Phone text messages, radio and TV campaigns are being used to raise voter turnout in Haiti’s Sunday Senate elections. The initiative is part of a strategy developed by the Haitian government, working with the UN, to improve voter turnout. Only 12 percent of nearly 4 million registered voters participated in the first round of elections in April. Sunday’s poll is the second round and one third of the seats are up for election.
“We face a difficult challenge, which I believe is a cultural one,” said Pierre-Antoine Archange, United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) programme manager for democratic governance – who is Haitian. “Historically, Haitians have never been too inspired to renew the Senate; but they do get excited when it comes to voting for president. So now we are spreading the word, asking people to vote, trying to show that without a properly functioning Senate the country cannot be governed properly”
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Haïti
