Gov’t approves $1.6-million for National ID Cards

A photo sample of a multi-purpose ID Card which was being circulated back in 2014

Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Roosevelt Skerrit, has announced that funds amounting to E.C. $1.6-million have been allocated and approved for the Electoral Office for the design and development of a biometric ID management system to provide for National ID cards.

Speaking at a Town Hall meeting at the Baracoon building in Roseau on Thursday evening, Skerrit said that the monies have been made available as a “step towards ensuring that everybody could have an ID” by the time of the next general election comes around.

Skerrit also pointed ‘scaremongering’ by the Opposition United Workers Party (UWP) about economic citizens coming to Dominica to vote saying the laws are very clear and there are criteria that must be met before any voting is done.

“There is a qualification process for anybody to register to vote in Dominica. You have to live in Dominica for a period of time, and they are giving people the impression that the people who are resident elsewhere, all elections, they will just come and vote in Dominica…this cannot happen,” he said.

He stated that these actions are just an attempt to “mislead our people,” and get them to have a different view of the government and its efforts.

This is not the first time the government has promised National ID Cards for Dominicans.

Speaking on Kairi’s Heng Program in 2011, Skerrit said the government was aiming to have National ID Cards ready for use in the next general election, which was constitutionally due in 2015.

At a Dominica Labour Party rally on March 12, 2013, then Health Minister, Julius Timothy, revealed that 100,000 national ID cards could be made available to Dominicans by the end of 2013.

He said Cabinet had given the commitment to provide US$96,000 for the issuance of the first 100,000 cards.

This was in addition to a US$3.14 million contract awarded to 3M Innovative Properties to provide multipurpose ID cards to Dominicans.

“Based on the project plan, the Electoral Commission will begin to issue identification cards before the end of this year. So our National ID Cards will be ready and issued,” Timothy said back then.

But figures back then (in 2013) from the Electoral Office showed that the number of those enrolled for the cards was a far cry from the 100,000 mentioned by Timothy.

According to the figures, just 3,900 were enrolled for the cards back then and the Electoral Office made it clear that the cards would not be available for the 2015 General Election.

 

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

28 Comments

  1. concerned
    September 20, 2018

    wait, how many voters card? and how many persons are eligible to vote? where’s the accuracy in numbers?

  2. jonathan st jean
    March 19, 2017

    Skerritt we are watching you.Remember how many times you and your ministers announced that the hospital was coming before it actually got started, therefore knowing the importance and possible implications ID cards can have for the general elections,I don’t believe it till I see it,much less you saying that they will be available for the next general elections.You have lied before

  3. CONSCIOUS
    March 19, 2017

    That is not good. too many people can have the same birth date. Everyone should have a social security number. This should be done by the social security. Haitians have been making passport already where do you thing they get birth date. All cemetry.

  4. Buggery in all its forms is not good!
    March 18, 2017

    Where is the $1.6M coming from? Passport sales? Of course, Dominica’s government has no other income. Skerrit is a bounder.

  5. Lady Gaga
    March 18, 2017

    If these cards ever come to fruition, everybody and their nenen is going to have them because they going to have their people distributing in Orange, New Jersey, in the VIs, in New York etc. Then Ske Ske going to say once they have the cards it means they are eligible to vote, Just you wait and see. What a mess !

  6. Man bites Dogs
    March 18, 2017

    Yes prime minister,we need ID cards to vote i for a fact know some people voting in Marigot then come down to Roseau on a false address to vote for workers party it been going on for a long time now, We must have proper Identification in place to stop Linton,and his pirates from cheating on us. I’m sure fed up with that United so-called Workers Party taking us public and government for fools, this crazy crap couldn’t have happened in the UK. Please Scotland Yard and MI5 help us in Dominica to sort this opposition pirate party out before the volcano.

