Haiti's electoral authorities have postponed presidential and legislative elections indefinitely, citing the need to update the timetable as armed gangs tighten their grip on large parts of the country. The Provisional Electoral Council announced the decision on Tuesday, October 6, saying the period originally set for the electoral campaign had been postponed. Its statement gave no new date, saying only that a revised calendar would be made public "as soon as possible".

The first round had been scheduled for December 13, with a second round on February 21, 2027, according to a calendar published in July. The council said the new schedule would reflect the "technical and operational requirements" of the process and the conditions needed for each stage to run properly. Voter registration, which began on July 20, is continuing. A council member told AFP on condition of anonymity that the December 13 date "no longer stands" and that a new timetable is being drafted. Reported registration figures vary, from roughly 600,000 to 769,000 people, out of an estimated 6 million potential voters. The first round had already been postponed once this year.

Haiti has not held an election since 2016, and President Jovenel Moïse, assassinated in 2021, has never been replaced. Successive governments have been tasked with organising a vote but have said insecurity made it impossible. Several gang-controlled municipalities have no registration centres, and road closures caused by gang threats have blocked the delivery of electoral materials to parts of the country. According to UN estimates, nearly 90 percent of the Port-au-Prince area is under the control of armed groups, many of them grouped in the Viv Ansanm alliance, and their influence now extends into rural areas. About 1.5 million of Haiti's roughly 11 million people are displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration. UN human rights chief Volker Turk said last week that at least 5,700 people had been killed or wounded this year, and more than 1,000 women and girls raped, adding that the real figures are likely much higher.

The delay was widely expected. Jean-Marie Théodat, a geographer at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, said he could not see how elections could be organised so quickly given the insecurity and the state of Haiti's finances. He described the postponement as a setback for de facto Prime Minister Alix-Didier Fils-Aimé, who was appointed in February to restore security and organise a vote. Residents are divided: a Port-au-Prince taxi driver said he had never expected to vote this year, while a woman at a registration centre in Delmas said people had long been shut out of political debate and wanted a government that offers solutions.

A UN-backed Gang Suppression Force is being deployed to support overwhelmed local police, replacing the Kenya-led mission that was seen as under-equipped and underfunded. It is meant to reach 5,500 personnel but has about 1,500 so far. The UN Security Council extended its mandate by six months late last month, stressing the importance of security conditions that allow free and fair elections. Without such conditions, the path back to an elected government remains unclear.