Overview:
Nearly three weeks after Haiti’s electoral council began voter registration for the long-delayed elections, rural voters in the country’s Northwest Department said they have faced long trips and high transportation costs to reach registration sites. The problem illustrates a broader challenge facing Haiti’s electoral system: participation depends not only on whether people want to vote, but also on whether they can physically reach the places where they must register and eventually cast their ballots.
PORT-DE-PAIX — For many residents of Haiti’s rural Northwest, exercising the right to vote has begun with a journey that takes hours. Nearly three weeks after the country’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) began voter registration for the long-delayed national elections, rural voters in the Northwest Department said they have faced long trips and high transportation costs to reach registration sites.
While voter registration centers are relatively accessible in larger towns, residents of remote communal sections told The Haitian Times this week they must walk long distances or pay for transportation over poorly maintained roads to reach the centers. The cost and difficulty of making that trip, they said, could discourage many eligible voters from completing the registration process before the Dec. 13 elections’ deadline.
“It would be better to go straight to the polls on the date set by the electoral council instead of going through this registration process,” said Kesnel Louis-Jeune, 49, who lives in Raymond — a communal section located between Anse-Rouge and Jean-Rabel, about eight miles from his registration center.
“I’d rather give up one day to cast my ballot than have to travel seven to eight miles to reach a voter registration center,” Louis-Jeune added.
The problem illustrates a broader challenge facing Haiti’s electoral system: participation depends not only on whether people want to vote, but also on whether they can physically reach the places where they must register and eventually cast their ballots. After nearly a decade without national elections, the country is attempting to rebuild an electoral process in a security and economic environment that already makes movement difficult for millions of people.
“It would be better to go straight to the polls on the date set by the electoral council instead of going through this registration process.”
Kesnel Louis-Jeune, Resident of Raymond village
That matters because Haiti has a long record of low voter participation. Turnout was estimated at 50% in the landmark 1990 election, when Jean-Bertrand Aristide won the presidency in what was widely considered the country’s first free election. Still, it fell to about 18% in 2016. Turnout varied between cycles, with higher participation in 2000 and 2006. The overall decline has been accompanied by problems with voter registration, inaccurate electoral lists, voter identification, political violence, insecurity and public disillusionment.
The current registration process therefore presents a test beyond simply compiling a new voter roll. If eligible citizens in isolated communities cannot reasonably reach registration centers, some could be excluded from the election before Election Day arrives.
Long distances create a barrier
In the Northwest Department, residents of cities and larger towns generally have easier access to registration centers than those living in communal sections and remote areas.
For people in rural communities, the obstacles begin with geography.
Poor road conditions, limited public transportation and high travel costs can turn a registration trip into a significant financial and physical burden, particularly for families already struggling to meet basic needs.
“It is still difficult and complicated to travel dozens of kilometers to reach voter registration centers,” said Réginald Jean-Louis, 28, a resident of La Réserve, a hilly communal section with perilous paths and tracks about seven miles southeast of downtown Jean-Rabel — where most registration sites in the communal region are located.
“Hundreds of citizens feel disadvantaged and discouraged because these centers are so far away,” he lamented.
The CEP began registering voters nationally on July 20, initially opening centers in the administrative centers of nine departments while excluding the West Department due to security concerns. Registration later expanded into parts of the West. The official electoral calendar gives some 5.8 to 6.5 million voters until Oct. 13 to register.
The CEP has urged citizens with valid national identification cards to visit registration centers and have their names added to the electoral roll.
But access remains uneven.
A process that can determine who gets to vote
For many residents, the registration requirement is an additional hurdle in a country where transportation, security and infrastructure already restrict movement.
“This is a new requirement in Haiti’s electoral process, so the registration campaign should encourage a large number of citizens to participate,” said Dieunet Antoine, 29. “However, the challenges people face should not become a major obstacle preventing us from registering on the voter rolls.”
The concern is particularly significant in rural areas, where a several-mile trip can mean walking for hours or paying for transportation that some families cannot afford.
Réjeanne Beauchamp, 32, a resident of Guinaudée—another difficult corridor in the Jean-Rabel commune, said the CEP should bring registration closer to communities.
“The CEP should open voter registration centers in remote rural areas to make it easier for residents to register and be entered into the voter rolls,” she said.
Residents suggested mobile registration teams, additional centers in communal sections or other measures to reduce the distance between voters and registration services.
CEP President Jacques Desrosiers, speaking at the launch of a center in Port-au-Prince July 30, promised to extend voter registration operations in each of Haiti’s 571 communal sections.
“The council will continue opening registration centers across the country so that people can take the steps toward voting,” Desrosiers said.
Such measures could be important in a country where the electoral process has repeatedly struggled to reach a majority of Haitians. Past elections have been affected by problems ranging from inaccessible polling locations and inaccurate voter lists to missing identification cards, insufficient voter education, violence and fraud allegations. A 2017 report by the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) found that these factors contributed to voter exclusion and discouragement, alongside a broader decline in electoral participation.
Several residents agree with Louis-Jeune that the burden is enough to make them question the need for advance registration.
Their concern reflects a fundamental tension in the electoral process: a measure designed to organize voting and update the electoral roll can become an obstacle for people who live far from registration centers.
The CEP, however, considers registration essential to the election process.
“There is no democracy without voters, and there are no elections without citizens who have valid voter identification cards to cast their ballots,” said Marie Florence Mathieu, a CEP member. “Everyone should be free to vote for the candidate of their choice so that elections can take place. We must all vote to strengthen democracy.”
Mathieu added that voters must have a valid voter identification card and be registered at the polling center closest to their residence.
Over 100 centers across Northwest amid test for electoral process
Kerry Hyppolite, president of the Northwest Departmental Electoral Bureau (BED, its French acronym), said that 102 voter registration centers are operating across the department’s 10 communes.
“We have made 102 voter registration centers available throughout the Northwest Department so that citizens can register on the voter rolls before the elections are held,” Hyppolite said.
He urged eligible voters to go to the center closest to their homes to complete their registration.
The figure represents an effort to expand access, but residents of remote communities say the number of centers matters less if they remain too far from the people they are intended to serve.
The CEP’s official calendar calls for the first round of presidential and legislative elections and a constitutional referendum on Dec. 13, followed by a runoff and local elections on Feb. 21, 2027. The council has warned that meeting those deadlines depends on an acceptable security environment and sufficient funding.
That makes voter access one part of a much larger logistical challenge.
“For people living in gang-controlled or insecure areas, the obstacles can include fear of violence and displacement. In rural communities such as those in the Northwest, the barriers are often more basic: roads, distance, transportation and cost,” Haitian political scientist Johnny Charléus explained.
“Together, those challenges can shape who is able to participate in an election,” he told The Haitian Times.
“For the CEP, the challenge is therefore not only to organize an election but to make participation realistically accessible to the people.”
