PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti has indefinitely postponed presidential and legislative elections scheduled for later this year, the Provisional Electoral Council announced Tuesday. The council did not provide a new date, saying the timetable will be made public once it is determined.
The first round had been set for December 13, with a second round planned for February 21, 2027. The council said the schedule requires updates to account for technical and operational requirements, as well as security conditions necessary for proper conduct of voting. Voter registration continues.
Haiti has not held elections since 2016. President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021 and has not been replaced.
Only 769,000 voters had registered as of Tuesday since the process began on July 20.
Gang violence has made organizing elections extremely difficult. Several municipalities under gang control lack voter registration centers. Road closures enforced by gang threats have prevented the delivery of electoral materials to multiple parts of the island.
Nearly 1.5 million of Haiti's approximately 11 million inhabitants are internally displaced due to violence, according to the International Organization for Migration. Gang attacks extend beyond the capital to communities across the nation.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk reported last week that gang violence has killed or wounded at least 5,700 people this year. UN figures through September 11 documented more than 1,000 women and girls raped and 230 kidnappings. Turk said actual figures are likely higher.
Davidson Jean Baptiste, a taxi driver in Port-au-Prince, questioned whether elections could be held safely. "Who can claim to hold elections in a country where the citizens are more concerned about insecurity and the abuses by armed groups?" he told Agence France-Presse.
Other citizens expressed eagerness to vote. "The people have been long kept out of the political debate," said Claudette Piard at a voter registration center in Delmas. "We finally want to vote for a government that will bring solutions to the masses."
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has endured a prolonged political, economic and security crisis. Armed gangs have escalated killings, kidnappings, rape and child recruitment across the nation.
