Haitian Prime Minister confident country will hold elections by year-end

BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimè says law enforcement in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has been making “some serious inroads” in gang areas and he remains confident that elections will take place by the end of the year.

The last presidential election took place in 2016 when Jovenel Moise was elected to office, but he was assassinated at his private residence overlooking the capital in July 2021.

Since then, an interim government has been in office, and since April 2024, Haiti has held no national elections.

“We are regaining parts of [the capital] Port- au-Prince, parts that were under gang control and are back under police and state control,” Fils-Aimè told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

The United Nations Security Council says the rampant gang violence in Haiti has displaced over 1.5 million people and caused over 8,100 deaths between the first 11 months of last year.

The UN is transitioning the Kenya-led multinational force into a 5,500-member Gang Suppression Force (GSF) to help national police regain control of the capital and key infrastructure.

“This situation has been happening for over five years. We are doing our best to resolve the gang issue. Last week, we voted through the Council of Ministers to restart our reinsertion movement, and the security of Haiti will go through three phases,” said Fils-Aimè.

“One phase will be the police and the army and the GSF that was voted for by the UN last year, and that will fight the gangs. The second phase will go through the justice system. People will have to be arrested, people will have to be judged, and people will go to jail, and the third point of the security will come, the reinsertion of the youths who were fully into the gangs and used by the gangs. Those people…whether they are men, boys, young girls, they need to be taken to centres that are ready, and we are starting to finance them with the help of UNICEF, and that’s where we will take those kids, give them a job, and get them reinserted into society. Justice is necessary for us to get security, and we are working on it, and the third part is bringing the kids back to normal lives,” he said.

Fils-Aimè, who is among CARICOM leaders meeting for their 50th regular summit, said that the country is “moving forward and “we just had an important milestone, which I think it is something that people did not think would not happen where most political parties, especially the major ones, signed an accord for the stability and to ensure that we are all going into the elections together”.

He said that his message to his CARICOM colleagues who are going to the sister island of Nevis for a day-long caucus is that “we are heading to the elections, we have found an agreement between Haitians, and we have decided that we are moving forward. Elections will be held as soon as we get all the security necessary. We are expecting that by the end of the year, we will be ready to host the first round of the elections.”

On February 7 this year, the mandate of the Provisional Transitional Council (CPT) came to an end, and the United States said that it is ready to work with the prime minister and the Council of Ministers to “achieve our common priority, which is stabilising Haiti.”

Fils-Aimè said that the support of Washington is part of the support of the whole international community; the EU (European Union) has done the same, and Canada has done the same.

“I understand that those countries understand the work that we are doing, and they see that it is bringing stability in Haiti.

“The second part of the stability is going to come from the pact that we just signed with most political parties. We have over 200 political parties, civil society, private sector that did sign with the government an accord that we will fight for security together and we will go to the elections by the end of the year.”

He said the third part of the legitimacy that the Haitian government will need is its work with security, “and that’s when we will have justice.

Fils-Aimè acknowledged that there have been reports of some former members of the TPC being involved in corruption, adding, “Fortunately, the allegations were not against me, the allegations were against the former members of the presidential council.

“We are a country where we respect the rule of law and every single one of them will have to answer to the law,” he said.

He also said that while no one has yet been brought before a court in Haiti in relation to the Moise’s death, “as you know…there are still investigations going on, locally in Haiti and in the United States by the FBI, and there have been hearings in the States for the murder of President Moise.

“Justice sometimes takes a little time, but justice will be served,” said Fils-Aimè, who, under the current arrangements regarding his stint as prime minister, will not be allowed to stand as a candidate whenever the election is called.

“Unfortunately, I cannot be a candidate. Like I said we are a country of laws. The pact that we just signed with most major political parties forbids me from running in the upcoming elections. I will be an impartial player, I will be the judge to make sure that elections are fair, free so that the people of Haiti can choose who they want as their leader,” Fils-Aimè told CMC.

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