Laurent Saint-Cyr, left, president of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council and Prime Minister of Haiti Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, right, attend the installation of new acting director of the Haiti National Police (PNH), Vladimir Paraison at the reception villa in Port-au-Prince on Aug. 8, 2025.
Haiti’s transitional government on Monday adopted a long-awaited electoral law, setting in motion the process for restoring democratic rule after years of political paralysis and escalating violence.
The announcement was made by Frinel Joseph, one of the two observers on the scandal-plagued Transitional Presidential Council. In a post on X, Joseph said the adoption of the law by the panel and Council of Ministers “marks a decisive turning point in the transition.”
Monday’s adoption came amid intensified pressure by the United States amid weeks of political maneuvering by members of the presidential council, whose tenure is supposed to end on Feb. 7. 2026. Some members of the council had been attempting to use the law and its proposed date for elections as leverage to extend their tenure in office beyond February, and to oust Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé.
On Monday, three of the council’s seven voting members were absent from the meeting in what some believe was a tactic to thwart adoption of the law, which now has to be published in the country’s official gazette to be legal. Despite their absence, the law was adopted anyway.
READ MORE: Haiti’s elections council has submitted an election law, and people are worried
Nearly 10 years since presidential election
Haiti last had presidential elections in 2016 and has been without an elected head of state, a parliament or elected local officials. Already in crisis before the July 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, the killing deepened the country’s collapse while further empowering criminal gangs that now control a large swath of Port-au-Prince and tightening their grip on the Artibonite region, just north of the capital. The West region, where Port-au-Prince is located, and the Artibonite account for nearly 60% of the electorate.
Monday’s decision, while clearing a procedural hurdle, still doesn’t offer a clear path to free and fair elections. It remains rife with challenges, from sticking to the timetable to keeping out individuals implicated in human rights abuses or tied to armed groups. A draft law that was sent by the Provisional Electoral Council ahead of Monday’s vote was heavily criticized by some human rights advocates over its lack of safeguards on eligibility.
The law also offered millions of dollars in financial incentives to political parties with women and candidates with disabilities running on their slates, but made no requirements to ensure that such individuals had a meaningful chance of winning.
Asked about Washington’s position on the proposed decree and its seemingly free reins to anyone without a conviction in Haiti, including some sanctioned by the United States, to run for office, a State Department spokesperson said ahead of Monday’s adoption, “The United States welcomes the Transitional Presidential Council’s efforts to fulfill its mandate.”
“Haitians must write their own future,” the spokesperson said quoting Chargé d’affaires Henry Wooster. “We commend the CEP (Provisional Electoral Council) and the Haitian authorities for the initial steps taken toward adopting an electoral law and a timetable. We understand that the CEP and the government are preparing to publish a clear and binding timetable that will allow Haitians to elect their next leaders. We look forward to a schedule that is both ambitious and realistic, issued as soon as possible. This will set the urgent pace needed to prepare every community for the election.”
With the electoral law’s adoption, Joseph said the nine-member presidential council and government “are providing the country with the necessary legal and political framework for holding elections that will allow citizens to choose their representatives in accordance with the Constitution, democratic principles, and the Agreement of April 3, 2024.”
The Provisional Electoral Council “is now tasked with publishing the electoral calendar, an essential step that will complete the process.”
The draft that was sent to the government had elections scheduled for August 2026 with runoffs for December, a timeline many consider to be unrealistic given the deteriorating security situation.
