Elections Won’t Save Haiti – OpEd

By Caleb Mills

In a recent interview with TV5 Monde, Haiti’s transitional council president Leslie Voltaire told a nation on the brink of collapse that tentative elections would be scheduled for mid-November. It’s been nearly a decade since the small island’s last democratic contest, and understandably so. The guardrails for democracy have all but collapsed in the years since, and in its place, anarchical gang warfare has swept across a broken state. It begs the question; can a country where half the inhabitants currently face starvation support an election? Is Haiti’s violent political climate right for a democratic transition?

The situation on the ground is critical. In the two years since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Haiti has crumbled under the weight of local competing gangs and warlords. By 2023, roughly 60% of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, was occupied by non-governmental factions, with violence openly tearing into the streets and bringing everyday life to a standstill.

For many, like musician Jean Jean-Pierre, simply leaving the house was a dauntingly dangerous task. “When you do go out you are so aware of everything – a car behind you, a motorcycle behind you. You never know if a vehicle just wants to pass you, or pass you and force you to stop for a kidnapping because it happens so often,” Jean-Pierre toldUSA Today in March 2023. The situation has not improved almost two years after he made that statement.

As a result, mass displacement of local residents has become a pressing issue for authorities in Port-Au-Prince. “The gangs forced us out. I lost my parents – my mother and father. The gangs burned them alive in the house, and now we can’t go back,” one refugee told Reuters.

Besides the recent introduction of an 800-strong UN peacekeeping force, little else has been done to quell the violence that has ravaged the island. In December, gang leader Micanor “Mikanò” Altès was accused by the Haitian government of carrying out a massacre of nearly 200 people, following accusations of witchcraft in regard to his child’s illness.

“The massacre was triggered by the severe illness of his child. Micanor sought advice from a voodoo priest (‘bókò’) who accused elderly people in the area of practicing witchcraft and harming the child,” a report referenced by CNN said. “On Friday, December 6, Micanor shot and killed at least 60 elderly individuals. On Saturday, December 7, he and his group killed at least 50 more using machetes and knives. Despite his actions, his ill child passed away.

In addition, violence and political instability have brought the island to the brink of all-out famine. According to a report from the Food Security Phase Classification, over 5 million Haitians in September were at risk for starvation, with 18% facing emergency-level hunger.

From a logistical perspective, holding elections in this environment may not even be possible. The amount of investment required by the state to organize such a polarizing event would require a level of both hard and soft power which Haiti severely lacks. Furthermore, even if elections were successfully held, the legitimacy of such a contest would immediately be called into question, considering that Port-au-Prince lacks territorial sovereignty over its own country. Will competing gangs allow Haitians to even vote? Could polling booths become the next victim of the unmitigated violence that these gangs have wrought over the island? By almost every facet at thus juncture, holding elections in Haiti would not only prove irresponsible, but perhaps impossible altogether.

Ballots can’t feed the hungry. Nor does campaigning and electoral posturing do much to stabilize a failed state. While the consistent pursuit of the democratic tradition is ultimately in Haiti’s best interest, the timing for that noble experiment may be slightly off. Voltaire’s push to form a democratically elected government is admirable, but it does little to solve the very pressing issues currently facing his country. Achieving democratic representation must be the final step in a long, drawn-out process towards rejuvenation. Elections won’t save Haiti; only a concerted, national program for recovery can do that.

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