Chief Election Officer Steven Larocque has reported that although 3,900 people have been enrolled for the new national multi-purpose identification card, the process has been delayed slightly since employees are showing up for enrollment without birth certificates.
Speaking to state-owned DBS Radio, Larocque said that a number of Dominicans have been coming to the Electoral Office to register for the new card.
“We have seen a number of persons from the private sector,” he said. “I am just preparing a schedule for the next set for the month of July and August to take in as much as possible and as I have always said we are dealing with the general public then after. The private sector is the last grouping that we are going to deal with. The only thing that we have identified is a lot of persons don’t have a birth certificate.”
According to Larocque, individuals interested in enrollment should go the registry and get a birtrh certificate.
“So we are asking those who do not have a birth certificate to try and obtain one before they come and register,” he noted. “In the last count we had 3,900 persons enrolled so far, it is an ongoing thing. Initially it was to get persons on board the system when that is done we can continue as new persons will come in.”
He noted that when persons over 19 are registered, the Electoral Office wants to concentrate on those under 18.
“The intentions we have is to have all residents from 5 years and up with an ID card,” Larocque noted.
The Electoral Commission has made it clear the ID cards will not be used in the upcoming general election.
So i am Dominican and i can’t find my birth certificate and you are telling me that my passport is not good enough or social security card.
Sorry but if i am coming from far and i have to go pay for a birth certificate and i can’t use no other form of ID then i may just lose interest in the electoral process.
We need to put more thought into the way we do things.
They need to hire an independent agency to,do the registering and launched an island wide registering campaiign give temp cards and process the original later it’s not impossible how is my old grandmother who is 89 and is eligible to vote coming to me laroque office to register
If someone is the holder of a valid passport, should that person still have to bring his Birth Certificate along with him?
Is this Id card free?
Is this I’d card free?
If I come in with a red shirt and a toilet in my hand I must get an ID card
The baptism certificates are not accurate. My brother had such a hard time proving who he was because of the information that was erroneously placed on his baptismal certificate. Along with the birth certificate I think current passports should be allowed to be used. And one sugestion I would like to make is; why not get poeple to report for their ID cards in the months they were born? I that way the crowds will not be overbearing to the one processing the cards.
its a great idea, to get it fully implemented the government may have to limit certain services only to those that have the cards. Such as presenting such ID’s in order to obtain drivers licenses, school registration, passports etc.
Are you out of your mind???!!
Is the card valid for only 5 years before renewal? Why not 10 year? In the past, baptismal certificates were used to conduct official business like school registration. Can we use these certificates in signing up for the new ID card?
Read and understand! The card is given to person ages 5 years and up. It says nothing of valid period.
It appears as if it u who cant read. Look at the card again idiot….you will see there is an expiration date.
@ HNIC: Issue Date: 2013-07-19
Expiration Date: 2018-07-19
Do I need to add anything else? Thanks Voice, but I am sure that HNIC is not an idiot. Please forgive.
Steven Larocque and the other members of the Electoral Commission is not doing enough! If Antigua can do it in 3 months, why can’t Dominica do it? Clean the voters list of all the dead people who are listed to vote. This can’t be so difficult!
For the election to be free and fair, cleansing of the voters list must be done. My dad passed on 15 years ago and his name is still nn the voters list in the St Joseph constituency.
The Election commission need to be impartial to ensure elections are free and fair. It appears that this is not the case in Dominica!
God help us please!!!!
Positively Dominican
I totally agree that anything that can be legally done to update the list of eligible electors in the quickest possible time should be done.
I think I read in the Commission’s statement however, that the process of removing deceased people from the list was ongoing by verifying with an official reliable source of information, the registry of Dominica prior to removing the names.
Accordingly, I was waiting for you to expand on your allegation by saying that someone came to a polling station in St. Joseph and voted using your dead father’s name. It is only based on a situation such as this that you can conclude that your dead father’s name being on the voters’ list automatically renders an election unfair.
Brothers and Sisters can we please try to be more careful of the things we say? Remember we may be influencing the perspective of someone else who may not be able to think through these things for themselves.
Peace and love to all Dominicans!
If we read the news here we would realize the the OAS put a system in place to track birth, deaths and marriages. Why does every department want to work independently. If we work together with systems we already have in place then things would work so much easier.
I totally agree that we should make every effort to clean up the voters list for improved transparity. However I am uncertain as to how much difference it will actualy have on the outcome of election because your dead father for example still cannot vote even though he is listed. Your point is however well taken about making the voters list look free of ambiguities.