Overview:
Haiti’s authorities have officially ended efforts to replace the 1987 Constitution, dissolving the steering committee and canceling the planned referendum just four months before the Presidential Transitional Council’s (CPT) mandate expires. The move follows U.S. pressure for elections, rising violence and criticism over wasted funds.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti’s Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) and government have decided to abandon the plan to replace the 1987 Constitution, dissolving the Steering Committee for the National Conference and Constitutional Referendum during a Council of Ministers meeting.
The move on Oct. 9, ends more than a year of consultations, public forums and political debates that cost millions of gourdes. It comes just four months before the CPT’s mandate expires on Feb. 7, 2026, and follows growing criticism over the plan’s illegality and illegitimacy, financial waste, corruption, political distractions and the lack of progress on the country’s most urgent priorities — security, humanitarian aid, healthcare and elections.
“It came out of the Council of Ministers: there will be no referendum,” Jacques Ambroise, spokesperson for the CPT, said on Télé Métropole. “We will organize the elections under the 1987 Constitution, despite all the problems we know it contains.”
Reform scrapped amid U.S. pressure and escalating violence
The CPT’s reversal follows months of mounting pressure from the United States and international partners to focus on restoring security and organizing elections instead of rewriting the Constitution.
U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Henry Wooster recently urged Haitian authorities to present a clear electoral timeline, warning that “positions are not for life.”
The decision also reflects Haiti’s deepening crisis: armed groups now control nearly 90% of Port-au-Prince, and large parts of Artibonite remain inaccessible due to daily clashes. More than 1.3 million people are displaced, and humanitarian needs — from food to healthcare — have reached record levels, according to the United Nations.
Political analysts say the CPT’s decision underscores growing recognition that the country cannot afford another divisive political experiment while citizens are demanding basic security and essential services.
“Holding a referendum is now seen as an obstacle to the ongoing electoral process,” Camille Occius said. “The government should acknowledge its inability to carry it out and, consequently, revise the mandate of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP).”
“This revision should empower it to establish a clear timetable for organizing general elections in an adequate security environment,” Occius wrote on X.
“It came out of the Council of Ministers: there will be no referendum. We will organize the elections under the 1987 Constitution, despite all the problems we know it contains.”
Jacques Ambroise, spokesperson for the CPT
Millions were spent, but little progress was made on the country’s priorities.
The constitutional reform effort, which began under the CPT’s Steering Committee, consumed an estimated 600 million gourdes (about $5 million). The funds, managed through a U.N. Development Program (UNDP) account, were used to organize public forums across Haiti and in the diaspora to gather citizen input.
Yet the process lacked transparency and accountability. Members of the Steering Committee reportedly earned attendance fees of up to 700,000 gourdes (about $5,400) per month, though no detailed financial reports were ever published.
Economist Emmanuella Douyon called the process another example of government waste:
“For every government that comes in, some people are allowed to make money from it through the issue of a new constitution and referendum,” she wrote on X. “We need to evaluate how much money was wasted and who benefited from it. There is no budget for security or police, but there is always money for ‘abolotcho’ [political demagogue] and consultants.”
Law student Claudy Barthol agreed, calling the effort “a malicious misuse of public funds.”
“You knew from the start that this would lead to nothing, yet the money had to be spent,” he said.
“What wrong has this country done to deserve this constant waste?”
A recycled reform idea amid the need to refocus on elections and urgent priorities
The push to replace the 1987 Constitution dates back to the late President Jovenel Moïse, who initiated a similar process in 2020 with a six-member Independent Consultative Committee. His proposal sought to abolish the post of prime minister, strengthen presidential powers and expand diaspora political participation — a plan critics said was unconstitutional and self-serving.
In February 2021, the Haitian government disbursed $20 million to fund the constitutional referendum and general elections, followed by an additional $9 million for the purchase of non-sensitive materials. In fact, the total budget for the elections and referendum was about $125 million. This money was placed in a “basket fund” managed by the UNDP, but its exact use remains only partially documented.
Yet, the vote never took place, and elections were repeatedly postponed amid instability.
Moïse’s assassination in July 2021 ended that process before any referendum could take place. Still, the CPT later revived it, spending new funds on a project many saw as politically tone-deaf amid Haiti’s worsening instability.
The latest draft, submitted in August 2025, proposed a joint president–vice president ticket, department-level governors and reduced parliamentary representation. But critics say the document lacked coherence and failed to address governance challenges such as corruption and institutional collapse.
“The country lost time, money, and a rare opportunity to fix the flaws of the 1987 Constitution,” said journalist Frantz Duval of Le Nouvelliste. “The draft was an incoherent patchwork of governance models instead of a practical reform.”
With the constitutional reform shelved, attention now turns to the electoral process — though no date has been set. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has reportedly been preparing logistical plans for nine months but has yet to receive authorization to proceed.
CPT spokesperson Ambroise said elections cannot be organized without security in key regions like the West and Artibonite departments, where gangs have paralyzed movement and cut off several towns from the capital.
Despite these obstacles, international partners continue to push for progress. The newly U.N.-approved Gang Suppression Force (GSF), expected to deploy in early 2026, may help create conditions for voting. But many Haitians remain skeptical, noting that previous foreign-backed missions failed to secure lasting peace.
Critics and analysts say the CPT’s final months should focus squarely on national priorities that Haitians repeatedly cite as essential to rebuilding democracy.
Between March and June, an initiative led by academics and civil society leaders across Haiti and the diaspora focused on three key priorities: insecurity, governance and political transition.
The CPSN, which brought together over 1,000 multisectoral participants from Haiti’s 10 departments and the diaspora, called for a national strategy to fight insecurity, the reorganization of the CEP to regain the confidence and trust of the Haitian people, a halt to the constitutional referendum and an audit of the National Identification Office (ONI) to ensure electoral credibility.
A transition running out of time for the CPT
When the CPT was created under the April 3 Accord — with support from the Caribbean Community (Caricom), the U.S. and Haitian political actors — it was tasked with restoring security, organizing elections and a referendum, and reviving the economy.
Yet four months before its mandate expires, none of these goals have been achieved.
The economy has entered its sixth consecutive year of recession, and public confidence in the transitional government continues to decline.
As Haiti edges closer to the Feb.7, 2026, deadline, many observers say that stopping the constitutional reform is a practical step — but unless it results in action on elections, it will be remembered as just another broken promise.
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