1995 Haitian general election
General elections were held in Haiti in 1995 for the presidency and for seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The presidential election, held on 17 December, resulted in a victory for René Préval of Fanmi Lavalas. The parliamentary elections, held on 25 June, 13 August and 17 September, were also won by Lavalas. Voter turnout was just 31.09% for the parliamentary elections and 27.8% for the presidential elections.
Préval was inaugurated as president of Haiti on 7 February 1996, which was the first peaceful transition of power from one elected Haitian president to another.
Background
The 25 June 1995 parliamentary elections were the first to be held in Haiti since the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide during Operation Uphold Democracy in 1994. In the parliamentary elections, around 11,000 candidates ran for 700 seats, including in the National Assembly and local and municipal councils. In total, 2,200 political offices were contested during the general election, and 3.4 million of the four million eligible voters in Haiti were registered. There relatively few violent incidents during the campaign compared to past elections in Haiti, leading to free and fair elections, according to the OAS observer mission.