Presidential and Legislative Election, 28 November 2010

Earthquake, 12 January 2010  

Haiti was struck by a Richter Scale-7 earthquake on 12 January 2010, with substantial damage to the capital, Port-au-Prince. More than 220,000 people lost their lives, 1.5 million were displaced, and an estimated 3 million in total were thought to have been affected. The earthquake destroyed much of the country’s (already fragile) infrastructure, damaging houses, schools and public sector buildings (DEC n.d.).   

The earthquake also damaged the public sanitation system, creating conditions for spread of infectious diseases. In October 2010, a cholera outbreak began to spread across the country; before the earthquake, there had been no reported history of cholera in Haiti. The outbreak was later attributed to the UN peacekeeping camp whose personnel had been previously stationed in a camp in Nepal with improper sewage waste disposal (Orata et al. 2014; Domonoske 2016). By the end of 2010, there were almost 180,000 reported cases and 4,000 deaths attributed to cholera in Haiti (PAHO 2011).   

As the country was attempting to recover from the earthquake and cholera outbreak, Hurricane Tomas struck on 5 November 2010, causing mudslides and severe flooding in coastal areas.  

Impact on the election process   

The legislative elections—to fill House of Representatives seats and one-third of the Senate—had originally been scheduled for 28 February and 3 March 2010. However, the earthquake caused the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to postpone the election to 28 November 2010. Additional identity cards needed to be produced and distributed for new registrants, and almost 29,000 applications were received for replacement identity cards (needed for voter identification). An estimated 250,000 deceased voters also needed to be removed from the voters’ role and displaced voters needed to be reallocated to more accessible polling centres.  

Electoral security was weakened due to the death or disappearance of over 500 police officers. The spread of cholera and lack of knowledge about the disease led to widespread fear and violent repercussions during the second phase of the campaigning period (Towriss 2022).  

The postponement meant holding the elections after the expiration of most of the National Assembly members’ terms. A state of emergency law transferred legislative powers to the executive branch for 18 months until October 2011. 400,000 new national identity cards were produced but organizational problems caused significant delays in distribution up to election day, with boxes of cards not being distributed by that point. From August 2010 the CEP launched a two-month campaign establishing 1,480 Operation and Verification Centres throughout Haiti where voters could make polling reallocation requests. On election day, 11,000 polling stations opened across Haiti, including in makeshift booths in the internally displaced people’s camps. To limit the spread of cholera, hand sanitizers were available at polling stations, and posters on how to prevent and treat cholera were installed (Towriss 2022).   

Voter turnout for both the presidential and legislative elections in 2010 was 22.9 per cent. The 2006 presidential election turnout had been 59 per cent and the 2006 legislative election, 28.3 per cent (International IDEA n.d.a; International IDEA n.d.b)