Haiti announces a new Provisional Electoral Council

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti’s transitional government has officially announced the creation of a new Provisional Electoral Council (CEP, its French acronym) to organize a referendum in Spring 2025 and general elections in the crisis-ridden country before February 7, 2026. The decision to form the CEP was adopted in a Council of Ministers meeting on Wednesday.

As anticipated two weeks ago by Edgard Gardy Leblanc Fils, president of the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT), the new CEP was confirmed by a decree published on Sept. 18 with seven members instead of nine as established by the Constitution and other related legal dispositions. The CPT still awaits the human rights and women’s rights defense sectors to designate their representatives.

Member organizations from these two groups, which are among the actors involved in selecting the members of the electoral institution, have yet to agree on their choices to be sent to the presidential council for approval despite the deadline they were given according to a May 23, 2024 decree being expired on Aug. 26. 

“The Haitian society is disjunctive,” Leblanc said. “This prevents a consensus between the actors and explains the delay in appointing the electoral council with all nine members.” 

According to the president of the CPT, the CEP needs to be fully operational as soon as possible to handle the crucial tasks of restoring the country to democracy by establishing the mechanism for Haitians to elect their leaders fairly. Leblanc hopes the other sectors will eventually put their differences aside to compromise on who will represent them at the provisional electoral institution.

For the human rights sector,  Gédéon Jean was selected. However, the CPT has rejected his designation due to contestation from one of the principal groups of activists, the Platform of Haitian Organizations for the Defense of Human Rights (POHDH). The situation is more complicated among the women’s rights organizations, which have designated two representatives.

As the sector actors have been unable to reach an agreement, the organizations Inter-Women Dialogue (DIFE) and Kay Fanm—Creole for Women’s Home—and allied associations organized two exclusive selection processes, both deemed contested.

The composition of the CEP

As of now, the seven members constituting the CEP are the following in no particular order:

• Schnaida Adély, representing the Vodou communities.
• Patrick Saint-Hilaire, representing Haiti’s Catholic Episcopal Conference.
• Peterson Pierre-Louis from the reformed cults sector.
• Marie Florence Mathieu, representing Haiti’s University Council.
• Jacques Desrosiers, representing the journalist associations.
• Jaccéus Joseph from the peasant associations.
• Nemrod Sanon, representing trade union associations.

“The Haitian society is disjunctive. This prevents a consensus between the actors and explains the delay in appointing the electoral council with all nine members.”

Edgar Gardy Leblanc Fils, President of the Transitional Presidential Council

The officials have yet to announce a date for installing the new CEP. They have not said whether they were waiting for the two missing members to be added before the institution could be installed. 

Meanwhile, the presidential council breathes a sigh of relief with this first step. The road toward elections in Haiti has always been bumpy and long, with a complex socio-political landscape where multiple factions vie to control the process. This time around, things may even be more complicated in a climate of insecurity fueled by gangs who control over 80% of Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas, causing nearly 600,000 people to be displaced. 

Indeed, how the electoral institution was created underscores the difficulties of conducting an exercise that Haitians have not practiced since 2016.

The need for confidence and trust 

The appointment of a reduced CEP has already sparked some adverse reactions from different groups and individuals within Haiti’s civil society. Gardy Maisonneuve, executive director of the human rights organization Sant Karl Lévêque, thinks that by sidelining two of the designated representatives and appointing a 7-member CEP, the transition government did not start the process in a way that inspires confidence and trust. 

“If this is how they do it, that means that the elections they are going to organize, they may pick the winners and losers,”  Maisonneuve told The Haitian Times. “Someone who may win could be by another. 

This already creates great doubts. It’s an open battle, especially within the human rights sector,” he added.

The human rights activist argued, “Starting on the right foot means having a 50% chance of success, but starting badly will result in the same results as in the past.”

According to the May 23 decree and an April 3 political consensus, representatives of the political parties should not be involved in the selection process. The most vocal political leaders have not yet reacted publicly and have not responded to several requests for comments from The Haitian Times.  

Reginald Dumé, one of the Petrochallengers, a group calling for accountability for those mismanaging the Petrocaribe funds, echoed Maisonneuve’s sentiment regarding the appointment of the new CEP. However, he said this was a good initiative. Dumé noted that forming the CEP with missing members was not a good start. 

“There is already an obstacle standing in the way of the Provisional Electoral Council,” the activist said. “If there is a problem from the start, will there not be many more problems in the days ahead, especially with insecurity and the fight for personal interests,” Dumé questioned.

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Haiti announces a new Provisional Electoral Council was first posted on September 20, 2024 at 6:32 pm.