By SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Haiti’s government on Wednesday created a provisional electoral council, a move long sought by the international community to prepare the troubled Caribbean country for its first general elections since 2016.
Smith Augustin, a member of the country’s transitional presidential council, confirmed to The Associated Press that the electoral council was created, albeit with only seven of what by law is supposed to be a nine-member panel. He said the two remaining members would likely be announced in the coming days.
The electoral council, which represents groups including farmers, journalists, human rights activists, and the Vodou community, is tasked with organizing the upcoming elections and helping create the necessary legal framework to hold them.
Haiti has not had a president since July 2021, and its last elections were held in 2016.
Haitian President Michel Martelly receives his ballot to vote at a polling station in the Lycee National de Petion Ville in Port-au-Prince on October 25, 2015.
The previous electoral council was dissolved in September 2021 by former Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who accused it of being ‘partisan.’ His move delayed the elections initially planned for November 2021 and prompted critics to accuse him of trying to hold on to power, accusations he rejected. Henry was himself a transitional leader. He was sworn in as prime minister roughly two weeks after former President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his private residence in July 2021. Henry repeatedly pledged to hold elections, but blamed worsening gang violence for his failure to do so.
Earlier this year, gangs that control 80% of the capital of Port-au-Prince launched coordinated attacks on critical government infrastructure, a move that eventually led to Henry’s resignation.
A transitional presidential council was then created and tasked with holding presidential elections by February 2026.
The assassination of Moïse had left a major political vacuum.
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in an attack on his private residence early Wednesday, according to a statement from the country’s interim prime minister, who called the killing a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act.”
In addition, the terms of the last 10 remaining senators expired in January 2023, leaving Haiti without any democratically elected institutions. The country had failed to hold legislative elections since October 2019, with Moïse ruling by decree until his assassination. The newly formed provisional electoral council faces numerous obstacles, including persistent gang violence, which has been blamed for the deaths of more than 3,200 people from January to May.
To help quell gang violence, nearly 400 Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti earlier this year as part of a U.N.-backed mission, with additional support expected from soldiers and police from the Bahamas, Chad, Benin, and Bangladesh.
Turf wars among gangs have displaced over half a million people in recent years, with thousands of Haitians forced to flee their homes, abandoning essential documents including ID cards needed to vote.
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Government officials have been visiting makeshift shelters to issue new IDs, but many Haitians remain without one.
“How are people going to vote?” asked Daniel Janvier, 40, who now lives in a shelter after gangs raided his home and forced him to leave everything behind. “Most of the people I know around here don’t have an ID.”
Janvier, who is unemployed after losing his job at a pants-making factory, said he had his doubts that the government would actually organize elections.
“I think this is all just a joke,” he said. “Thousands of people are scattered everywhere. Even if they manage to hold elections, people won’t know where to go and vote.”
Former police officer Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier, leader of the G9 coalition, one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs, is surrounded by his security detail as he leads a march against Prime Minister Ariel Henry in Port-au-Prince on September 19, 2023.
