PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Voting in parts of Haiti’s capital and some rural areas will be re-run after violence and voter intimidation disrupted elections this month in the impoverished Caribbean country, election officials have announced.
Gangs overran some voting centers in Port-au-Prince and other areas, forcing election officials to halt balloting in the Aug. 9 legislative and municipal elections. Turnout was only 18 percent of the country’s 5.8 million voters, officials said.
Both the repeat voting and runoff elections for most parliamentary seats will be held on Oct. 25.
Voting is done on a constituency basis in Haiti so officials allowed some results to stand. Haiti’s parliament dissolved in January after scheduled legislative elections in 2011 and 2014 were canceled.
There were no outright winners in voting for the Senate, meaning there will be runoff elections for 20 seats, according to official results posted on Friday. There will be also be runoff elections in all but five of the 119 races for seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies.
The government said 5 percent of voting stations were shut down on election day, mostly due to violence and intimidation by official party observers.
The electoral body, the CEP, announced late on Thursday it will re-run voting in the 25 voting centers or polling stations – out of a total 1,508 – that saw massive irregularities.
Parties are allowed to send representatives to polling stations to monitor the tally. In this month’s election, many complained they never received accreditation, while some voters said they were intimidated by aggressive party representatives.
