Haiti Opens Party Registration for 2026 Vote as Gangs Tighten Grip on Port-au-Prince

PÉTION-VILLE, Haiti — The line to enter Haiti’s electoral headquarters was short. The security perimeter was not.

On Monday, a handful of party operatives slipped past sandbags and soldiers carrying rifles to pick up paperwork at the Provisional Electoral Council’s office in this hillside suburb of Port-au-Prince. Outside, police in flak jackets scanned the street for threats in a capital rights groups say is largely under gang control.

Inside, Haiti took a bureaucratic step toward what is supposed to be its first national election in about a decade.

The Provisional Electoral Council, known by its French acronym CEP, has opened a 10-day window — from March 2 to March 12 — for political parties, groups and coalitions to formally register if they want to field candidates in general elections planned later this year. The process runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at CEP headquarters on Rue Stephen Archer in Pétion-Ville.

Under an electoral decree adopted Dec. 1, 2025, parties that fail to register in this short period risk being left off the ballot when Haitians are scheduled to vote for a president and a new parliament on Aug. 30, with runoffs on Dec. 6.

The move marks the most concrete sign yet that Haiti’s leaders intend to press ahead with elections after years of postponed polls and interim governments. It is also unfolding in a country where gangs control an estimated 85% to 90% of the capital and large parts of main access roads, where millions are displaced or trapped in their neighborhoods, and where an unelected prime minister governs under a foreign-backed transition pact.

“It's time to get out of the transition,” said Pierre Dieu-Donné Délice, a psychologist who leads a new party called Outils pour une autre Haïti — Tools for Another Haiti — as he left the CEP offices clutching registration documents. Haiti’s leaders, he said, “love transition because there’s no control. They can do whatever they want.”

Technical rules in a fragile state

The CEP says the registration drive is being carried out under Article 143 of the December electoral decree. Parties must submit notarized articles of incorporation, their statutes, an official act recognizing the party, and minutes of the most recent assembly naming their executive committee.

They are also required to provide a letter from the Ministry of Justice confirming administrative recognition, the party’s acronym and full-color emblem, a digital copy of the logo on a virus-free USB drive or CD, and a color copy of a valid national identity card for the party’s legal representative. If that representative does not appear in person, a notarized power of attorney is required.

Those details contrast sharply with the environment outside the CEP’s gates, where heavy weapons are as visible as party banners are scarce.

National elections have not been held since a disputed cycle in 2015 and 2016 that ended with the inauguration of businessman Jovenel Moïse as president in February 2017. Turnout in the decisive November 2016 presidential vote was about 21%, one of the lowest in the Western Hemisphere.

Since then, Haiti’s political institutions have steadily unraveled. Legislative elections that were due in 2019 never took place. In January 2020, Moïse allowed the terms of most lawmakers to expire and began ruling by decree, a move many Haitian legal experts called unconstitutional. Municipal councils across the country continued to operate on expired mandates as local elections were also postponed.

On July 7, 2021, Moïse was assassinated at his private residence in Port-au-Prince by a commando that included former Colombian soldiers. Multiple investigations have stalled. An appeals court last year ordered a fresh probe and asked foreign governments for assistance, while several suspects remain in custody. The killing deepened Haiti’s constitutional crisis and left the country without an elected president.

Transitions on top of transitions

After the assassination, a power struggle in the executive branch ended with neurosurgeon Ariel Henry becoming prime minister with strong backing from the United States and other members of the so-called Core Group of foreign partners. Henry repeatedly promised to organize elections but never did, arguing that the security situation made voting impossible.

Armed groups expanded during this period, attacking police stations, kidnapping for ransom and blockading key fuel terminals. In early 2024, a loose coalition of gangs mounted coordinated assaults on police facilities, the main international airport and two prisons, forcing the closure of Port-au-Prince’s airport for months and contributing to Henry’s resignation.

