2) In the elections for President and Deputy, if one candidate scores more than 50% of valid votes cast, he or she will be elected to office. If no candidate scores more than 50%, then two candidates with the highest percentages of valid votes will contest a second round run-off on 19 March.

3) In the elections for Senators for each department (three for each department), if no candidate scores more than 50% of the vote, then the six leading candidates will contest a second round run-off. If one candidate does score more than 50% of the vote, that candidate will serve a six-year term of office, and next four candidates with highest numbers of votes will go into a second round run-off. The canidates with the most votes will serve a four-year term, and the candidate with the second highest number of votes will serve a two-year term. If in the first round, two candidates score more than 50% of the vote, the one with the most votes will serve six years, the second placed one will serve four years, and the next two best placed candidates will contest a second round run-off. The winning candidate in that contest will serve a two-year term. When these terms of office expire, a new Senator will be elected for a six year term.

4) In the whole country, there are just over 800 polling centers, containing a total of 9,000 polling stations. In other words, there are many polling stations set up in the same locations. The UN peacekeeping mission apparently insisted on a small number of locations for security reasons.

5) Rene Preval has never been a member of the Lavalas Family party, the party founded in late 1996 by Jean-Bertrand Aristide. When Preval was elected president for the first time in the presidential election held at the end of 1995, the Lavalas Family party did not exist.

6) The Lespwa platform, for whom Rene Preval is the presidential candidate, has only put up 19 candidates for the 30 Senate seats, and only 58 candidates for the 99 seats in the House of Deputies. Lespwa has no Senate candidates standing in West or North-East departments.

7) Serge Simon, the Senate candidate for the social democratic coalition, Fusion, in the West department, caused a stir last week when he joined a pro-Preval rally in Cite Soleil. He told the crowd to vote for Preval for President and for him for the Senate. (The Fusion presidential candidate, Serge Gilles, was - to put it mildly - not pleased.)

8) Winter Etienne, who is standing as a Senate candidate for Guy Philippe's FRN party in the Artibonite department, was a leader of the Cannibal Army. This Gonaives-based gang was once strongly pro-Aristide but changed sides in 2003 and took up arms against the Lavalas Family government. Etienne's Cannibal Army murdered a number of police officers during the fighting in Gonaives in early 2004. Under the interim government, Etienne was given the job of director of the Gonaives port. One report during 2005 stated that Etienne was in hiding following an attempt to arrest him on corruption and theft charges relating to activities at the port.

9) Another candidate for the Senate in the Artibonite, standing for his own party, the LAAA, is interim prime minister Gerard Latortue's cousin, Youri Latortue. Youri is a former army officer, allegedly involved in the murder of Father Jean-Marie Vincent in 1994, and more recently head of security for his uncle during the period of the interim government.

10) The Senate candidate for the North-East department, the location of the new Free Trade Zone in the town of Ouanaminthe, is Rudolph Boulos, who is standing for the Fusion party. Rudolph is the brother of Reginald Boulos, the well-known businessman and media magnate with a strong involvement in national politics, who is a leading light in the Group of 184 platform. In 1996, Rudolph Boulos' company, Pharval, distributed medicinal syrups contaminated with diethyl glycol that caused the death of 62 children.

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