We Cannot Forget About Haiti’s Elections

2026. Not only the year of the Hungarian elections that ousted Victor Orbán in April; of Israeli elections that may unseat Benjamin Netanyahu on the 27th of October; and of the U.S. Midterms on the 3rd of November. It is also the year of elections in Haiti. The first elections in over a decade no less. Though initially scheduled for the 30th of August, they have been postponed due to a legal technicality involving a government decree and first round elections should take place on the 13th of December 2026. 

This article examines Haiti’s political crisis, assesses the prospects for the upcoming elections, and shines a spotlight on a nation rarely spoken about.

Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 by Colombian mercenaries, Haiti has been in a state of disarray. There has been no elected leader in over 5 years, and the last democratic elections that brought Moïse to power took place in 2016. An interim administration under the acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry (a former neuroscientist) both failed to stabilise the country or organise elections – the last round promised by Henry fell through in 2023. 

The current government is locked in a stalemate with armed gangs who have ravaged the region. These gangs control swathes of the country and terrorise urban areas, exacting extreme violence. This has contributed to mass displacement of over 1.4 million people in one year, a mass cholera outbreak in 2023, an earthquake in 2021 which killed 2000 people, rampant inflation, food insecurity and drastic levels of sexual violence against women. Henry was forced to step down in 2024 after gangs blocked his return to the country, and ever-since, a transitional council has been in place.

Since then, the violence has become incendiary. Brutal gangs have taken over Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, and are demanding Henry’s resignation. State institutions have been viciously attacked, as have official buildings and prisons– heightening the insecurity and humanitarian crisis. Haiti is at a ‘watershed moment’ in its struggle against gang violence and needs sustained international support, current Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé told the UN General Assembly in September 2026.

What is clear about Haiti is that the county’s turmoil is multidimensional and highly complex. What is also clear, is that political transition is imperative. This country, which has suffered tremendously over the past 15 years, deserves a semblance of stability. 

What you should know about Haiti

Haiti is one of the world’s poorest countries, with more than 60 per cent of the population living below the poverty line. In 2025, it had a GDP per capita of $2,694.20 compared to its Hispaniola neighbour the Dominican Republic, whose GDP per capita sits at $11,059.20. Haiti has a population of over 11 million inhabitants on a surface area of approximately 27,750 square kilometres (that’s about the size of Albania for reference). The country’s official languages are Creole and French as it is an ex-French colony.

But why is Haiti, a gorgeous Caribbean island with a young and booming population, so intensely poor? And why has it fallen so drastically behind its wealthier, Spanish-speaking brother the Dominican Republic? Surely it can’t just be the language difference. 

The instability has been built up and compounded by a series of unfortunate events, tragedies and poor decisions. The Council on Foreign Relations dubs it a nation that has been ‘hobbled by foreign interventions, political instability, and natural disasters…paralyzed by multiple crises and a deepening humanitarian disaster’.

A Historical Rundown of Haiti

Though Hispaniola was occupied by Spanish colonialists from the 15th century, it was only in the early 17th that French traders first annexed proto-Haiti (Saint-Dominique) as part of the French imperial mission. For a time, it was a primary coffee-plantation colony. One of the most famous figures to come out of Haiti is Toussaint Louverture, a former slave. Following the French Revolution which pioneered notions of citizenship and ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’, he spearheaded a rebellion against French rule, which led to the creation of the nation of Haiti in 1804. This means that Haiti was a country long before Italy or Germany were ever unified, and it has a long and rich legacy. There was once a time that Haiti stood as a ‘beacon of abolition, self-determination, and racial equality’. 

This was not to last. Due to oppressors’ unrelenting entitlement and drive to bleed colonies dry of money and resources, liberation from France actually required Haiti to pay reparations to the imperial occupier. Indeed, France only relinquished Haiti in 1825 when it had paid reparations equivalent to $21 billion in today’s money, These reparations equated to 80% of Haiti’s annual revenue.

Once France had finally left Haiti alone, the United States turned their attention toward the country. During WWI, Haiti was threatened by German forces, so the U.S. stationed Marines there to stabilise the country after a series of political assassinations (which would become a repeating pattern in Haitian history). Risky business to be a politician in Haiti. Likelihood is: you will die prematurely. 

The U.S. occupied Haiti post-war for almost two decades and imposed (according to the Council of Foreign Affairs) ‘racial segregation, forced labour, press censorship, [and] deposed presidents’. Once the Americans finally withdrew, it left a leadership void, to be filled by a dictatorship under François Duvalier and his son. Their 30-year tyranny drained the country’s coffers and led to ‘severe human rights abuses’ and politically-motivated murders. The father-son terror only came to an end in 1986.