Under pressure from Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders, Haitian political factions agreed in April 2024 to form a nine-member Transitional Presidential Council to exercise presidential powers and chart a path to elections by Feb. 7, 2026. The council re-established the long-dormant CEP in September 2024 and, in December 2025, approved an electoral decree that set the current calendar: a first round on Aug. 30, 2026, and a second round on Dec. 6.

The decree includes several reforms intended to reshape Haitian politics. It makes voter registration mandatory, opens the door to limited voting by Haitians abroad and calls for the electronic transmission of preliminary results from polling stations. It also bars anyone under United Nations Security Council sanctions — a tool increasingly used to target alleged gang leaders and their political backers — from running for office, and introduces a gender quota requiring at least 30% women on party lists, with financial incentives for lists that reach parity.

The Transitional Presidential Council’s mandate expired on Feb. 7 of this year. In a statement, CARICOM leaders said the council had “stepped down,” and that executive authority now rests with Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé and his Council of Ministers.

Fils-Aimé, who was appointed during the transition and never confirmed by a parliament that no longer exists, secured support from a group of parties and civil society groups that signed a National Pact for Stability and the Organization of Elections on Feb. 23. The pact backs him as head of government through the end of the transition, but his domestic legitimacy remains contested.

Gangs, a new foreign mission and an election clock

The most immediate question is whether Haiti can execute an election calendar while large stretches of its territory are out of state control.

The United Nations and human rights organizations estimate that armed groups now dominate almost all of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and have extended their reach into central and northern departments. They levy “taxes” at makeshift checkpoints, control access to ports and highways and have carried out a series of massacres in densely populated neighborhoods, forcing tens of thousands from their homes.

The Haitian National Police has lost stations and officers to attacks and attrition. A new class of 877 officers graduated in January, but the force remains badly outgunned.

International efforts to bolster security have been halting. In October 2023, the U.N. Security Council authorized a Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission to back the Haitian police. Legal challenges in Nairobi, funding gaps and logistical problems slowed deployment, and early assessments found little improvement in security.

In September 2025, the Security Council approved a revamped, larger mission known as the Gang Suppression Force, with a more offensive mandate and a U.N. support office for logistics and financing. Diplomats have repeatedly said the force is intended in part to “create the security conditions necessary” for Haiti’s 2026 elections.

Initial deployments are expected between April and October, overlapping with the national campaign period that runs from May 19 to Aug. 28 and the first round of voting.

In a February opinion piece, a group of Haitian and foreign analysts wrote that under current conditions it was “illusory to believe that an electoral process can be carried out in Haiti,” citing the extent of gang control and the mission’s uncertain timetable.

The United States, which has pressed Haitian leaders to commit to an electoral schedule, has also signaled how dangerous it considers the security situation. The Federal Aviation Administration has repeatedly extended its ban on most U.S. commercial flights to Port-au-Prince, most recently into the second half of 2026.

Participation and the risk of exclusion

Organizing the mechanics of voting in this context presents challenges that go beyond party registration.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes by gang violence. Many live in makeshift shelters, with uncertain access to identification documents or local civil registries. Human rights groups warn that without specific measures for displaced voters, the next election could exclude some of the people most affected by insecurity.

Even in neighborhoods where polling places can open, turnout may be limited by fear. The last time Haitians voted for a president, shootings and gang blockades were less frequent than they are today, yet four out of five registered voters stayed home.

Electoral officials say they hope that a combination of new legal safeguards — including the ban on candidates under U.N. sanctions and expanded opportunities for women to run — and an eventual improvement in security will help restore a degree of public confidence.

For now, the first test is whether parties will accept the invitation to enter the race.

By March 12, the CEP expects to have a preliminary list of registered parties and coalitions. From there, authorities plan to move quickly toward voter registration and the recruitment of thousands of poll workers, all while foreign contingents in a still-forming Gang Suppression Force begin operations in the same urban neighborhoods where many Haitians would be asked to vote.

In Pétion-Ville, Délice said his decision to register was driven by a sense that the country has run out of alternatives.

“We are tired,” he said. “If we don’t prepare for elections, we will stay in this situation for another 10 years.”