Haiti creates a provisional electoral council to prepare for the first elections since 2016

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Haiti’s government on Wednesday created a provisional electoral council 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 other members would likely be announced in upcoming days.

The electoral council, which represents groups including farmers, journalists, human rights activists and the Vodou community, is tasked with organizing the elections and helping create the legal framework to hold them.

Haiti has not had a president since July 2021, and it last held elections in 2016.

The previous electoral council had been dissolved in September 2021 by former Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who accused it of being “partisan.” His move delayed elections planned for November 2021 and prompted critics to accuse Henry of holding 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 home 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.

In addition, the terms of 10 remaining senators expired in January 2023, stripping Haiti of its last democratically elected institution. The country had failed to hold legislative elections since October 2019, with Moïse ruling by decree before he was killed.

The newly formed provisional electoral council faces numerous obstacles, including persistent gang violence blamed for the killing of more than 3,200 people from January to May.

To help quell gang violence, nearly 400 Kenyan police arrived in Haiti earlier this year as part of a U.N.-backed mission that also expects to see the pledged deployment of soldiers and police from the Bahamas, Chad, Benin and Bangladesh.

Turf wars among gangs have left more than half a million people homeless in recent years, with thousands of Haitians forced to flee their homes, abandoning essential documents including ID’s needed to vote.

Government officials have been visiting makeshift shelters to provide new IDs, but many Haitians remain without one.

“How are people going to vote?” said Daniel Janvier, 40, who now lives at a shelter after gangs raided his home and forced him to leave everything behind. “Most of the people that I know in this area don’t have an ID.”

Janvier, who is unemployed after losing his job at a factory making pants, said he had his doubts that the government would actually organize elections.

“I think all of this is a joke,” he said. “Thousands and thousands of people are spread out. They won’t know where to go and vote if they manage to have elections.”

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Associated Press reporter Evens Sanon in Port-au-Prince, Haiti contributed.