Haiti
Haiti does not merely have an electoral-calendar problem. Voters must be registered even when some have left their homes, material must reach areas that are difficult to access, candidates must be able to travel and polling stations must be secured.
Almost ten years without a national poll
| 2016 | Haiti holds its last completed presidential election. Jovenel Moïse is elected. |
| 7 July 2021 | President Moïse is assassinated at his home. |
| 2024 | A Transitional Presidential Council is installed. |
| 23 December 2025 | The Provisional Electoral Council publishes a timetable providing for a first round on 30 August 2026. |
| February 2026 | The mandate of the Transitional Presidential Council reaches its end without elections having been held. |
| March 2026 | 320 parties register to take part in the elections; 282 are initially approved by the Provisional Electoral Council on 26 March. |
| July 2026 | Voter registration begins several months late. The 30 August poll can no longer take place. |
| September 2026 | The revised timetable sets the first round for 13 December 2026. Security remains central to the problem. |
1864: Americans vote during the Civil War
In November 1864, the American Civil War is still under way. The presidential election is maintained. Several states establish mechanisms allowing deployed soldiers to vote remotely.
1944: the United States votes again
During the same war, the United States holds its presidential election. Two democracies engaged in the same conflict therefore make different choices.
1939–1945: the British wait
The United Kingdom chooses the opposite course during the Second World War. Parliament’s term is extended by law and the general election is postponed until 1945.
Why is opening polling stations not enough?
Because an election begins before polling day. A voter must be able to register. A candidate must be able to travel to a town, hold a meeting and leave again. A journalist must be able to follow the campaign. Electoral material must reach the polling station.
Displacement changes the electoral map
A person may be registered in one constituency but now live elsewhere. The former polling station may be inaccessible or destroyed. After the 2010 earthquake, MINUSTAH notably helped to establish 1,500 registration centres for displaced voters and mobilised substantial resources for electoral support.
Must Haiti wait until the whole country is secure?
If the answer is yes, no one can guarantee the date of the next poll. Perfect security exists in no election. The question is rather what level of insecurity prevents competition from being free and sufficiently inclusive.
Can postponement itself become dangerous?
Yes. As time passes, another question arises: who decides that the conditions are still not in place? If the decision is taken by authorities whose own tenure is extended by the postponement, the conflict of interest is evident.
And what if the election is a poor one?
Setting a date at any cost may give the country an elected president without resolving the question of legitimacy. If some regions barely vote, or if armed groups indirectly control access to the ballot box, the result may remain politically contested.
Can an election be postponed without postponing democracy?
Yes, history shows that it can. It also shows that postponement alone provides no answer. What matters is who decides, for how long, under what scrutiny, and with what real possibility of returning to elections.