzer Chancy Senate President of the Senate Youri Latortue
Executive President of Haiti (list) Jovenel Moïse (PHTK) Prime Minister of Haiti (list) Jack Guy Lafontant (MDH–RDH) Cabinet
Judiciary Supreme Court of Haiti
Recent elections General: 2006 2010–11 Presidential: 2015 2016 (Feb) 2016 (Nov) Parliamentary: 2015–16 Senate: 2016–17 Electoral body: CEP
Administrative divisions Departments Arrondissements Communes Communal sections
Foreign relations

The Senate (French: Sénat) is the upper house of Haiti's bicameral legislature, the National Assembly. The lower house of the National Assembly is the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate consists of thirty seats, with three members from each of the ten administrative departments. Prior to the creation of the department of Nippes in 2003, there were twenty-seven seats. Senators are elected by popular vote to six-year terms, with one-third elected every two years. There are no term limits for Senators; they may be re-elected indefinitely.

After the elections of 2000, twenty-six of the then twenty-seven seats were held by Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party. The Senate was not in session following the overthrow of Aristide's government in February 2004. An interim government was put in place following the rebellion, and the remaining Senators were not recognised during that time. The Senate was re-established and elections were held on 21 April 2006. The next elections were scheduled to occur in 2008, when one-third of the Senate seats was opened.

In 2015, the Senate was reduced to only 10 members and the chamber of deputies was closed because the elections to replace one-third of the senators and all of the deputies in 2013 were delayed indefinitely causing senators and deputies to finish their term in January 2015 without any replacement. This led to a dysfunctional National assembly. In the 2015 parliamentary elections these two-thirds were to be filled with new elected members, completing the 30 senators.^[1]

Latest election

Haitian parliamentary elections, 2015

List of Senate Presidents

See also

• List of current members of the National Assembly of Haiti

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html.

• "Haiti". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 2006-11-14. Retrieved 2006-11-17. 
• Schutt-Ainé, Patricia (1994). Haiti: A Basic Reference Book. Miami, Florida: Librairie Au Service de la Culture. p. 167. ISBN 0-9638599-0-0.