Haiti prime minister commits to holding elections by August 2025, Caribbean leaders say
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has agreed to hold general elections in his crisis-ridden nation no later than Aug. 31, 2025, the Caribbean Community announced Wednesday as leaders concluded a summit in Guyana.
Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis said in order to achieve the goal, the 15-member regional bloc known as CARICOM, will lead an assessment team supported by the United Nations, the United States, Canada and the Organization of American States to help with election planning in Haiti. The committee is to report back to the community by March 31, he said.
Davis said the election commitment by Henry is “a significant step in the right direction” toward restoring constitutional government and authority to Haiti. The Caribbean Community, he said, also plans to invite key Haitians to participate in a meeting.
Davis said CARICOM is calling on all leaders in Haiti, including the current government, “to be able to sit down to make the necessary concessions to arrive at a resolution” over the political impasse.
Members of the regional bloc said they spent more than 25 hours over three days discussing the Haitian crisis, with international partners that included the U.S., Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Brazil and the U.N. joining leaders the 15-member organization.
“We had a frank and in-depth discussions on the situation in Haiti,” Davis said. “We are deeply concerned over the continued deterioration of the security, humanitarian and political situation in Haiti and more importantly we are more concerned over the continued delay in overcoming the political stalemate which has blocked the possibility of free and fair elections.”
The Caribbean Community has been attempting “to bring normalcy to Haiti,” he said, since before the July 7, 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. The president faced immense pressure from the international community over gang violence and a political crisis deepened by long-overdue elections and his push to change the constitution.
Following the recent deliberations with Henry, Davis said “a number of major steps and concessions were made to move the political process forward.”
“We think we have a workable solution,” he added, but it will require participation of key Haitians, “the political leaders, the private sector, the religious sector.”
Until now, Haiti’s political and civil society leaders have been unable to come to a consensus on how the country should be governed. Nearly three years after the assassination of Moïse, there is not one elected leader in the country.
“I am more than hopeful that this time around we can come to some resolution. Of course resolution requires concessions on all sides,” the Bahamas leader said, adding that Henry is willing to make some of his own.
For months the regional bloc has been trying to get Henry and political and civil society leaders to come to a power-sharing agreement in the volatile Caribbean country. Earlier this month, thousands of Haitians around the country demanded the resignation of Henry, reminding him that he had promised to step down from power on Feb. 7, 2024. That promise, however, was contingent on his holding elections to turn over power to a democratic government.
Now Henry has made a similar promise. The U.S. and other nations have acknowledged that the security situation in Haiti needs to improve before elections can take place. Despite a promise by Kenya to lead an armed security mission into Haiti, with troops from several Caribbean and African nations, the deployment has been stalled by a court ruling in Nairobi that the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers is unconstitutional.
As Caribbean leaders wrapped up their summit, Henry was on his way to Kenya at the invitation of President William Ruto.
Guyana President Irfaan Ali, who chaired the CARICOM meeting, said the issue of Haiti took up considerable time. This includes at least 10 hours of informal discussions on top of “more than 15 hours of work,” he said.
Ali said the bloc remains committed to helping Haiti get through its political impasse and obtain money from the international community to pay for the security support mission and address its dire humanitarian needs. Like Davis, Ali appealed to Haiti’s civil society and political leaders to make the necessary concessions to address the country’s crisis.
Everyone, “will not obtain all they want, but Haiti must obtain what it needs,” the Guyanese president said.
“It is a difficult situation for Haiti, a complex situation for the region,” Ali said. “Haiti is a priority and we are approaching Haiti from a regional perspective.”
