CDL-AD(2024)042: Final Opinion on constitutional and legislative solutions for future electoral processes

The Venice Commission's final opinion on Haiti's electoral framework. It follows the interim opinion of June 2024 and the high-level meetings held in Washington DC on 28, 29 and 30 October 2024, under the auspices of the OAS Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation, between a Commission delegation and representatives of the Presidential Transitional Council, the Steering Committee of the National Conference, the Provisional Electoral Council and the National Identification Office.

On timing it is blunt. Informed that the Transitional Presidential Council intended to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in February 2026, in line with its non-renewable mandate, and that a constitutional referendum would be organised at the end of March 2025, the Commission finds the planned pace surprisingly fast. It does not consider it realistic to expect even a minimum level of security in the short term, holds that the incontestable priority is the restoration of security and of basic supplies, and concludes that envisaging a constitutional referendum in four months appears moot.

On legal form it accepts that the rules for the referendum, which should in principle be adopted by Parliament, may be laid down by executive decree given that Parliament does not exist, and states that the organisation of the referendum will necessarily follow an extraconstitutional procedure.

On substance it asks that the sources of instability in the 1987 Constitution be eliminated, naming four: the cumulative effect of partial renewal of the chamber with no transitional arrangement for delayed elections, the absence of a permanent electoral management body, the absence of permanent electoral legislation, and the absence of a permanent court competent for electoral disputes. It recommends taking the 2021 decree or the legislation applied at the last elections as the point of departure, adding a transitional provision that gives the transitional executive power to adopt the rules for the first elections, and writing the main features of the electoral system and administration into the future Constitution.

Its issue-by-issue recommendations cover security conditions for registration, suspension of political rights for those under international sanctions as well as sentenced criminals, voting by displaced persons in their place of actual residence for their former constituency, gradual introduction of out-of-country voting on a broad political consensus, standards-compliant use of digital technologies for transmitting results, effective measures towards gender parity and youth representation, and public money for campaigns, limited to parties that clear a set share of the vote.

The June 2024 interim opinion is reprinted as an appendix, which is why the file runs to 27 pages.