Chairman of the Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti

Laurent Saint-Cyr, Chair of the Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti

Haiti has not had an elected president since the assassination of Jovenel Moïse on 7 July 2021, nor a sitting parliament since January 2020. Since 25 April 2024 the country’s executive authority has been held collectively by a seven-member Transitional Presidential Council (Conseil Présidentiel de Transition, CPT), whose chair rotates among four of its members every five months. Laurent Saint-Cyr — a private-sector representative designated by the Haitian Chamber of Commerce and Industry — assumed the chair on 7 August 2025, the fourth and final of the Kingston Accord rotating chairs, succeeding Fritz Alphonse Jean. The CPT was established under a CARICOM-mediated political accord signed in Kingston on 11 March 2024 after the resignation of de facto prime minister Ariel Henry, whose government had lost control of most of the capital to the Viv Ansanm gang coalition led by Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier.

Saint-Cyr, a Port-au-Prince-born businessman and former president of the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce (2018–2020) and the Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie d’Haïti (2021–2024), represents the CHCI in the CPT. He does not hold a political party affiliation. The chair’s role is formally first-among-equals: the CPT acts by consensus of its seven voting members, with major decisions requiring at least five votes. Executive day-to-day administration is handled by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, appointed by the CPT on 10 November 2024 after the removal of Garry Conille, who had held the post since 3 June 2024.

Gang Violence and the Multinational Security Support Mission

The CPT has governed through the worst security collapse of Haiti’s modern history. UN OCHA reported that 5,601 Haitians were killed by armed violence in 2024 — a 1,000% increase from pre-2021 baselines — and roughly one million are internally displaced, almost all from the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince where gangs control an estimated 85% of territory. The UN Security Council authorised the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) in October 2023; its first contingents of roughly 400 Kenyan officers arrived in June 2024, eventually reaching some 1,200 personnel from Kenya, Jamaica, Guatemala, El Salvador, the Bahamas and Belize by early 2025. In February 2026 the Security Council, after sustained US lobbying, approved conversion of the MSS into a formal UN peacekeeping mission with a more robust mandate, scheduled for deployment in mid-2026.

The Planned 2026 Elections

The CPT’s formal mandate was to organise elections before 7 February 2026 and hand over to an elected president on that date. In December 2025 the council formally extended its mandate through 2026, citing security conditions. A Provisional Electoral Council was seated in March 2025 and a constitutional referendum was nominally scheduled for mid-2026, to be followed by general elections in November 2026. Whether conditions will allow a credible vote — or whether the MSS-turned-UN mission will stabilise enough territory in time — remains the central political question of the transition.

TPC Membership

The seven voting members represent distinct political coalitions: Edgard Leblanc Fils (Collectif du 30 janvier); Smith Augustin (EDE/Compromis Historique); Fritz Alphonse Jean (Montana Accord); Louis Gérald Gilles (Pitit Desalin); Leslie Voltaire (Fanmi Lavalas); Emmanuel Vertilaire (Pitit Desalin, replaced Jean-Charles Moïse in 2024); and Laurent Saint-Cyr (private sector). Two non-voting observers from civil society and the Protestant federation also sit on the council. The rotating presidency formula — restricted to four of the seven — emerged from the March 2024 Kingston agreement.