Haitians leery of 2nd election round amid violence

Jun 21, 2009 1 min read

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – Election officials flew street banners and sent text messages to encourage a big turnout for Haiti’s hotly anticipated Senate run-offs, but very few in the capital city were voting Sunday.

Eleven vacant seats in the 30-member Senate are on the line. With them are President Rene Preval’s hopes of overpowering uncooperative legislators and pushing through internationally backed economic reforms and constitutional amendments that would give his successors more power.

Voting was extremely light in Port-au-Prince, though it was too early to gauge the turnout in the rest of the country