Haiti’s Ministry of Economy and Finances launched formal consultations with the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) this Monday, May 25, 2026, to analyze the upcoming election budget. However, the electoral institution remains entirely at a standstill regarding the structural framework of the vote, as they await an official executive decision on the electoral decree. High-level CEP sources told Le Nouvelliste that the transitional government has not held a single harmonization meeting with them regarding the legal text.
At present, council members only recognize the validity of the draft decree they officially submitted to the executive branch a little over a month ago. This clarification arrives after an alternate, unvetted electoral proposal—widely attributed to government political operatives—began circulating on social networks over the weekend. “We officially transmitted our draft decree to the government a month ago and have received no feedback since. If the executive branch has objections or amendments, it must present them through official channels. So far, no exchanges have taken place,” an electoral council member explained, emphasizing that the lack of this approved legal framework prevents the CEP from locking in the definitive election calendar.
Despite the legislative gridlock, both parties reported concrete breakthroughs on the financial side. A joint commission featuring experts from both the Ministry of Finance and the CEP is currently being formed to review itemized operational lines and downsize costs. The CEP stressed that the 2026 budget cannot be compared to the 2015 and 2016 cycles; the foreign logistical networks of MINUSTAH and direct funding from USAID no longer exist, while domestic transport and security costs have skyrocketed due to a decade of fuel price increases. Furthermore, the CEP noted that the current budget builds in heavy new costs, including a comprehensive voter registration drive, the opening of decentralized regional tabulation centers, and the implementation of a technical framework to allow the Haitian diaspora to vote abroad for the first time. The current meetings aim to reshape these lines after Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé previously rejected the CEP’s initial $250 million and $225 million proposals as completely unacceptable.
