PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – The release of the final legislative election results has sparked violence in sections of the capital.

Haiti protests

On Saturday street protests erupted when the results were announced, this led to the several government buildings being set ablaze and the death of one demonstrator.

The police report that an 18-year-old protester was fatally shot when two factions clashed, the protestors burned an elections office, set tire barricades aflame and smashed the windows of a shop.

Unrest was reported in at least five of the country’s departments – the North, Northwest, Southwest, Southeast and West.

The long-delayed parliamentary results were released just over a week before the December 27 runoffs.

All 10 sitting members of Haiti’s Senate had urged President Michel Martelly to prevent electoral authorities from issuing final results for legislative races until a commission could be set up to verify the integrity of the vote.

Late last week, the palace instead announced the formation of a five-member “Electoral Evaluation Commission” to review the October 25 vote in hopes of breaking the impasse.

However, the commission and the way in which it was formed has come under heavy criticism.

The opposition and the Senate have rejected the body and the government has also been forced to postpone the swearing-in of its members, who were supposed to have issued a report by Sunday.

In recent days, several legislative candidates have taken to the airwaves stating how they were asked to pay thousands of dollars in bribes to electoral court judges and council members in hopes of securing a spot in parliament.

While international observers have endorsed results from the first two rounds of this year’s elections, an array of rights groups, local election monitors and political factions allege they were so marred by fraud that their validity is in question.