PM Skerrit stresses electoral reform as key to strengthening Dominica’s democracy

Dominica: Prime Minister Dr Roosevelt Skerrit emphasized electoral reforms as crucial to strengthening Dominica’s democracy, while presenting his address at the National Assembly on Monday. 

He highlighted that the reforms are not just about improving the electoral process, but to create a fairer and more inclusive system that upholds all the fundamental rights of every citizen.  

The Dominican Prime Minister inaugurated his speech by highlighting the journey of electoral reforms which initiated in 2013, when the government drafted the legislations by consulting the electoral commission.  

He also noted all the challenges faced by the government during the journey, including those during Tropical Storm Erika.  

“We were hit by tropical storm Erica in 2015, and by the quarter one of 2016, we went, and we purchased the equipment required to issue ID cards for the purpose of voting,” he added. 

Voting Rights and electoral reforms are key to constitutional reforms 

The Prime Minister said that integrating electoral reforms are necessary as they are critical in managing constitutional reforms due to the right to vote.  

He stated right to vote the most important key to for a smoother functioning of Democracy and suggested that it should be fair and protected for stronger decisions to be made.  

“We understand in the government that electoral reform is akin to constitutional reform because of the of the fundamental right of citizens to vote,” he said.  

He also emphasized on the context of voting rights in Dominica stating that a citizen should be a landowner or should have money in order to be eligible to vote in Dominica. 

He stated these rules as ‘Contemporary history’ and then shed light on the improvements planned.  

According to the Prime Minister, the Dominican Diaspora residing in different parts of the world will be able to vote for Dominica with the new reforms. He stated that they will need to visit Dominica and avail for a confirmation process to secure their voting rights.  

He noted it as a necessary step as he mentioned that those who will not register them will certainly lose their voting rights. The PM called the Saint Kitts model of electoral reform as an inspiration to the new amendments.  

“We studied the Saint Kitts model, and one of the models of the electoral commission of Saint Kitts and Nevis went to major cities across the world where they were high in concentration, so we decided to adopt a similar approach,” the PM said.  

PM Skerrit Calls for Transparency  

While he discussed all the key points of electoral reforms, his address highlighted the role of fairness and transparency in elections.  

As he emphasized on these aspects, he stated that the government also intends to invite international observers from different Caribbean organizations including the OECS, CARICOM and EU to sit in the parliament and witness the debate.  

He stated it to be a crucial step as it will lead to discussions and debates, ultimately creating informed and properly structured legislation.  

As he discussed the electoral reforms, PM Skerrit said that his government will provide reformed legislation by the end of the first quarter of 2025, noting it as to be crucial for the island’s democratic development.  

He also noted that they have been making all the bills available online as they are consistently uploaded on the government’s website. He stated that these bills could be read by everyone interested in knowing about the legislation.  

“The same bills were also published on website of the government of Dominica in May 2024. So that anyone from Dominica, who want to access the legislation could have read it, as it could have been downloaded from phone or other devices,” PM Skerrit said.  

Role of Sir Dennis Byron in drafting the legislations 

The Dominican Prime Minister’s address at the National Assemble also honored the role of  Sir Charles Michael Dennis in creating the legislations.  

“There's nobody in the Caribbean who can parallel him, so Dennis Byron in terms of his intellectualist understanding of the law and the judiciary, we brought him on,” said PM Skerrit in his honour.  

He then also added that if the reports for these reforms would have passed  back in 2017, then they would have the electoral reforms even before the elections of 2019.  

However, he noted the delay as he spoke, “We wrote to the electoral commission in May of 2024. We asked them whether they could respond to us by the end of June 2024. When I was not hearing from them, we sought to inquire what was going on. They said they didn't want it more time.”