General Elections for Haiti announced as November 2025

Deandrea Hamilton

Editor

Haiti, February 3, 2025 – Ten Months from now, the Republic of Haiti is expected to hold General Elections.  The announcement came on Friday morning from Leslie Voltaire, Haiti’s transitional president according to a news report, carried in France’s Le Monde newspaper.

President Voltaire wants to hold the elections in November 2025 and the inauguration of the new government in January 2026.  The last time Haiti held a general election, it was in 2016, five years later its democratically elected President, Jovenel Moise would be assassinated in Port Au Prince home.

The savage murder of Moise created devastating instability due to the leadership vacuum.

Haiti which was once hopeful about being pulled out of abject poverty and taking a more prominent place on the global stage was thrust back, decades.  The unrest precipitated by a domestic insurgence of vicious gangs into the nation’s major cities and the violence they wrought on civilians pushed tens of thousands from their homes.  The attacks on the most vulnerable including the elderly, girls and women has been heinous and regularly captured in reports from the United Nations.

From January 23, 2025:  “For her part, Ghada Waly, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), reminded the Security Council that gangs control about 85 percent of Port-au-Prince. Despite the reinforcement of the arms embargo, she said, weapons and ammunition trafficking continue to flow into Haiti and into the hands of gangs. She noted that Haiti is witnessing an alarming surge in human trafficking, particularly child trafficking by gangs.

Ms. Waly also called on Council members to stand with Haiti in confronting violence, corruption, and chaos. Their remarks were shared with you.”

A multinational peace-keeping force, led by Kenya and supported by the US, Canada and CARICOM, is also on the ground; success has been difficult to measure.

President Voltaire on Thursday, during a visit to France, informed the media there that a first round of elections are expected around November 15.  He expects Haiti to have a new government installed by February 7, next year.