UN Security Council pressures Haiti’s leaders to hold general election as deadline nears

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — U.N. Security Council members warned Haiti’s leaders on Wednesday that time is running out to restore security and hold general elections as the deadline to install a new government nears.

Haiti’s transitional presidential council is tasked with holding general elections before Feb. 7, 2026, when the nine-member council is supposed to step down.

“The transition clock is ticking. I am concerned that a steady path toward the restoration of democratic governance is yet to emerge,” Carlos Ruiz Massieu, special representative of the U.N. Secretary-General for Haiti and head of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti, said at the U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday.

A date for a general election, the first in almost a decade, has not been announced as gang violence consumes Haiti’s capital and beyond, but technical preparations are underway.

Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council has assessed voting centers in nine of the country’s 10 departments, with some 1,309 centers identified for an estimated 6.2 million voters.

The council has said that the first round of elections would cost nearly $137 million. Haiti’s Ministry of Justice announced late Tuesday that more than 220 political parties have started a registration process.

But gang violence persists, with the U.N. recording 2,123 victims from June 1 to Aug. 31 across Haiti and killings surging in Haiti’s Artibonite and Central departments.

“Haiti truly stands at a crossroads,” Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. said at Wednesday’s meeting. “The international community must stand with Haiti as it takes back control of its country…The political class and private sector in Haiti must do its part as well in support of a democratically elected government.”

The United Kingdom representative echoed Waltz’s comment at the meeting and praised ongoing sanctions against certain Haitians, noting that it was also important that future sanctions target the economic and political supporters of Haiti’s powerful gangs.

The push for elections comes nearly a month after the U.N. Security Council authorized a so-called gang suppression force that would replace a smaller U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police that was understaffed and underfunded.

Little is known about the deployment timeline of the new force, which would have 5,550 personnel, a 12-month mandate and the power to arrest suspected gang members, something the current force lacks.

Russia said Wednesday that it was concerned about the involvement of foreign mercenaries in Haiti as it decried the killings of civilians in the fight against gangs.

The U.N. noted in a recent report that drone operations have killed 527 suspected gang members and 20 civilians, including 11 children, from March 1 to Sept. 20. Another 28 civilians have been injured, including nine children.

Gangs control an estimated 90% of Port-au-Prince, with ongoing violence displacing a record 1.4 million people across Haiti.

Makeshift shelters have increased from 142 in December to 238 so far this year, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration.

From January to June, more than 3,100 people were reported killed across Haiti and an additional 1,100 reported injured, according to the United Nations.