Haiti announces new election dates as 2,000 Salvadoran troops help fight gangs

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Haiti’s government has announced new election dates as police and soldiers backed by the recent arrival of more than 2,000 troops from El Salvador fight gangs.The Provisional Electoral Council said late Wednesday that the first round of general elections will be held next July 18 and the second round on Oct. 4. Haiti has not held elections in more than a decade and is run by an unelected prime minister. The presidency has been vacant since President Jovenel Moïse was killed in 2021.The council said it expects to publish the final candidate list, including those running for the presidency or the Senate, by mid-January, with May 20 marking the end of voter registration.The first round of elections was initially scheduled for Dec. 13, but was delayed by gang violence in Haiti’s central region and in Port-au-Prince. Four aviation technicians from El Salvador working with a U.N.-backed gang suppression force went missing on Oct. 18 in the capital after coming under attack.In response, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele sent more than 2,000 troops to Haiti to help rescue the four technicians, who the Haitian government says were abducted.El Salvador’s Ministry of ...