Jacqueline Charles
A nationwide survey conducted by Chatham House, the London-based think tank, found that while 81% of Haitians nationwide believe restoring security is necessary to stabilize the country, they also believe tackling education and healthcare should be top priorities.
The Haitian National Opinion Poll, shared with the Miami Herald, surveyed 1, 332 Haitians across the country in May as the new Gang Suppression Force, authorized by the United Nations and supported by the U.S., began ramping up. The surver was conducted by Q-Q Research Consultants on behalf of Chatham House, which has been holding a series of discussions about Haiti’s security crisis since last fall.
Among the poll’s findings, 69% of the respondents listed education as a top priority followed closely by health care at 67%. These views reflect the broader toll of Haiti’s security crisis, which has shuttered hospitals and forced the closures of about 1,600 schools as gangs cut off access. People who have been forced by gangs to flee their homes have turned the schools into makeshift encampments.
With nearly a half million students having their education disrupted and increasingly at risk of dropping out of school or being recruited by armed gangs, the U.N. has warned that Haiti’s education system is in freefall.
“Haitians want to survive, but they also want to move forward,” said Christopher Sabatini, director of Chatham House’s Latin America Program.
Broad support for elections
The poll, conducted in persom, also gauged Haitian attitudes toward elections, and found there is broad support for the vote, scheduled for Dec. 13. Sabatini said the results reflect both the hopes and frustrations after 10 years without general elections, and the lack of faith in politicians. Nearly 90% of respondents said elections are important, while more than half of respondents said they were likely to participate.
”I think it’s desperation, hope, if you will,” he said. “What other alternatives are there? You’ve got an interim government that no one elected, got no elected officials, up or down, from the commune level all the way up to the presidency, the parliament. They do need elections.”
The challenge, he said, is whether Haitians will participate if the offerings are exactly what they’ve always seen.
“What it doesn’t do is actually measure their capacity to participate, like for security reasons, for the complication of the balloting process. So there’s a real disconnect between what I like to believe is a genuine sense of Haitians’ desire for elections for whatever reason, and the capacity to deliver,” Sabatini said.
Mathias Lauréus, a Haiti-based political analyst, concurred. He said while he is among those who wants elections, the question facing the country is under what conditions they will take place. The Provisional Electoral Council has launched voter registration drives and provided financial incentives for the 316 political parties authorized to field candidates to create coalitions and platforms. But academics, election observers and party leaders have questioned aspects of the process, while raising concerns about whether the vote will be fair and credible.
The skepticism extends to respondents’ view of Haiti’s politicians: 75% of Haitians surveyed said they don’t have any trust in political leaders, a figure that rose to about 80% among youth ages 18 to 29.
When asked by pollsters what would likely give them confidence in the process and encourage their participation in the election, a majority cited the presence of objective, honest election monitors.
The Chatham House poll’s findings contrast with a separate study released last month by the Institute of Caribbean Studies / Éditions Zèmes. The study, conducted by Shawnta Watson Walcott, interviewed 30 Haitian and Haitian-American opinion leaders, who said elections should not occur until the security situation improves.
”Restoring basic security by dismantling or neutralizing gang control is the non-negotiable first step,” the report stated. “Without it, elections, development programs and institutional reforms are perceived as largely theatrical.”
On Thursday the new international gang-fighting force, which began operations in June, entered a new phase of its deployment, opening a sector headquarter in the Artibonite region. Members of the Sri Lankan contingent arrived at the Sédren Terminal in Gonaives with helicopters, armored vehicles and other tactical equipment.
Soon afterward, two mission helicopters were seen conducting maneuvers over the city.
Chatham House’s study found a plurality of Haitians, 49%, approved of the new force, an improvement over other surveys that had found limited confidence in its ability to succeed.
The survey also found that 81% of respondents said they believed security is improving. But people who live in regions hit hardest by gang control and violence were far less likely to share that optimism: 67% of residents living in the region that encompasses Port-au-Prince said they felt less secure than before.
Haitians want justice
The poll also examined attitudes about justice and accountability as both Haitian authorities and the U.N. push the demobilization of gangs and the reintegration of gang members into society.
Nearly 67% of respondents oppose amnesty for gang leaders, while 65% support long prison sentences for gang members, the survey found. An even larger number of respondents, 83%, rejected the idea of allowing gang leaders to hold public office.
Those findings raise questions about what kinds of safeguards Haitian authorities have put in place to prevent gangs from being included in the electoral process and to protect the integrity of the vote.
“If you juxtapose the rejection of government representation with what’s going on the ground in terms of elections, you’ve got a real volatile cocktail there,” Sabatini said.
The Chatham House findings mirror those of another recent survey by the Institute for Research and Action for Peace (L’Institut de Recherche et d’Action pour la Paix) on security, justice and governance in Haiti.
The polling consulted 523 Haitians from mid-October to early December, and included displaced persons and community leaders in Port-au-Prince. That survey found that 47% of respondents in the capital preferred more robust security operations against gangs, as opposed to nearly 29% who supported opening channels of dialogue with them.
The majority, 60%, also opposed reduced prison sentences in exchange for collaboration; only 25% were open to that, while 15% were undecided.
Recommendations
Given Haitians demands for accountability, Chatham House recommends that authorities take immediate steps to establish independent, efficient courts and humane, safe prisons.
“In the case of under-18 gang members deemed subject to justice, it will demand the construction of juvenile courts and separate detention facilities,” the think tank said.
The recommendation highlights one of the biggest operational challenges facing the new gang fighting force, which has the authority to arrest gang members and their leaders. Haiti’s two largest prisons are still not operational after coordinated gang attacks in 2024 freed thousands of inmates, including gang leaders and members. The country’s remaining detention facilities are severely overcrowded while concerns have been raised about imprisoning gang members in parts of the country not currently under gang control.
Haiti’s prisons are not only notorious for their security lapses, but often the only way prisoners eat is if food is provided by friends and relatives.
The problems with Haiti’s prison system and lack of prison space was brought to light during last month’s U.N. Security Council meeting by Vanessa Frazier, the secretary-general’s special representative for children and armed conflict. Frazier testified that during a recent trip to Haiti, she had visited CERMICOL, a detention facility for children in Port-au-Prince. She was “deeply troubled” by what she witnessed, she told the council. Children had been held for years in severely overcrowded conditions alongside adults, she said.
“I was also gravely concerned by the conditions of detention. CERMICOL was designed to accommodate approximately 100 children. Yet, on the day of my visit, the facility held almost 600 detainees, of whom less than 100 were children,” Frazier said. “The remaining detainees were adults, many of whom should not have been accommodated in a facility intended for children. This severe overcrowding has further exacerbated the situation of children deprived of their liberty, who are confined to highly restricted spaces in order to maintain separation from the adults.”
