Haiti

With Haiti facing the dual challenges of addressing the impact of Hurricane Matthew and restarting preparations for the holding of the much-anticipated elections, the United Nations envoy for the Caribbean country today expressed support for the recommended extension of the UN mission there by six months until mid-April 2017.

For the first time since a cholera epidemic believed to be imported by United Nations peacekeepers began killing thousands of Haitians nearly six years ago, the office of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has acknowledged that the United Nations played a role in the initial outbreak and that a “significant new set of U.N. actions” will be needed to respond to the crisis.

Buoyed by the desire to get a democratically elected government in Haiti, diplomats at the Organization of American States on Wednesday said they welcomed interim Haitian President Jocelerme Privert’s executive order for the country’s 5.8 million voters to report to the polls on October 9 to vote on a new president.

The United Nations and its partners in Haiti have today expressed concern that as the provisional president's agreed 120-day mandate has come to end, “no measures have been taken to ensure institutional continuity” in the island nation, where several key deadlines regarding the political transition process have been missed.

“He is concerned that this situation has the potential to adversely affect international support to Haiti,” a statement issued by the Secretary-General’s spokesperson said. Mr. Ban also reiterated the need for a democratically elected leadership to take on the growing socio-economic and humanitarian challenges the country faces.

The United Nations Security Council has expressed its deep disappointment that Haitian actors failed to meet the election and inauguration deadlines agreed upon in the February political accord, calling on all actors to ensure the prompt return to constitutional order.

Deeply concerned that the agreed upon date for holding elections in Haiti was not met over the weekend and that no alternate electoral calendar was announced, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today reiterated his strong support for the completion, “without delay,” of the 2015 polls.

[…] During a recent visit to the UN headquarters to brief the Security Council, Ms. Honoré [Head of MINUSTAH] sat down with the UN News Centre to discuss the second round of the presidential elections scheduled to be held on 24 April 2016. Artikeltext

Haiti's runoff presidential election, which has been postponed multiple times amid a paralyzing electoral crisis, will not be held at the end of the month as previously scheduled, its election authority said Tuesday. … The runoff elections, which were originally scheduled for December 27, were postponed to January before being rescheduled for April 24.