Haitians may have to wait a lot longer to elect a new president, prime minister warns

Haiti will most likely not be welcoming a new president by February 2026, the deadline brokered in an April political agreement between a broad section of political parties and civil society groups tasked with bringing political stability to the country through elections.

Under the agreement, the country’s nine-member ruling transitional presidential council had given itself 22 months to put a newly elected president and Parliament in office — along with thousands of locally elected officials — with the assistance of a Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, the Haiti National Police, a new interim prime minister and government.

But five months into the political transition brokered by the United States, Canada, France and leaders of the Caribbean Community —and seven weeks after the arrival of the first contingent of 200 Kenyans on June 25 — interim Prime Minister Garry Conille said it will “be extremely difficult” to swear in a newly elected president on Feb. 7, 2026. He made the revelation during a recent interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation’s current affairs program HARDtalk.

“Obviously if we do not get the help we need, the support we need very, very soon, particularly in regard to the mission but also in regard to humanitarian and early recovery, it will indeed be extremely difficult,” Conille told journalist Stephen Sackur. “But what I can tell you is this, we are committed to doing it.”

On Thursday, during a meeting with international partners, Conille requested an assessment mission to evaluate gaps in pulling off free and fair elections, which the U.S. has been calling for since the Kenya force’s arrival.

The security mission, which currently has 400 Kenyan police officers in Haiti, still lacks manpower as well as funding and equipment to take on Haiti’s powerful gangs. Its failure to deploy forcefully has led to gangs making inroads in several rural communities on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.

Over the weekend, Haiti’s largest school for children who are hearing and sight impaired, the Montfort Institute in Croix-des-Bouquets, was looted when more than 40 armed gang members stormed its premises, disarmed security agents and threatened to shoot the kids.

At the time of the attack, more than 50 special needs children were in the school’s dormitories, its director told the country’s daily, Le Nouvelliste. As a result of the attack, both staff and students have been trying to find alternative shelter.

Last month, Guatemala became the latest country to offer personnel for the security mission, telling U.N. Secretary General António Guterres that the Guatemalan Army can deploy a military police contingent and personal equipment.

During the international meeting Thursday meeting led by Canada, Conille stressed the importance of improving security in order for Haiti to be able to hold elections. The last time Haiti had elections was in 2016.

Conille told the international partners that the multinational security force needs to be scaled up, and foreign governments need to provide funding beyond the $21 million some have contributed to a United Nations-operated trust fund. The improvements in security, he said, are necessary for elections to be held.

In the BBC interview, Conille also spoke about funding, telling the host that his government is “working very hard with the police and the contingents of the Kenya mission that are already here as well as the army and other functions of government to improve the security situation.”

Though Conille was able to quickly assemble a new government after he was selected in late May by the presidential council, the one-time United Nations development specialist has been slow to show major progress on some fronts. He has replaced the head of the police and named new directors general to some government posts, but an ongoing corruption scandal involving some members of the presidential council and disagreements over who should fill the roles have slowed the process.

The presidential council, meanwhile, is facing its own challenges in putting together a nine-member Provisional Electoral Council, which would organize the vote. Most of the country’s sectors that are supposed to submit names for the electoral council have been bickering among themselves about who should represent them.

Naming a provisional electoral council is only one step to holding elections in Haiti. The country still has to figure out the actual size of its voting population and update its voter rolls following an exodus of citizens over the last three years because of the escalating violence. There is also the issue of electoral reforms the European Union, among others, had called on the administration of late President Jovenel Moïse to make prior to his July 7, 2021 assassination.

The presidential council also faces other delays in reforming the Haitian constitution and holding a national dialogue. Members of the Caribbean Community plan to visit to Haiti on Sunday at the invitation of Edgard Leblanc Fils, the president of the transitional presidential council, to see how they can help.

In the meantime, Haiti still faces a humanitarian crisis.

Of the $674 million needed for a humanitarian response plan to help feed the more than 5 million Haitians and the nearly 600,000 forced from their homes by gangs, the U.N. said this month that only 24.2% has been funded.

The situation in Haiti, the U.N. said, “remains alarming,” even as the number of killings between April 1 and June 30 has fallen. The U.N. said armed groups continue to attack police stations and other government offices in the Artibonite and West regions and sexual violence targeting women and girls is on the rise.