Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council has scheduled presidential and legislative elections for 2027, setting a new timetable for a country that has repeatedly delayed national voting amid political collapse and gang violence.
The first round is planned for July 18, followed by a second round on October 4, the council said. Final results are due on October 23. The dates replace an earlier plan for voting this December and next February, which authorities postponed several weeks ago.
If held, the elections would be Haiti's first national polls in more than a decade. The country last voted in 2016, while its last president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in 2021 and has not been replaced. The prolonged absence of an elected national leadership has made a credible vote a central part of efforts to restore functioning government.
Organising one will be difficult. Armed groups control territory and important roads, while some municipalities under gang control lack voter-registration centres. Violence has spread beyond the capital, Port-au-Prince, and nearly 1.5 million of Haiti's roughly 11 million residents are internally displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration figures cited by AFP. Movement, registration, staffing and secure access to polling places will all depend on conditions that remain volatile.
The human cost has continued to rise. UN figures reported in early October recorded at least 5,700 people killed or wounded in gang-related violence during the year through September 11, more than 1,000 women and girls raped and at least 230 people kidnapped. UN human rights chief Volker Türk warned that actual totals were probably higher.
A UN-backed Gang Suppression Force is deploying to support Haiti's overwhelmed police. The mission is intended to grow to 5,500 personnel but had reached only about 1,500, AFP reported. In September, the UN Security Council extended its mandate for six months and explicitly linked improved security to the possibility of free and fair elections.
The electoral calendar therefore marks an administrative commitment, not a guarantee that voting will occur on schedule. Authorities must establish registration access, protect election workers and voters, and preserve confidence in the count while much of the country remains affected by armed groups and displacement. Previous delays underscore how quickly a timetable can slip when security conditions deteriorate.
Still, publishing specific dates gives Haitian institutions, political groups and international partners a framework for preparations. The test over the coming months will be whether security operations and electoral logistics can progress together without excluding communities most affected by violence.
