Haiti schedules first elections in a decade for December
Haiti's electoral council (CEP) announced the new schedule on Monday, which would be the first presidential elections in a decade.
The new calendar, setting a first round of Haiti's presidential and legislative elections for 13 December, is still pending the establishment of an "acceptable security environment."
A potential run-off vote would take place on 21 February 2027, and the publication of final results is set for 7 March.
The plans were until recently to hold the vote in August with a December run-off, but they had to be postponed over security concerns.
Haitian citizens will also be expected to vote on changes to the constitution and for local representatives, the calendar showed.
The timetable also said voter registration opened on 20 July, and set 2 October as the deadline for candidate registration.
Preparation and high insecurity
Haiti has not held elections since 2016, as its last president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in 2021, after delaying a vote.
Successive governments have since then been tasked with holding an election but said insecurity amid a conflict with powerful armed gangs made it impossible.
Earlier this month, the council said it had begun registering voters and training electoral security agents, and published a definitive list of over 300 political parties approved to compete in the coming electoral process.
Ongoing gang violence has made analysts sceptical that new election dates will remain in place. The ripple effects include chronic food shortages, extortion, ransom kidnappings and forced displacements, piling on even more challenges to ensuring a free, fair vote. Some 12 percent of Haiti's population live in makeshift camps or with host families.
Violent armed gangs, largely grouped under a broad alliance known as Viv Ansanm, have taken control of most of the capital Port-au-Prince, whose metropolitan area is home to around a quarter of the population. Gangs have also expanded into central and rural Haiti.
Viv Ansanm, which itself has been seeking political recognition, has been designated a terrorist organisation by Washington and is accused of mass kidnappings, gang rapes, arson, indiscriminate killings, and gun, organ and drug trafficking.
The President of the CEP, Jacques Desrosiers, told Reuters late last year that the council had evaluated hundreds of voting centres, but access later worsened as armed gangs expanded outside the capital.
A Kenya-led international force sent to back up Haiti's police failed to help stem the violence. The UN-authorised force has since been transformed into a Gang Suppression Force (GSF) with a greater mandate to confront the armed groups.
Additional reinforcements are expected "in the coming weeks," a GSF spokesperson told AFP earlier this month, with the goal of reaching 5,500 uniformed personnel and 50 civilian staff.
Kenya supports turning Haiti mission into formal UN peacekeeping operation
Need for aid
Meanwhile, most Haitians still need support for basic daily needs.
The United Nations' 2026 humanitarian aid plan for Haiti, earmarked at $880 million, is less than one-quarter funded.
On a visit to the country in June, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decried "the indifference of a world that has looked away."
As gang violence expands, Haiti's humanitarian crisis worsens
Nearly 1.5 million people are currently displaced in the country of about 11 million, and more than five million are facing severe food insecurity, according to UN figures.
"The humanitarian situation here is desperate, but there are faint glimmers of hope," Guterres wrote during his visit.
A statement from the Eminent Persons Group of the Caribbean Community grouping of nations, known as CARICOM, urged nations contributing to the GSF "to deploy their personnel as early as possible" to bolster support capacity "well before the first round of the elections."
The group also welcomed the electoral council's decree.
(with newswires)