Nearly three months ahead of Haiti’s first national election in more than a decade, international observers have raised urgent alarms over crippling delays and systemic gaps that threaten the credibility of the democratic transition process. The CARICOM Eminent Persons Group (EPG), which wrapped up an 8-day fact-finding mission to the Caribbean nation between September 2 and 9, 2026, published its initial findings in an official press statement on September 14, outlining mixed progress and significant unaddressed challenges ahead of the December 13 poll.
During its visit, the regional delegation held extensive consultations with a broad cross-section of Haitian stakeholders, spanning business leaders, youth advocacy groups, women’s rights collectives, human rights organizations, senior government officials, and command members of the country’s Gang Suppression Force (GSF). Beyond stakeholder engagement, the mission’s core goals included assessing the current political landscape and kickstarting formal dialogue around election preparation efforts.
The EPG did acknowledge one key milestone: after more than 10 years of political hiatus that left Haiti without a democratically elected national government, the process of relaunching electoral activities has formally begun. But the observer group quickly cautioned that current momentum is far too slow to meet the upcoming deadline, with political stakeholders across the board showing uneven levels of preparedness.
At the heart of the delays is the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), the state body tasked with organizing the poll, which has been widely criticized for glacial progress in rolling out core electoral processes. The most recent voter registration data underscores the scale of the problem: as of September 14, just under 600,000 Haitians have been added to the national electoral roll, a fraction of the 3 to 4 million voters the CEP initially targeted.
Multiple on-the-ground issues are blocking voter registration drives across the country. Multiple registration sites have shut down suddenly without advance public notice, election workers have frequently been absent without explanation, many sites lack clear directional signage for voters, and the CEP has failed to launch widespread public information and outreach campaigns to encourage participation. All these barriers have combined to dissuade many eligible Haitians from completing their registration.
Candidate registration, which is scheduled to close on September 20, is also falling well short of expectations. By September 14, only three candidates had completed registration for the presidential race, alongside 68 candidates for Senate seats and 205 candidates for legislative posts.
Under Haitian electoral rules, only political organizations that have successfully registered a minimum of 30,000 members are eligible to put forward candidates. Data from the CEP shows that out of 105 officially recognized political entities in the country, only 25 – 14 formal political parties and 11 ad-hoc political groupings – have managed to meet the 30,000-member requirement to date.
Compounding the electoral challenges is an ongoing security crisis that has derailed security deployment plans. Haiti’s Prime Minister has publicly acknowledged that the scheduled rollout of the GSF, the specialized force tasked with curbing gang violence and securing polling sites ahead of the election, has not proceeded according to the original timeline, leaving large swathes of the country at continued risk of electoral disruption.