  7. Jon Jones
    March 18, 2017

    I am sick of hearing this man tell lie after lie and get away with it. However, I fully realise that this could only happen in an environment where the people have low ambitions and expect support from a benefactor for their daily existence. After 400 years of slavery little has changed

    Today’s DLP has created this environment of keeping the majority of Dominicans poor, uneducated and needy. There will be some that recieve gifts and other priviledges but overall they have sent this island backwards in comparison to its neighbours. A small mind cannot concieve a big picture.

    ‘In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king’. One day the message will sink in.

  8. Roger
    March 18, 2017

    Skerite don’t think u goinge to esCape or run and hide after we kick your butt out of office. You ..tony astaphans…Nantan…. the ghost….the rot willer…and all the others will rot in the stock farm prison for all the crimes against humanity!!!!! We will finish youp people… we will not sleep…we will not eat until we the people of Dominica make u people pay for what u have done to us and our country….

  9. Fedex Express Delivery
    March 17, 2017

    I vote in the US that’s​ loaded with millions of voters and in my 20 plus years of voting in the US I honestly cannot remember ever being asked for my voters if card or if I ever received one. I usually give them my drivers license and I good to go. So I don’t see the significance of national ID card to vote. The main thing is to clean up the voters lost to make sure that only qualified people according to our Constitution vote. For example, a young lady from Woodford Hill that voted in Florida passed about 5 years ago and her name was immediately removed from the voters list; but do you know her name still appears on the voters list of Woodford Hill, Dominica and may have voted though dead? My point is clean up the voters first and protect our election process and for now save that 1.6 million dollars

  10. Not a herd follower
    March 17, 2017

    Roosevelt Skerrit, when are you going to stop lying to the people of Dominica? Can’t you stop yourself from lying? Do you have a pathological condition?

    DNO, thanks for reminding us of the past lies.

  11. %
    March 17, 2017

    I welcome National ID CARD,,,but the opposition has to study Skerrits trick VERY,VERY VERY WELL. The man is shameless,and lies like a ……!!!Every election cycle for the past 15 years, people who dont meet the residency criteria are brought in …DOMINICANS HAVE BEEN REJECTING YOU SKERRIT,and will reject you again..You are an obstacle to progress in Dominica..You are a shameful embarrassment to Dominica….SKERRIT MUST GO!SKERRIT MUST GO!SKERRIT MUST GO!!

    • KID ON THE BLOCK
      March 17, 2017

      %, You are such an ***HOLE!

      • March 20, 2017

        Kid on the block it takes one to know one, you jackass, kept on kicking your master skerrit behind, this is why he and his cronies will abuse people knowing fools like you will laugh, clap, dance, rejoice etc. Shame shame shame you are a disgrace

  12. DRASTIC
    March 17, 2017

    LIES, lies and more lies as usual…Do these guys have a conscience???

  13. NUWPl
    March 17, 2017

    DNO the word was COULD NOT WIILL BE AVAILABLE OK. It’s because things have to be put in place before. So don’t come with your Timothy story to try to divert the attention of the electorates. You should be happy that we are getting once step closer with the national ID card like England American and grate countries are now using. We getting a card that we can use for multipurposes not just for election. Why spend millions on a card to use only once every five years? Our govt is prudent not like the UWP which was just a scndamaia of state money like he did with the fountain on the bayfront.

    • The Thinker
      March 17, 2017

      The U.K. do not have I.D. cards.

    • Wiser
      March 18, 2017

      Who tell you America using ID cards lmao smh

  14. Frank Talker
    March 17, 2017

    Skerrit, dem man you offering 0% salary increase, is they that going to implement the $1.6 million ID Card system or you have some other people on the side that will do it for you? You cannot be telling dem civil servants and police that they doe deserve money, yet you have cash to pay some foreign company $1.6 million? You also have cash giving every village council, and even de bishop of Roseau, but when it comes to the people working for you, you telling dem to eat roast fig and cocoy for breakfast? Garcon, I would tell you one mo…………………………………..

