ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Opposition Leader Jesma Paul has criticized the report into electoral reform undertaken by former president of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Sir Dennis Byron, saying there are many issues still to deal with.
Speaking during the debate on the EC$1.3 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cent) budget, Paul, an independent legislator who contested the December 20, 2022, general election that the main opposition political parties boycotted, said the report “does not ensure the cleansing of the voter’s list of those persons who have been resident overseas for the past five years as our law stipulates.”
Sir Dennis had been appointed as the sole commissioner advancing the efforts towards electoral reform, a significant issue in Dominica with the opposition parties, the United Workers Party (UWP) and the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP), boycotting the last general election.
In June, he wrote to Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and the UWP president Lennox Linton, indicating that he has “completed my review of the electoral legislation, systems, and processes in the Commonwealth of Dominica.
“This completes my assignment on the improvement of the electoral process in Dominica,” Dennis wrote in his June 12 letter apologizing for not meeting the original deadline to have completed the exercise by April 2023.
Dennis said that the package submitted to the government was the draft House of Assembly (Elections) Bill 2023, the draft House of Assembly (Election) Regulations, and the draft House of Assembly Election Petition Rules 2023, among other documents.
The former CCJ president said that while the presentation of the report may indicate the conclusion of his contribution to enhancing the electoral process, he remains willing to address any inquiries or provide any further support needed to bring the process to a close.
Paul told legislators that the report also does not “provide any meaningful campaign finance reform given that the government-controlled Electoral Commission can increase the amount of election campaign during an election campaign.
“It imposes no limit on spending before the prime minister calls an election,” she said, adding, “It simply fails to provide for the need for voter identification cards with biometric data to counter the fraud effectively.
“Rather, it provides for national identification cards, which would not guarantee that persons holding these cards are eligible to vote. It fails to guarantee that all opposition parties have full access to private and public media, while it proposes certain monetary and custodial penalties for violating Dominica’s electoral laws”.
Paul, the parliamentary representative for Salisbury, on the island’s west coast, said the report by Sir Dennis “fails to propose the additional penalty of having those convicted of violating Dominica’s electoral laws.
“It stops short of providing the additional penalty of disqualifying any person convicted of such offenses from contesting elections in the future. It provides a formula for Dominicans abroad, who visit Dominica for over five years, to be considered residents in Dominica, thus making them eligible to vote.”
Paul said the report provides for the registration of voters overseas, “thereby opening the door for …manipulation of this process.”.
But Planning, Economic Development, Climate Resilience, Sustainable Development, and Renewable Energy Minister, Dr. Vance Henderson, told legislators that if there are issues with the report, there will be opportunities to air them during the public consultation as indicated by the government.
“The prime minister has said it. We have, in fact, an entire schedule of consultation, “he said, reminding the opposition that everyone in Dominica will be able to make their position known then.
“People will participate in the process, and it is only then with the guidance and support of the OAS, the Organization of American States, the personnel, the experts they will send, the Commonwealth Secretariat…so we are bringing all of them to participate in the process so that you can express your views.
“Don’t come here …attacking the report. Get the people to speak for you, speak their minds, and say what they would like to see in a modernized system of our election process.
“This is what we should be talking about and trying to cast aspersion on the prime minister and saying he should not be the one contracting the report; he did not write the essay. We did not write the message.
‘Sir Dennis submitted his report. You were asking for it, you remember. The opposition was asking for the report, they gave deadlines for it, and as soon as they got the report shifted the debate, and now they are attacking something else,” Henderson told legislators.
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