Haiti Announces Presidential and Legislative Elections for Late 2026, Conditional on Security

Haiti's provisional electoral council announced on July 27, 2026, that presidential and legislative elections will be held at the end of the year, with the first round scheduled for December 13, 2026, and a potential second round on February 21, 2027. The holding of the elections is conditional on 'the establishment of an acceptable security climate' and sufficient financial resources, as the country remains ravaged by gang violence. Haiti has not held elections since 2016, and President Jovenel Moïse, assassinated in 2021, has not been replaced. A previous calendar from December 2025, which set a first round for August 30, 2026, has already been abandoned. The Caribbean Community (Caricom) welcomed the announcement as an essential step. Voter registration began on July 20, and candidacies must be submitted by October 2. The security crisis has driven nearly 1.5 million people from their homes out of a population of approximately 11 million.