Postponed, with no new date

Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council announced on Tuesday that the presidential and legislative elections will be postponed indefinitely, dropping a calendar that set the first round for December 13 and the second round for February 21, 2027. In a statement, the council said the period originally scheduled for the electoral campaign has been postponed as well. It pointed to the technical and operational requirements of the process, and to the conditions needed for each stage to run properly, as gang violence disrupts the preparations.

The calendar now set aside:

• •First round of presidential and legislative elections: December 13
• •Second round: February 21, 2027
• •Campaign period: postponed
• •Replacement date: none given, with a new timetable to be made public as soon as possible

A member of the electoral council, who spoke to AFP without being named, confirmed that the December 13 date no longer stands and said work on a replacement timetable is under way.

Voter registration under strain

Registration has not stopped. The council stressed that voter registration continues despite the postponement, even as authorities struggle to register voters and secure the areas a poll requires. As of Tuesday, 769,000 voters had been registered since the process began on July 20.

Among the obstacles:

• •No registration centres at all in several gang-controlled municipalities
• •Roads closed by gang threats, which stopped electoral materials from reaching several parts of the country
• •A security crisis that has complicated coordinating a vote across the country

Voters: insecurity before the ballot

In Port-au-Prince, taxi driver Davidson Jean Baptiste told AFP he had not expected to be able to vote this year. "I didn't have high hopes about going to vote this year," he said, before asking how an election could be held while citizens are preoccupied with insecurity and the abuses of armed groups:

At a registration centre in Delmas, Claudette Piard said Haitians have long been shut out of political debate. "We finally want to vote for a government that will bring solutions to the masses," she said. For some Haitians, the hope is that the country can soon find its way back to democracy.

A country without a vote since 2016

Haitians last went to the polls in 2016; the president assassinated in 2021 has not been replaced. The poorest country in the Americas has long faced a political, economic and security crisis that has worsened in recent years as gangs intensify killings, kidnappings, rape and the recruitment of children. Holding a vote has been regarded as a crucial step toward stabilizing the government and tackling rampant gang crime.

Nearly 1.5 million of Haiti's roughly 11 million inhabitants are internally displaced by violence, according to the International Organization for Migration, which has stressed that the attacks extend beyond the capital. Last week, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said gang violence has left at least 5,700 people dead or wounded this year, and more than 1,000 women and girls raped.

The figures, compiled by the UN mission in Haiti through September 11, also record 230 kidnappings. Turk said the real numbers are likely much higher.

A UN-backed Gang Suppression Force is deploying gradually to help overstretched local police; it is meant to reach 5,500 personnel but currently numbers about 1,500. It replaced the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, which was seen as under-equipped and underfunded. Late last month, the UN Security Council approved a six-month extension of the force's mandate, stressing the need for security conditions conducive to free and fair elections.

The council has given no replacement date. It says the new timetable will be made public as soon as possible, and that registration is continuing in the meantime.