Democracy eventually came to Haiti but political stability did not. The first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was deposed in coups in September 1991. There were military interventions from the U.S. and eventually, the situation proving so grave, the UN was forced to intervene with a 13-year peacekeeping mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). This aimed to finally bring order and stability to the nation. From 2011, after the UN withdrawal, subsequent presidents were accused of being U.S. plants, or of fraud. The last democratic vote the country has seen was in 2016, when Moïse was elected. His assassination, half a decade ago now, was the straw that broke the camel’s back (Note: Moïse was far from a prime pillar of democracy. There were mass protests during his administration due to extreme poverty levels in the country and accusations of corruption.)

The political turmoil would be enough to send any country spiralling, but the gravity of the crisis in Haiti was also compounded by a series of natural disasters. 

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake of 2010 near Port-au-Prince killed 220,000 Haitians and displaced 1.5 million. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the reconstruction costs, of $8 billion, surpassed the country’s annual GDP. This was followed by extreme drought in 2015-2017, Hurricane ‘Matthew’ in 2016, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in the south in 2021 and then Tropical Storm ‘Grace’ a few days later. And, to top it off, a mass cholera outbreak.

Haiti has faced an absolute shit show for the past 20 years.

Why we must not forget about the people of Haiti

Despite the extremity of its historical misfortune, Haiti, more often than not, is a country that passes under the radar. Occasionally, we hear of a new scourge of gang violence when it is flashed across the news, but predominantly, international attention remains elsewhere. Having a goliath neighbour like the U.S. probably hasn’t done Haiti any favours. Additionally, the fact that Haiti’s struggles are domestic–and affect almost exclusively the Haitian population– means that there is little impetus or drive for external intervention. The era of U.S. humanitarian outreach has waned. 

But Haiti deserves our attention, and we must not ignore or dismiss its future.

Harriet Barber is a freelance journalist who has been writing for The Guardian, covering the violence in Haiti. In an article from the 2nd of July this year, she recounts the vicious massacre and mutilation of the villagers of Jean-Denis by the Gran Grif gang. The gang raided the village disguised in civilian clothing, and indiscriminately murdered over 70 villagers because they wanted the village as a new base. Murder is a pretty effective way to terrorise locals into submission. Victims were as young as 8, and as old as 85. 

This is hardly a rare occurrence. The cartels and gangs that were predominantly in the capital are spreading out to rural areas. According to Nathalye Cotrino of Human Rights Watch (HRW), ‘Criminal groups are now present in 5 out of 10 of Haiti’s departments – the violence is definitely spreading’.

Haiti’s political instability enables the swathes of violence that the gangs are inflicting. The gang violence, in turn, perpetuates and maintains the political instability. This vicious cycle must be broken – and the necessary rupture must come in the form of a democratic election.

Hope is not lost

Haiti is impoverished, ravaged by violence, infinitely destabilised and in dire need of elections. Removed from the devastation, it is easy to simply feel a moment of compassion for the country and move on with our lives. But there is a beautiful article in the New Yorker that describes ‘The Haiti that Still Dreams’. 

‘The headlines bleed into their lives, too, as do the recycled tropes that paint us as ungovernable, failures, thugs, and even cannibals…The [older generations] fear that those in the next generation, some of whom have never been to Haiti, will let Haiti slip away, as though the country they see in the media—the trash-strewn streets and the barricades made from the shells of burnt cars, the young men brandishing weapons of war and the regular citizens using machetes to defend themselves—were part of some horror film that they can easily turn off. 
We are still human beings, the elders insist – ‘Se moun nou ye.’ We are still wozo, like that irrepressible reed that grows all over Haiti. For a brief moment, I think someone might break into the Haitian national anthem or sing a few bars of the folk song Ayiti Cheri. (‘Beloved Haiti, I had to leave you to understand.’) Instead, they hum the music that the wozo has inspired: ‘Nou se wozo / Menm si nou pliye, nou pap kase.’ Even if we bend, we will not break.’ 

In Greek mythology, when Pandora opened the box (or allegedly jar) she released all the worst evils into the world. Plagues, sickness, wrath, toil, sorrow. But on the rim, fluttering just behind, was hope. 

There is always hope. No matter how dire a situation may appear. And these elections bring a new sliver of hope to Haiti, and to the Haitian people. There are 60,000+ new registered voters. There is a push to include more women in political life.  Of course, the gangs are threatening the elections. Internal displacement makes it harder to vote. There is still extremely low voter registration. But these elections hopefully mark a turning-point. As the first in over a decade, they are the first step in paving the way towards a future for Haiti that could look different, maybe even brighter. 

Let us end with a poem by William Wordsworth, written in 1802. ‘To Toussaint Louverture’, an ode to the Haitian hero who fought for its independence, and eternally changed the trajectory of this resilient nation. 

To Toussaint Louverture

Toussaint, the most unhappy Man of Men!
Whether the rural Milk-maid by her cow
Sing in thy hearing, or thy head be now
Pillowed in some deep dungeon’s earless den;–
O miserable Chieftain! where and when
Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou
Wear rather in thy bonds a chearful brow:
Though fallen Thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There’s not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and Man’s unconquerable mind.

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