Haiti's CEP Opens Candidate Registration for December 13 Elections

Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) opened registration for presidential and legislative candidates on August 20, 2026, holding an exchange session at the Kinam Hotel in Port-au-Prince to present its online candidate-registration platform to representatives of the 228 approved political parties and platforms and train system administrators designated by those organizations. The registration window runs through October 2, 2026, ahead of a campaign period from October 5 to December 12 and the first-round vote on December 13 — Haiti's first national election in a decade. The CEP has repeatedly stressed the electoral timetable depends on an 'acceptable security environment,' with armed groups controlling an estimated 70-90% of the capital and voter registration lagging (roughly 260,000 registered as of OAS Secretary General Albert Ramdin's August 19 visit) amid nearly 1.5 million Haitians displaced by gang violence.