Overview:
The Nationwide Identification Workplace (ONI) reported Wednesday that 6.3 million Haitians of voting age now have ID playing cards, that means about 85% of doubtless eligible voters have been registered and are able to vote within the upcoming elections. Nevertheless, these elections stay delayed, despite the fact that the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) seems to be shifting ahead with preparations. No date has been set for both the elections or the controversial constitutional referendum. Safety stays the primary problem, with over 1.3 million individuals displaced and gangs controlling key areas.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti’s Nationwide Identification Workplace (ONI) introduced Wednesday that just about 6.3 million Haitians of voting age now maintain nationwide identification playing cards — a prerequisite to solid ballots. However the announcement underscores the deep contradiction of Haitian politics at the moment: a rising checklist of registered voters with no safe path to elections.
The determine, representing roughly 85% of the estimated 7.4 million Haitians of voting age out of about 11.9 million total population, was shared with Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) member Louis Gérald Gilles throughout his go to to the ONI headquarters. Gilles referred to as the progress “a significant step” for elections which have but to be scheduled.
“On behalf of the Transitional Presidential Council, I reaffirmed my help for the electoral course of, which is crucial to restoring democratic order and stability within the nation,” Gilles stated on X following the assembly.
“I suggested the establishment to maintain clear targets, each short-term and long-term, to reinforce the credibility of the nationwide identification system.”
Whereas ONI studies report numbers regionally, it has but to launch any knowledge on voter registration within the diaspora. Authorities officers have solely said that places of work have additionally been established overseas.
Authorities praised ONI’s efforts, however the voter roll exists in opposition to a backdrop of turmoil. Greater than 1.3 million Haitians have been displaced by gang violence, in accordance with the United Nations, leaving many citizens with out properties, safe polling stations or clear entry to the poll field.
Within the capital, gangs management about 90% of the territory, together with neighborhoods that host electoral places of work and voting facilities. A number of provincial cities face comparable challenges. With main roads blocked, displaced individuals residing in shelters or makeshift camps say voting shouldn’t be even a consideration once they wrestle day by day for meals, water and security.
Voters registered, elections with out safety?
Whereas ONI pushes ahead with cell caravans and greater than 150 native places of work to situation IDs, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has been advancing technical preparations — together with workers recruitment and agreements for a devoted electoral tv channel. Nonetheless, no election or supposed constitutional referendum date has been introduced.
In line with authorities, one of many methods is the deployment of ONI cell caravans throughout the nation’s departments. Since February 2025, the ONI cell caravan has been working within the North. In August, the caravan reached the Grand’Anse division.
Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé advised the United Nations Safety Council this week that restoring safety stays the primary situation. He backed a United States-proposed decision to remodel the Kenya-led Multinational Safety Help Mission (MSS) into a bigger Gang Suppression Pressure (GSF), saying solely such a shift might assist Haiti arrange “credible, free, and clear elections.”
However with hundreds killed in gang violence this yr alone, no neighborhoods reclaimed from armed teams, and displaced households filling faculties and church buildings, many Haitians doubt that elections are possible within the quick time period.
Pushing for a controversial referendum
The CPT has additionally been pushing ahead with a referendum course of on constitutional modifications — however legal professionals, bar associations and civil society leaders warn the transfer is illegitimate and unlawful. The Port-au-Prince Bar Affiliation referred to as it “legally irregular and illegitimate” in a current assertion. Members of the affiliation argued that beneath Haiti’s 1987 Structure [amended in 2011-2012], revisions require a Constituent Meeting, not a referendum organized by transitional leaders.
“Trying to impose a brand new Structure on this context would represent a violation by the present political authorities of each their oath of workplace and the 1987 Structure,” members of the Bar Affiliation stated in a current assertion.
“Such an act qualifies as excessive treason beneath Article 21 and is punishable by life at exhausting labor with out the potential for commutation (Article 21-1).”
Critics additionally warn that forcing such a vote beneath present situations would additional erode legitimacy, whereas odd Haitians stay in limbo about when — or if — they are going to be referred to as to elect new leaders.
As officers tout ONI’s progress, the UN says humanitarian wants are outpacing assets. Deputy Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher, visiting Haiti this week, introduced $9 million in new support however warned funding is at “historic lows.” The UN’s $908 million attraction has acquired lower than 12% of the wanted funds.
“In Port-au-Prince, I noticed the final functioning hospital pushed to the brink, compelled to chop even maternal care,” Fletcher stated Sept. 9 in a post on X. “Households who misplaced the whole lot are crammed into shelters– ladies and ladies bearing the heaviest toll. The struggling is immense. Haiti wants pressing help.”
Nonetheless, the unsure future for Haiti’s voters stays the identical.
For now, Haiti has tens of millions of registered voters however no clear date for when their ballots will depend. With the CPT’s mandate set to run out on Feb. 7, 2026, and insecurity worsening, the query stays whether or not the nation’s electoral establishments can ship democracy — or whether or not Haitians’ hard-won ID playing cards will stay symbols of an elusive proper. Haiti has not held an election since 2016.
“ONI continues its mission to convey identification providers nearer to [Haitian] residents,” ONI officials stated in a current assertion posted on social media.
“The aim is to make entry to the nationwide identification card simpler, particularly in rural areas which can be usually uncared for.”