Haiti's elections council has submitted an election law, and people are worried

As U.S. pressure mounts for Haiti’s transitional authorities to move the country toward long-overdue elections, human rights advocates are warning that a critical gap in a proposed election decree leaves the door wide open for gang members and bad actors who have never been arrested or convicted in Haiti, to run for office.

The draft plan—which proposes a first round of voting in August and a December runoff — was sent to the government last week by the Provisional Electoral Council, known as the CEP. While it has not yet been made public or published in the country’s official gazette, the law’s vagueness on individuals’ eligibility to run, and its proposed calendar are stirring concerns and tensions, respectively.

According to a copy reviewed by the Miami Herald, the law on eligibility sticks close to Haitian criminal law and the Constitution, which means there is no explicit ban for individuals who have either been sanctioned by foreign governments or the United Nations, or on individuals widely accused of leading armed groups currently terrorizing the population.

“If this decree stands as it is, anyone, any criminal can become president,” said Pierre Esperance, the head of the National Human Rights Defense Network.

Esperance said Haitian authorities need to adopt “a political morality clause” that blocks anyone with “a solid criminal case” before the Haitian courts or anti-corruption bodies from proposing their candidacies. “I am not saying that once the United States and Canada sanctions someone they cannot be a candidate, but they can look together to see if this person has a case before [Haitian] justice,” he said.

This includes individuals accused of plundering government coffers, drug trafficking, laundering money or financing and participating in the criminality that has forced more than 1.4 million Haitians to flee their homes and ushered in overlapping crises of hunger, kidnappings and sordid human rights violations.

“There should be a pact with the political parties, the CEP and the society on the question of morality in politics, so there is a closing of the loophole in the law to prevent just anyone from becoming a candidate,” Esperance said.

Haiti’s last elections in 2016

The Trump administration has repeatedly insisted that this is the end of impunity in Haiti, where the country’s powerful Viv Ansanm gang alliance has been designated a foreign and global terrorist organization. But with the legal questions over the elections unresolved, observers warned that the first general elections since 2016 could well open the door to bad actors.

Just as it was then, the question of who should be allowed to seek office in Haiti, whether for mayor or the presidency, remains a contentious issue.

In 2010, the country required all potential candidates to present a police certificate indicating whether they had a criminal history. The requirement, however, was removed five years later when violent unrest and accusations of massive fraud caused the vote to be annulled. That vote had attracted 41,000 candidates, 55 of whom ran for president. Among 1,855 candidates vying for 139 legislative seats were dozens of accused kidnappers, drug dealers and others with criminal records.

Gédéon Jean, the founder and director of the Center for Human Rights Analysis and Research, says the vagueness on the eligibility question in the proposed electoral law is very worrying.

The presidential council “now needs to come and correct everything in the text that needs to be fixed,” said Jean, who wants the ruling council to launch a public debate on the law. “You can’t draft an electoral law that’s vague. If it’s vague, then everyone is eligible.”

Friction over elections, fate of ruling presidential council

So far, public debate on the proposed law, which also outlines who can vote, who can run for office and how the elections should be conducted, including sanctions for voting fraud and electoral crime, has been muted, even though political parties were invited to comment on a draft before it was forwarded by the CEP.

What has been creating friction, analysts say, is the proposed August election date. According to several sources, the timeline is opposed by several members of the nine-member Transitional Presidential Council because some would like to use the election date as leverage in ongoing political discussions about their fate after Feb. 7, 2026. The date is the council’s deadline for transferring power to an elected president and parliament, which is unlikely to happen.

The political maneuvering has been citied as being behind a recent effort to oust Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé—a move reportedly halted by the U.S. embassy.

Georges Fauriol, a senior political analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the United States has made its position clear. Washington wants elections in Haiti as quickly as possible, he said, and “the U.S. has no confidence” in the transitional presidential council. It wants the beleaguered group “out as quickly as possible, and certainly by Feb. 7, 2026,” Fauriol added.

“The U.S. does not want another long transition, and unless something else emerges over the next 60 days, the notion of transitioning after Feb. 7 to governance with the prime minister is their preferred option,” he said, underscoring a point that others in Haiti have also said about the United States’ current position.

The United States has said the security crisis should not be used as an excuse to not organize elections. However, a U.N.-authorized Gang Suppression Force is still months away from fully deploying to Haiti, where despite recent gains against armed groups police still struggle to hold territory. Predicting that the force won’t likely arrive before late Spring, Fauriol said he believes “the proposed electoral law will likely be revised.”

Long lines for fuel

In the meantime, the security situation continues to deteriorate. On Thursday, as rumors continued to swirl about the fate of the prime minister, and transitional authorities tried to hold onto power, long lines formed at gas stations in Port-au-Prince. Gangs, which have been on the offensive following stepped-up police operations, erected new barricades throughout the capital, including near the Varreux fuel terminal. Since Saturday, trucks have been forced to halt fuel deliveries because they could not access the terminal, according to sources.

In a video post last week, U.S. Chargé Henry Wooster commended the CEP and the government “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,” Wooster said. “We look forward to a schedule that is both ambitious and realistic, issued as soon as possible,” he said. “This will set the urgent pace needed to prepare every community for the election.”

Wooster in the post also said that, “Haitians must write their own future.”