    • NUWPl
      March 17, 2017

      CBI al u ask for all Dominicans to benifit now he doing it all u have a problem??? Hahahahha but wat al u really want nah? Hahahah boy u all have jokes we boy. Alas all u gaway all u don’t even know wat to do or say again. Good thing the govt is focus on the needs of the people and the people love their govt and the govt love it’s people. See pm giving $100,000.00 to a whole village. BUT LENNOX GIVING OVER $155,000.0 to one man. Hahahah. Gasa idk where and when will the UWP find it self. In 2014 the pm told us “LENNOX LINTON IS A DANGER TO DOMINICA AND ITS POITICS” and wee seeing it today. But all the money he making there he have to pay all and more to people for his Lang sal (dirty tongue). He have to go fuh wen Dominicans finish with him. Dats the second Patrick john in the making. Jail band and for Dominica politics. Edison was the Caribbean biggest joke now Lennox is well on his way to become the Caribbean biggest political fool. He has become a international embarrassment.

      • Papa Dom
        March 18, 2017

        Such a fool! I feel sorry for you

      • Jon Jones
        March 18, 2017

        Whoever wrote this is a living idiot.

      • Look It
        March 20, 2017

        Happy that you are agreeing that ALL Dominicans, which I might I is the majority wasn’t benefiting form CBI

  15. Tjebe fort
    March 17, 2017

    Well spotted DNO. This is not new. What happened to the U.S.$.3.14 millionspen on the 3 M contract plus the U.S.E$.96.000 for the first 100,000 cards more than four years ago?. Roosevelt. Not all Dominicans are gullible or have memoire poule. Roosevelt, please stop treating our people like idiots. Lennox Linton has opened a lot of people’s eyes.

  16. jihan
    March 17, 2017

    Skerrit stop the lies i know of several people that have been it the US for years and have not been back home,and they were recruited to come down and vote,am waiting for the next election,and you will be caught in the cookie jar.STOP FOOLING THE POOR PEOPLE MAN.i KNOW OF ONE MAN WHO WAS HERE FOR 10 YEARS AND HE WAS GIVEN A TICKET.Next election you will be exposed and your recruits.

  17. Look It
    March 17, 2017

    “There is a qualification process for anybody to register to vote in Dominica. You have to live in Dominica for a period of time, and they are giving people the impression that the people who are resident elsewhere, all elections, they will just come and vote in Dominica…this cannot happen,” he said.

    GOD HAVE TO DEAL WITH SKERRIT EH!!!

    I can tell you, in the village i am from, about 20 people came down to vote for labour and I know for a fact that they all left the country over 10 years and only 3 of these people actually visited DA once that year for carnival and one came for the summer.. AND THEY ALL SAID PARTICLUARLY THIS ONE WOMAN, “ANY AND EVERY TIME SKERRIT SEND FOR ME TO VOTE, I COMING AND VOTE… AND NOBODY CAN STOP ME, SO WHAT THEY PAID FOR MY TICKET, ALLU CANNOT DO NOTHING, LABOUR BOND TO STAY IN POWER FOREVER.”

    and Skerrit making that comment now STUPSSSSSSSS

    • Lady Gaga
      March 18, 2017

      What I always wish would happen to these brazen people is that they would get stuck in DA during the subsequent 5 years after they vote. You would see them run from DA like bats out of hell when the next election period comes and they are able to go back to their bon temp in Merica.

  18. Iamanidiot
    March 17, 2017

    “There is a qualification process for anybody to register to vote in Dominica. You have to live in Dominica for a period of time, and they are giving people the impression that the people who are resident elsewhere, all elections, they will just come and vote in Dominica…this cannot happen,”

    Wh-wh-WHAT?!!?! Dear PM, I am in the polling station every election and I see people voting who I know hasnt been in Dominica since the last election coming to vote, not even showing ID, so please, explain that statement.

  19. CRIME STOPPERZ
    March 17, 2017

    it may backfire on allu . VOTERS ID CARDS WE NEED

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available