Haiti election schedule ushers in year of tensions

Significance

This will be a hectic electoral year, with a referendum on a new, as yet unknown, constitution scheduled for April and then presidential, legislative and local elections later in the year. Tensions will be high ahead of these polls, especially given opposition concerns that President Jovenel Moise will seek re-election and to entrench himself in power.

Impacts

• Major investments will be paused in 2021 as businesses wait for electoral tensions to pass.
• Given Haiti’s weak economy, international funding may be needed to allow all the elections to be held.
• Any sustained increase in violence could lead the UN to consider a temporary pre-election peacekeeping or monitoring deployment.