Haiti elections: OAS urges faster voter registration

Organization of American States Secretary General Albert Ramdin urged Haitian authorities on Wednesday to speed up voter registration before elections scheduled for mid-December, the country's first in a decade.

“The registration of voters needs to be accelerated, needs to be intensified,” Ramdin told a news conference in Port-au-Prince at the end of a three-day visit.

Ramdin said he had raised concerns in talks with Haiti's government, electoral council and international and local security agencies about preparations three months before the vote. He said more than one million people had been displaced and their voting rights should not be lost.

Several municipalities controlled by criminal gangs lack voter registration centers. As of Monday, nearly a month after registration opened, about 260,000 people had registered to vote.

Ramdin also called on OAS member states and other partners that have pledged support for an international gang suppression force to meet their commitments.

The first round of voting had initially been scheduled for August but was pushed back because of security concerns. Haiti has not held elections since 2016. Its last president was assassinated in 2021 and has not been replaced.

The International Organization for Migration estimated in June that nearly 1.5 million of Haiti's 11 million people were internally displaced because of violence.