Overview:
Haiti’s authorities have formally ended efforts to switch the 1987 Structure, dissolving the steering committee and canceling the deliberate referendum simply 4 months earlier than the Presidential Transitional Council’s (CPT) mandate expires. The transfer follows U.S. strain for elections, rising violence and criticism over wasted funds.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti’s Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) and authorities have determined to desert the plan to switch the 1987 Structure, dissolving the Steering Committee for the Nationwide Convention and Constitutional Referendum throughout a Council of Ministers assembly.
The transfer on Oct. 9 ends greater than a yr of consultations, public boards and political debates that value hundreds of thousands of gourdes. It comes simply 4 months earlier than the CPT’s mandate expires on Feb. 7, 2026, and follows rising criticism over the plan’s illegality and illegitimacy, monetary waste, corruption, political distractions and the dearth of progress on the nation’s most pressing priorities — safety, humanitarian aid, healthcare and elections.
“It got here out of the Council of Ministers: there shall be no referendum,” Jacques Ambroise, spokesperson for the CPT, stated on Télé Métropole. “We’ll manage the elections below the 1987 Structure, regardless of all the issues we all know it comprises.”
Reform scrapped amid U.S. strain and escalating violence
The CPT’s reversal follows months of mounting strain from the USA and worldwide companions to give attention to restoring safety and organizing elections as a substitute of rewriting the Structure.
U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Henry Wooster lately urged Haitian authorities to current a transparent electoral timeline, warning that “positions aren’t for all times.”
The choice additionally displays Haiti’s deepening disaster: armed teams now management practically 90% of Port-au-Prince, and enormous elements of Artibonite stay inaccessible as a consequence of each day clashes. Greater than 1.3 million persons are displaced, and humanitarian wants — from meals to healthcare — have reached file ranges, in line with the United Nations.
Political analysts say the CPT’s determination underscores rising recognition that the nation can’t afford one other divisive political experiment whereas Haitians are demanding fundamental safety and important providers.
“Holding a referendum is now seen as an impediment to the continued electoral course of,” Camille Occius stated. “The federal government ought to acknowledge its incapacity to hold it out and, consequently, revise the mandate of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP).”
“This revision ought to empower it to ascertain a transparent timetable for organizing normal elections in an ample safety surroundings,” Occius wrote on X.
“It got here out of the Council of Ministers: there shall be no referendum. We’ll manage the elections below the 1987 Structure, regardless of all the issues we all know it comprises.”
Jacques Ambroise, spokesperson for the CPT
Hundreds of thousands have been spent, however little progress was made on the nation’s priorities.
The constitutional reform effort, which started below the CPT’s Steering Committee, consumed an estimated 600 million gourdes (about $5 million). The funds, managed by way of a U.N. Growth Program (UNDP) account, have been used to prepare public boards throughout Haiti and within the diaspora to collect citizen enter.
But the method lacked transparency and accountability. Members of the Steering Committee reportedly earned attendance fees of as much as 700,000 gourdes (about $5,400) per 30 days, although no detailed monetary stories have been ever revealed.
Economist Emmanuella Douyon referred to as the method one other instance of presidency waste:
“For each authorities that is available in, some persons are allowed to become profitable from it by way of the difficulty of a brand new structure and referendum,” she wrote on X. “We have to consider how a lot cash was wasted and who benefited from it. There is no such thing as a price range for safety or police, however there may be at all times cash for ‘abolotcho’ [political demagogue] and consultants.”
Legislation pupil Claudy Barthol agreed, calling the trouble “a malicious misuse of public funds.”
“You knew from the beginning that this could result in nothing, but the cash needed to be spent,” he stated.
“What fallacious has this nation finished to deserve this fixed waste?”
A recycled reform concept amid the necessity to refocus on elections and pressing priorities
The push to switch the 1987 Structure dates again to the late President Jovenel Moïse, who initiated an analogous course of in 2020 with a six-member Impartial Consultative Committee. His proposal sought to abolish the submit of prime minister, strengthen presidential powers and broaden diaspora political participation — a plan critics stated was unconstitutional and self-serving.
In February 2021, the Haitian authorities disbursed $20 million to fund the constitutional referendum and normal elections, adopted by an extra $9 million for the acquisition of non-sensitive supplies. In truth, the entire price range for the elections and referendum was about $125 million. This cash was positioned in a “basket fund” managed by the UNDP, however its actual use stays solely partially documented.
But, the vote by no means happened, and elections have been repeatedly postponed amid instability.
Moïse’s assassination in July 2021 ended that course of earlier than any referendum may happen. Nonetheless, the CPT later revived it, spending new funds on a undertaking many noticed as politically tone-deaf amid Haiti’s worsening instability.
The latest draft, submitted in August 2025, proposed a joint president–vice chairman ticket, department-level governors and decreased parliamentary illustration. However critics say the doc lacked coherence and failed to deal with governance challenges equivalent to corruption and institutional collapse.
“The nation misplaced time, cash, and a uncommon alternative to repair the failings of the 1987 Structure,” stated journalist Frantz Duval of Le Nouvelliste. “The draft was an incoherent patchwork of governance fashions as a substitute of a sensible reform.”
With the constitutional reform shelved, consideration now turns to the electoral course of — although no date has been set. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has reportedly been making ready logistical plans for 9 months however has but to obtain authorization to proceed.
CPT spokesperson Ambroise stated elections can’t be organized with out safety in key areas just like the West and Artibonite departments, the place gangs have paralyzed motion and lower off a number of cities from the capital.
Regardless of these obstacles, worldwide companions proceed to push for progress. The newly U.N.-approved Gang Suppression Drive (GSF), anticipated to deploy in early 2026, could assist create situations for voting. However many Haitians stay skeptical, noting that earlier foreign-backed missions did not safe lasting peace.
Critics and analysts say the CPT’s remaining months ought to focus squarely on nationwide priorities that Haitians repeatedly cite as important to rebuilding democracy.
Between March and June, an initiative—Patriotic Congress for Nationwide Rescue (CPSN) led by teachers and civil society leaders throughout Haiti and the diaspora—targeted on three key priorities: insecurity, governance and political transition.
The CPSN, which introduced collectively over 1,000 multisectoral individuals from Haiti’s 10 departments and the diaspora, referred to as for a nationwide technique to combat insecurity, the reorganization of the CEP to regain the arrogance and belief of the Haitian folks, a halt to the constitutional referendum and an audit of the Nationwide Identification Workplace (ONI) to make sure electoral credibility.
A transition working out of time for the CPT
When the CPT was created below the April 3 Accord — with help from the Caribbean Neighborhood (Caricom), the U.S. and Haitian political actors — it was tasked with restoring safety, organizing elections and a referendum, and reviving the financial system.
But 4 months earlier than its mandate expires, none of those objectives have been achieved.
The financial system has entered its sixth consecutive yr of recession, and public confidence within the transitional authorities continues to say no.
As Haiti edges nearer to the Feb.7, 2026, deadline, many observers say that stopping the constitutional reform is a sensible step — however except it leads to motion on elections, it is going to be remembered as simply one other damaged promise.