President Moïse pressed forward with his controversial constitutional referendum plans in June 2021, announcing a schedule for the vote despite persistent opposition from civil society, legal scholars, and international organizations who argued the process was illegal and would serve primarily to entrench executive power. The announcement that the referendum would be bundled with legislative and local elections did little to satisfy critics who questioned the fundamental legality of the constitutional revision process.
The draft constitution that Moïse was seeking to impose through referendum had been developed by a commission appointed by his government, without the broad consultative process that legitimate constitutional reform would require. Civil society organizations that had participated in some of the consultations reported that their input had been selectively incorporated or ignored.
Opposition parties and civil society coalitions organized sustained campaigns to delegitimize the referendum process, calling on Haitians to boycott the vote and on international partners to refuse to validate its results. They argued that a constitution imposed through an illegal referendum process would not have genuine popular legitimacy regardless of the turnout or results.
The international community’s response was mixed. Some partners expressed concern about the constitutional process while maintaining support for elections. Others were more directly critical of the referendum plans. The ambivalence of international actors gave Moïse enough room to continue pushing his agenda even as domestic opposition remained intense.