By Harold Isaac
PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 11 (Reuters) - Haiti's security is not at a level needed to hold elections this August, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime said in an interview broadcast on Monday, as the Caribbean's most populous nation awaits its first presidential vote in a decade.
Elections in Haiti have been repeatedly delayed by various governments as powerful armed gangs cement their power over the capital and spread to rural and central Haiti, killing thousands and displacing over a million people in recent years.
"It is clear that the security conditions are not met at the level for us to have elections in August," Fils-Aime told the editor-in-chief of Haiti's oldest newspaper Le Nouvelliste in an interview on Magik9 radio.
"I would like for elections to happen by the end of the year," he added. "On February 7, we would have an elected president."
Fils-Aime took over from a transitional presidential council on February 7 this year, a pivotal date for the transfer of power in Haiti, though one that is frequently flouted by leaders seeking to extend their term in government.
Haiti's last president Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021 after he put off organizing elections. His murder left a political vacuum during which already powerful gangs extended their influence over almost all of the capital Port-au-Prince.
Preparations for elections have been set back by worsening insecurity in Haiti, as gangs cement their alliances and spread to rural and central parts of the country, limiting authorities' abilities to guarantee a free and fair voting process.
At the same time, the United Nations and United States have tied their commitments to support Haiti's security forces to the government holding elections.
Voter registration should have begun on April 1, and the country's electoral council had previously scheduled a first round vote for August 30 and runoff vote in December. More than 280 political parties were approved to compete.
"We are not going to hand an encyclopedia to the population to choose from," Fils-Aime said. "Choice is a good thing but too much choice is not necessarily what is needed. I would love for us to have elections with 10 to 15 presidential candidates."
He said the government was in talks with political parties over an electoral decree, but that he was not yet satisfied with the budget the council proposed for the election.
Business owners have in recent days called out renewed attacks by gangs around the country. Delphine Gardere, the CEO of Haiti's 154-year-old rum maker Rhum Barbancourt, said one of her employees was shot dead overnight in the capital.
(Reporting by Harold Isaac and Sarah Morland; Editing by Natalia Siniawski)
