Haiti left with no elected government officials as it spirals towards anarchy

There is now no constitutional representation at any state level, the latest sign that the country has become a failed state.

Haiti is plagued by a series of acute, overlapping crises as gangs violently exploit a power vacuum to expand their control of the capital.

The breakdown of Haitian democracy and its institutions has made it impossible to confront warring factions, who now control an estimated two-thirds of Port-au-Prince.

Home to 12 million, Haiti has not held timely legislative elections since October 2019 and was plunged further into uncertainty when its president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in July 2021 by Colombian mercenaries in circumstances that remain unclear.

All local and national political mandates have now expired, while questions hang over the constitutional legitimacy of the interim government which has set no dates for the next round of elections.

Henry is seen as illegitimate by most Haitians and his request in October for foreign military intervention was seen by critics as an effort to shore up a weak and unelected government.

The explosion of gang violence engulfing Haiti has caused famine, forced hospitals to close and probably contributed to the re-emergence of cholera.

A record 4.7 million people are facing acute hunger with 1.8 million at a critical level of malnutrition, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).

In October 2022 the NGO for the first time raised its hunger alert in Haiti to level 5, the highest category often reserved for wartime famine.

Several leading opposition politicians have rejected the agreement and only three of the five-member transition council members have been appointed.

Activists in Haiti have warned that any foreign force would be the latest in a long history of miscalculated foreign intervention attempts in the Caribbean.

But a near-term political solution from within Haiti also looks unlikely.

The 10 senators whose terms expired on Monday met irregularly but had no power in practice as parliament was no longer convening.