Haiti postpones first-round elections to 18 July 2027 amid gang violence

A new calendar

The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, that the first round of presidential and legislative elections would move from 13 December 2026 to 18 July 2027. The calendar also places a popular ratification process on the first-round date and sets a possible runoff for 4 October 2027. The campaign, which was due to open on 5 October, will now start on 15 April 2027, three months before the vote. The council tied the revision to a new electoral decree dated 6 October and to consultations with security forces, political actors, civil society, the private sector and the government. Its notice did not explain the specific reasons for the delay, but it said the aim was to keep electoral operations running under conditions that let the parties meet their legal obligations.

Repeated postponements

The vote has slipped several times. The elections were originally due on 30 August 2026, then moved to 13 December. In early October the CEP postponed the vote without setting a new date and extended the deadline for candidate registration to 31 October. The 18 July date is the third set for these elections. Haiti has not held an election since 2016, when Jovenel Moïse was elected president. He took office in February 2017 and was assassinated at his home in Port-au-Prince on 7 July 2021, and the country has had no elected official in its administration since then.

Security backdrop

According to the final report of the UN Security Council's expert panel, published in September, gangs control roughly 70% of the capital and have pushed deep into rural areas. Violence has been especially acute in Artibonite, the country's second-largest electoral district after the capital. The Salvadoran government sent more than 2,000 troops to Haiti to take on the gangs and to help locate four Salvadoran soldiers who went missing on 18 October. Those four were part of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, which arrived in April but has struggled to reach its expected troop numbers. Some of the new Salvadoran troops have already joined that force, and their arrival would roughly double the number of international troops on the ground.

UN warning

Carlos Ruiz Massieu, the top UN official in Haiti, told the Security Council on 19 October that the country remains far from organizing its first national elections since 2016. He warned that setting new dates without a realistic assessment of feasibility would erode public trust and the credibility of Haitian institutions. The council's own notice stressed a commitment to dialogue, professionalism and rigor, with the goal of inclusive, credible and transparent elections. Candidates have already begun to register, with 19 people listed on the CEP website as presidential contenders, including two former presidents.

What comes next

The next milestones are the candidate registration deadline on 31 October 2026, the opening of the campaign on 15 April 2027, the first round on 18 July 2027 and a possible runoff on 4 October 2027.