Haiti's revised electoral decree of October 6 cuts candidate registration fees for every office except the presidency, which stays at 2 million gourdes, about $15,400.

Senate candidates now pay 400,000 gourdes instead of 800,000. Candidates for the Chamber of Deputies pay 100,000 instead of 300,000, and municipal council slates 50,000 instead of 100,000. Fees for communal section councils fall to 15,000 gourdes and for communal section assemblies to 5,000.

Candidates no longer need certificates from the central bank, the National Old-Age Insurance Office or the Industrial Development Fund, nor a medical certificate. The decree also drops the requirement to prove that a candidate's assets are free of foreign sanctions, but people under UN sanctions remain barred.

Some contested rules stay. Parties and coalitions must still show 30,000 members and supporters to field candidates, and independent candidates must show the support of 150,000 people. Critics have called the verification of those lists a “fiasco.”

The decree also allows online voter registration with a valid national ID card, the news site HaitiLibre reported. As of October 12, the electoral council had registered 810,696 voters.

Political parties had complained for months that high fees and paperwork would keep young candidates and small organizations out of the race.