Haiti announces poll dates as 2,000 Salvadoran troops arrive

DANICA COTO

Haiti’s Government has announced new election dates as police and soldiers, backed by the recent arrival of more than 2,000 troops from El Salvador, fight gangs.

The Provisional Electoral Council said late Wednesday that the first round of general elections will be held next July 18 and the second round on October 4. Haiti has not held elections in more than a decade and is run by an unelected prime minister. The presidency has been vacant since President Jovenel Moise was killed in 2021. The council said it expects to publish the final candidate list, including those running for the presidency or the Senate, by mid-January, with May 20 marking the end of voter registration.

The first round of elections was initially scheduled for December 13, but was delayed by gang violence in Haiti’s central region and in Port-au-Prince. Four aviation technicians from El Salvador working with a UN-backed gang suppression force went missing in the capital after coming under attack. In response, the Salvadoran President sent more than 2,000 troops to Haiti to help rescue the four technicians, who the Haitian Government says were abducted.