In early October 2026, Haiti’s Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP) announced the cancellation of campaigning for the presidential and parliamentary elections due to be held on 13 December. No new election date was confirmed, but postponement appears likely.
This policy paper argues that elections held too soon, and under current conditions, could lead to further instability in Haiti. The CEP’s intervention is an opportunity to shift the focus from meeting an arbitrary deadline to establishing a realistic electoral timetable and process.
The paper makes the case for prioritizing agreement on a detailed framework for the electoral process and specific benchmarks for assessing progress. It identifies four areas for attention – the scale and representativeness of voter registration; independent and robust mechanisms for vetting candidates; secure, transparent and efficient procedures for collecting and tabulating votes; and minimum security conditions for a safe electoral process – and makes detailed recommendations on each.
DOI: 10.55317/9781784136970