(Reuters) -Haiti’s government on Wednesday created a provisional electoral council, marking an initial step toward holding elections by 2026.
The Caribbean nation last held general elections a decade before the deadline, in 2016.
Under normal circumstances, elections would have been held every five years, but an already rocky political situation in Haiti was exacerbated by the power vacuum caused by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021 and the nation has gone without a president since.
Armed gangs have also since spread their control over some 80% of capital Port-au-Prince and most other parts of the nation.
The council created on Wednesday already has representatives for seven seats that represent religious groups, journalists, farmers and unions, the prime minister’s office said.
Two other seats, one for human rights organizations and another for women’s rights organizations, still lack a delegate, the office said on X.
Haiti’s transitional presidential council – a separate body which has been acting as the government since it was installed in April – established the electoral council in a meeting.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry and Harold Isaac; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
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