KEY TAKEAWAYS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Haiti’s new Presidential Transition Council and the prime minister have a lot to do as they try to take back the country’s security from armed gangs while addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis. They must also focus on leading the country to elections mandated to take place by February 2026. Given the weak and controversial elections Haiti has endured in recent cycles, the new government and its international supporters will need to focus on creating conditions for a viable election that will crown the upcoming period of social and political restoration.
If done correctly, the next election can, in turn, chart an electoral path that Haiti can use to expand its democracy and restore confidence in electoral tools for decision-making. This will require a robust mix of security provisions, constitutional changes and support for the electoral system itself.
To organize credible elections in 2026, the Presidential Transition Council and the government must first address the historical issues of security, technical problems and participation that have always hindered elections in Haiti.
Since the 1990s, Haiti’s transition to democracy has been marked by repeated electoral challenges, with violence significantly impacting voter turnout. Election results are almost always contested, and trust in elections has eroded due to systematic violence and intimidation during the electoral cycle, including attacks on polling stations, voter suppression and clashes between supporters of rival candidates. The violence and irregularities in the 2015 presidential election led to the annulment of results in 2016 and a new election with only 19.2% voter turnout. Logistical challenges and violence also marred these elections, leading to an ambiguous mandate for then President Jovenel Moïse, making it uncertain whether his administration ended in February 2021 or February 2022.
Since the 1990s, Haiti’s transition to democracy has been marked by repeated electoral challenges, with violence significantly impacting voter turnout.
The resulting political turmoil led to massive protests and ultimately to Moïse’s assassination on July 7, 2021. The interim government’s failure to hold elections since then has resulted in the absence of a new parliament and the replacement of elected mayors with bureaucrats appointed by Port-au-Prince. Haiti has suffered from a vicious cycle that weakens any political mandate and deteriorates governance to the point of becoming unworkable.
Technically, existing electoral structures and mechanisms suffer from systemic weaknesses. These include vote counting, particularly tally sheets with often incorrect vote counts and basic drafting errors by election officials when recording votes. This reflects a proven lack of professionalism that weakens the legitimacy and effectiveness of electoral processes in Haiti. For example, a report analyzing the 2010 elections revealed that for 1,326 polling stations (representing 11.9% of the total), tally sheets were never received by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) or were locked up due to irregularities. This corresponds to about 12.7% of votes not being counted and therefore not included in the total figures published by the authorities at the end of the electoral process, further reducing the already low voter turnout.
In addition to technical issues leading to a decline in participation, the Haitian political establishment has refused to engage or involve civil society in the electoral process, deterring citizens from participating in a process they perceive as closed and nontransparent. Furthermore, political parties are not representative of the Haitian people. There is a lack of candidates representing vulnerable groups and few women and young candidates. For example, in the last parliament (2016 to 2020), only one woman sat in the Senate out of 30 members, while in the Chamber of Deputies, only three women were elected out of 119. The sole woman on the current nine-member Presidential Transition Council has only observer status. Women are simply excluded from the country’s political life, and young people or vulnerable groups fare little better.
The Haitian political establishment has refused to engage or involve civil society in the electoral process, deterring citizens from participating.
All this leads to a lack of trust in the system and the need for transparent mechanisms and procedures managed by a CEP composed of competent, impartial and honest members. With international support, a new electoral authority can provide the necessary safeguards to establish a process that encourages the participation of women and youth and ensures engagement with civil society platforms to make the process transparent and inclusive. The next electoral decree, its clarity and legality will be crucial to confer the necessary mantle of legitimacy and constitutionality to the process to keep democratic actors engaged in the process and to keep criminal and corrupt actors from instrumentalizing the elections to transform their coercive power into political power.
A multitude of issues must be addressed to build a viable and transparent electoral system.
The absence of elected officials in the Haitian government means there is no existing constitutional path to organize elections. Haitians must first reach a consensus on the legal path to organizing elections before the electoral cycle can even begin. To do so, Haitians must debate and determine the constitutional conditions that would make an election both legitimate and legal in the eyes of the people. The citizen debate on constitutional amendment, which has been stifled, can be revitalized by organizing dialogues based on existing reform proposals, including the report produced by a parliamentary commission (2017-2018) on some of the recommended reforms of the 1987 constitution, as well as citizens’ proposals compiled by an independent commission under the late Moïse administration (2017-2019).
Haitians must first reach a consensus on the legal path to organizing elections before the electoral cycle can even begin.
The convening of a National Conference, one of the main items on the Presidential Transition Council’s agenda, can serve as a forum to unify existing constitutional proposals and propose and consolidate new reforms as a basis for a national unity agreement. The National Conference would also provide a critical space for citizens to engage with their government on broader issues, some of which are included in the Presidential Transition Council’s mandate, such as the requirement to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Just as Haiti must consider revising the electoral law to correct past mistakes and better account for the complexity of the moment, the issue of the corrupt, anti-democratic and criminal behavior of some Haitians highlighted by international sanctions will also need to be discussed.
An additional opportunity for short-term citizen participation is through the Government Action Monitoring Body (OCAG). This temporary body in the Presidential Transition Council’s provisional architecture serves the role of a legislative branch. If a diverse group were appointed to the OCAG — representing regions, women, youth and vulnerable groups — this body could help the transitional government connect with a broader range of citizens as they prepare the electoral landscape.
The Haitian government will need to work both to increase electoral participation and to address conditions that could discourage participation. Given the evident need to increase voter turnout, the Haitian government should consider introducing technical innovations to reach rural communities in the country’s 10 departments, which together represent about 40% of the general population. These communities have been marginalized by years of excessive concentration of power and attention in the capital, Port-au-Prince, but can offer valuable lessons in resilience and opportunities for economic recovery amid the current crisis.
The government will also need to address security conditions to ensure voters’ access to polling stations and that the voting environment is not coercive. A United Nations peacekeeping force composed of military, police and civilian personnel played a crucial role in facilitating the last elections in Haiti in 2015-2016. The Haitian National Police (then in the process of consolidation) also helped create the necessary security environment for the proper conduct of the elections.
Today, it is important to emphasize that the success of the next electoral process will depend on a renewed mobilization of international and national forces, particularly to drastically reduce the presence and influence of armed gangs. An election that restricts the vote of Haitian citizens in insecure neighborhoods (which represent a significant share of the total vote) will result in a lack of representation and legitimacy for these communities, dealing a fatal blow to any newly elected government that cannot afford to start its administration on the wrong foot.
Arnoux Descardes is the executive director of Volontariat pour le Développement d’Haïti (VDH).