The Senate of Haiti is the upper house

Upper house

An upper house, often called a senate, is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house; a legislature composed of only one house is described as unicameral.- Possible specific characteristics :...

 of Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

's bicameral legislature

Legislature

A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...

, the National Assembly

National Assembly of Haïti

The Parliament of Haiti is the legislature of the Republic of Haiti. It sits at the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. The Parliament is bicameral, the upper house being the Senate of Haiti and the lower house being the Chamber of Deputies of Haiti....

. The lower house

Lower house

A lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house.Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide the lower house has come to wield more power...

 of the National Assembly is the Chamber of Deputies

Chamber of Deputies of Haïti

The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of Haiti's bicameral legislature, the National Assembly. The upper house of the National Assembly is the Senate of Haiti. The Chamber has ninety-nine members who are elected by popular vote to four-year terms...

. The Senate consists of thirty seats, with three members from each of the ten administrative departments

Departments of Haiti

The Communes of Haiti are the third-level divisions of Haiti. The 10 departments have 42 arrondissements which are divided into 140 communes.-Artibonite Department:*Dessalines Arrondissement**Desdunes**Dessalines**Grande Saline...

. Prior to the creation of the Nippes Department

Nippes Department

Nippes is the newest department of Haiti, having been split from Grand'Anse Department in 2003. The capital of the department is Miragoâne.The department is divided into three arrondissements:* Miragoâne Arrondissement...

 in 2003, there were twenty-seven seats. Senators are elected by popular vote to six-year terms, with one-third elected every two years. There are no term limit

Term limit

A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method to curb the potential for monopoly, where a leader effectively becomes "president for...

s for Senators; they may be re-elected indefinitely.

After the elections of 2000, twenty-six of the then twenty-seven seats were held by Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...

's Fanmi Lavalas

Fanmi Lavalas

Fanmi Lavalas is a leftist political party in Haiti. Its leader is former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It has been a powerful force in Haitian politics since 1991. Fanmi Lavalas governments supported a policy of "growth with equity" based on Caribbean and Western European social...

 party. The Senate was not in session following the overthrow of Aristide's government in February 2004. An interim government was put in place following the rebellion, and the remaining Senators were not recognised during that time. The Senate was re-established and elections were held on 21 April 2006. The next elections are scheduled to occur in 2008, when one-third of the Senate seats will be open.

List of Senate Presidents

Name	Period
Dejean Belizaire
Edgard Gardy Leblanc
Yvon Neptune Yvon Neptune Yvon Neptune was Prime Minister of Haïti from 2002 until 2004. He was appointed by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and took office on March 15, 2002...	August 28, 2000-2002
Yvon Feuille	?-2004
Joseph Lambert	May 11, 2006-2006
Kely Bastien Kely Bastien Kely Bastien is a Haitian politician who has served as president of the Senate of Haiti since 2006. A member of incumbent president René Préval's LESPWA party, he was trapped in rubble following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, but was found alive and transported to the Dominican Republic for...	2006-Incumbent