Haiti: Presidential elections to be held on Oct. 25, 2015

Haiti’s President Michel Martelly has issued an executive order that sets the legal framework for the holding on the long-delayed elections to renew elected members of all levels of government – including the legislature and all local government municipalities around the entire country.

The order marks the first step in a bid to resolve the political impasse.

The presidential elections will take place on the constitutionally set date of October 25, 2015. The the first round of the ballot to renew two thirds of the 30-member senate and to elect 118 members of the Lower Chamber could take place as early as July, according to a tentative calendar recently issued by elections authorities.

According to the country’s Prime Minister Evans Paul, the main obstacle to the organization of elections was the lack of legal provisions.

The first part of the executive order deals with the operational organization of the elections, while the second part modifies a June 2005 decree regarding the National Identification Card. Holders of expired identification cards will be able to vote – given that National Identification Office would not have the capacity to renew in time for the upcoming elections all the expired cards.

President Martelly has been governing the country by decree, after the country’s National Assembly (whose term in January) failed to to pass an electoral law in time.