In the sweltering heat, packed close together in a line that’s slow to move, dozens of citizens patiently endure the wait in the courtyard of the National High School of Pétion-Ville.
Under sweltering heat, pressed together in a line that moves slowly, dozens of citizens patiently endure in the courtyard of the National High School of Pétion-Ville. It’s nearly 2 p.m. Some have been there since the morning hoping to register on the electoral list. A few meters away, two agents from the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), wearing blue vests and caps in the institution’s colors, are filling out paper forms before entering the information into a tablet. This is where the voter registration operation for the 2026-2027 elections has been taking place since July 20.The last elections in Haiti took place in 2016, and since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, the country has been going through a series of transitional governments. This year, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé announced that elections would be held in 2026-2027. One new aspect of this process is that citizens who want to vote need to register on the electoral list. Le Nouvelliste visited Pétion-Ville to see how this operation was going.
Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé set the pace on August 4, 2026, by registering on the electoral list at the Lycée National in Pétion-Ville. He wasn’t the only one: in the courtyard of the same school, several citizens had been waiting for hours to do the same thing.
A small sign reading ‘Registration and Voting Center (CIV)’ is attached to the wall in the courtyard of the Pétion-Ville National High School. This is where voters have to show up to register, as a prelude to the 2026-2027 elections announced by the government after several years of transition. Launched on July 20, the operation continues at centers across the country.
Two lines of about twenty people each form in front of the officials’ work table. Conversations revolve around the slowness of the process, and some people have been waiting since the morning. ‘I’ve been here since 10 AM,’ says a man met on site. Four hours later, he’s still waiting his turn.A woman says she was asked to go back home on her first visit because her swimsuit was deemed too revealing. She came back a little later after changing. “I only had this one day to come and register,” she explains, without any apparent bitterness. Over the hours, the line got shorter, but the pace of registrations stayed slow. Discouraged by the wait, some people temporarily give up their spot to sit on a bench, a chair, or even on the ground.A simple procedure, a slow process
To register, the citizen must present their national ID card, provide their phone number, and sign. People who can’t read or write can replace their signature with a cross. At the end of the procedure, a form is given to the voter. This document includes a code, the voter’s information (last name, first name, and NINU), as well as the details of their polling center: center name, department, municipality, communal section, and address. The center chosen at the time of registration will be the one where the voter has to cast their vote on election day. If this form is lost or stolen, no replacement procedure is provided on site. The officials just recommend keeping it safe.Only two agents handle on-site registrations. They work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with no replacements, and are assigned to this center for three months. The work is initially completely manual: the information is written on a paper form before being entered into a tablet. During the day, one of the agents ran out of forms. Operations were briefly halted while a new stack became available, adding to the wait. You can see the fatigue on the faces of both agents, who keep working despite the heat. When there aren’t many people, registration can be done in less than ten minutes. But that day, the conditions weren’t right to take advantage of that.Between July 20 and August 3, about 60,000 voters were already registered on the electoral roll. According to the president of the Provisional Electoral Council, Jacques Desrosiers, the institution plans to register between 3 and 4 million voters before October 13, the date set for the end of the registration process.
By past 2 PM, the two agents were still filling out forms under scorching heat, while citizens were still waiting their turn. If the CEP’s goal is to register between 3 and 4 million voters by October 13, the challenge will lie in the ability of the registration centers to handle the crowd without discouraging citizens who want to exercise their right to vote.
