Members of the EDE (Committed to Development) political party arrive to register the party at the Provisional Electoral Council in the Petion-ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, March 12, 2026.
Odelin Joseph/AP
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Odelin Joseph/AP
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A record 280 political parties and counting registered by Thursday’s deadline to participate in Haiti’s first general election in a decade, though not all will make the cut.
Nevertheless, the newcomers were happy for the opportunity to help alleviate their country’s multiple crises, which are largely rooted in gang violence and corruption.
Members of the CAHDOA, or Collective of Haitian Actors for Development and Alternative Organizations, a political party founded a year ago, approached the headquarters of Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council with a marching band.
The crowd clapped and shouted, “We’re on board!”
Party member Abel Decollins said he hopes ordinary people can participate in the elections.
“Today the country needs a new leader who will allow the population to breathe,” he said.
The EDE party, committed to development, was registered on Thursday, founded by Claude Joseph, who was prime minister when President Jovenel Moise was fatally shot in his private residence in July 2021.
Joseph and his supporters were dressed in green and white and marched to the Election Board headquarters.
Joseph wrote in X that his party advocated ending the political hegemony in Haiti “characterized by the failure of permanent political transitions.”
Currently, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé is Haiti’s sole ruler, appointed by the Transitional Presidential Council, which stepped down in early February as mandated by law.
Haitian government officials originally said they expected to hold elections in late August and a runoff in early December, although the prime minister said the first round would be held by the end of the year.
Many suspect that it will be caused by persistent gang violence.
“The people in charge need to provide security so that the campaign can take place and the people can choose who will govern them,” Decollins said.
More than 5,900 people were reported killed and more than 2,700 injured across Haiti last year, according to UN figures.
Gang violence has displaced a record 1.4 million people in a country of about 12 million, with armed men controlling an estimated 90% of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
“It is a fact that the county is insecure, no one can deny that, but no matter what, there must be an election,” said Dalous Desir, a member of the EDE, which was founded four years ago. “We believe in elections and we believe in democracy.”
Haiti’s provisional electoral council said it would post a final list of political parties authorized to participate in the election by March 26, though it did not clarify the criteria.
