Treasurer of the “fine-tuned” National Joint Action Movement (NJAM), Anthony E. Leblanc, is of the view that the pending report on the electoral reform assignment being undertaken by Sir Denis Byron, is taking far too long to be presented and can therefore be considered a “delaying tactic in order to delay the commencement of real reform.”
Leblanc made the observation while speaking during the launch of NJAM which aims to be at the forefront of galvanising and organising a national movement towards achieving better sustainable development results, improving democratic governance, and protecting democracy in Dominica. He was concerned that the many delays in producing the report may culminate with the calling of a snap general election in Dominica as recently seen in Barbados, without time to have comprehensive electoral reform.
Last month, Sir Dennis, the sole commissioner to advance efforts towards electoral reform in Dominica, announced another delay with his recommendations which Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he would promptly take to parliament to pass into law.
The eminent Caribbean Jurist who is being paid EC$450,000 for this exercise, revealed to state-owned DBS in December 2021, that the process had been taking longer than he had anticipated and would not be ready by the end of the year as previously promised. Instead, he gave a new target date of January 2022.
This current delay isn’t the first which has occurred since Skerrit broke the news at the swearing-in of his new cabinet in December 2019.
The process, which was originally due to commence in March 2020, finally got off the ground on 1 February 2021, with over 35 organisations – including political parties, recognised civic groups and non-governmental organisations, invited to make written submissions by Thursday 11 February.
The prime minister had initially announced that Sir Dennis would visit Dominica in March last year on an information-gathering exercise which would include exposure to all relevant stakeholders including the media.
The onset of COVID-19, which led to the closure of borders, forced a change of plans, and the start of the process was rescheduled to 1 September with an end date of December 2021.
Displeased with the tardiness of the report, Leblanc insisted that the people of Dominica need to gather and take all possible steps to ensure that the country has no more parliamentary elections without appropriate electoral reform.
“We call on all Dominicans to be vigilant and proactive to not allow another event, robbing the resident population of true democracy,” he said. “NJAM is calling on all people of goodwill to join the team and support in the quest for electoral reform, which will preserve peace and democracy in our beloved country.”
He says it’s been two years since the last general elections and laments what he describes as a lack of any “tangible commitment” to electoral reform or any necessary improvement to the electoral environment from either the current administrative arm of government or the Electoral Commission.
Leblanc referenced existing reports and the recommendations for reform, the Electoral Commission’s announcement in 2019 that it had both the funds and the equipment to do household verification of Dominicans in six weeks, and the legislative provision to allow the chief election official to issue voter ID cards and deemed it unacceptable that for the average size Grand Bay constituency of less than 3000 voters, the Electoral Commission could not do a pilot reform initiative of a house-to-house verification and the issuing of Voter IDs in three months.
“The fact that 21 months since the holding of the 2019 general elections under disgraceful electoral circumstances, a by-election was held in the Grand Bay constituency without one necessary electoral reform improvement, is the continuation of the attempt to deal death blows to our democracy,” Leblanc contended.
He said electoral reform will enable the to usher in a government in a peaceful environment wherein citizens accept the outcome as the desire of the majority of the eligible voters and turn their attention to the building and growth of the nation.
NJAM is therefore calling for “appropriate electoral reform” to include, independence of the Electoral Commission, financial independence, partisan independence and impartiality; campaign and candidate reform to include campaign finance reform and residency requirements for candidates as voters, and constituency boundry reform to give value to the constitutional stipulation that all constituencies shall constitute as nearly equal numbers of inhabitants as possible.
Other major concerns for NJAM include voter registration, verification and identification, fixed dates for general elections as well as a time limit by which the hearing and appeals are to be heard for legal challenges and election petitions “to be effective.”
Dominica News Online (DNO) has made several attempts to speak to representatives of the Electoral Commission and Sir Dennis to find out the reasons for some of the delays as well as a date on which the recommendations will be provided. Our attempts have so far been unsuccessful.
Until the UWP wins an election they will complain that the election is corrupt. The only fair election is the one that they win. Hmmm…let’s see – doesn’t that remind you of the clown in the United States called Donald Trump? Like Trump, the UWP’s policy on voting is “Heads I win, tails you lose”.
@jaded I guess you are too …. to know what a corrupt government is. Or, you don’t care about your country enough, you are profiting from the looting of our country, you are too lazy to be productive. I’m not looking or expecting anything from any party. All I’d like to see is accountability and transparency in your government which have been lacking for over twenty long years. Hey jaded! Do you know your “beloved” pm salary? Do you know his net worth? If you don’t, then America knows.
I am not sure if you understand the meaning of ‘non partisan’. Ther are a myriad of issues and ways to approach them which would be truly non partisan, the first of which is a true search for national consensus. What are the real aspirations and expectations of our people on education, on health care .. on the environment.. on culture. Far be it for me to tell you how to run your show… but anyhow you start off with demands without showing evidence of consensus and an approach which is designed to engage in constructive dialogue , then you are not serious about nonpartisanship. Otherwise just join the UWP,APP at el queue and take your shot. Good luck with that.
After hurricane Maria we the PEOPLE stayed back and rebuilt Dominica.Dominica belong to the people who rebuilt it and the people will work in the interest of the people.Jonathan,Dale Dangleben,Gabriel Christian,Norman Shillingfors,Shirley Allan,Emanuel Jno Finn and others,at the were living in working in, and for a foreign country.Lennox Linton with the blessings of NJAM went to the UN and told them ,DO NOT HELP Dominica,because Skerrit was committing crimes against Humanity.The UWP sat on their BSIDE and did nothing.Dominicans will never forget the blank cheque given to UWP by Government to help their constituency.There should be no electoral reform those who do not like what is going on GET OUT.We the PEOPLE put Dominica back on the face of the map and neither UWP nor NJAM(an arm of UWP)will tell Skerrit what to do
When we are tired with Skerrit we will remove him like we did Patrick John in 1979.In the meantime UWP,NJAM and their bunch of AHOLES can take a dose of F OOF(full off)
@Lin clown, you continue to express your dictatorial tendencies and …….. by suggesting that those who have Dominican citizenship by birth, even if they are living outside the country of Dominca and are legally afforded dual citizenship, have no rights according to “Dear leader Lin clown”. Based on your stupid and rediculous gutter reasoning, those tax payer from donor countries who donated to the recovery of Dominca after hurricane Maria, even if they weren’t born in the country, or have ever visited Dominca have more rights under your dictum than those Dominicans you hate and who you mentioned in your rubbish comment. You wish we would disappear because we dare to call out Skerritt and his lazy cabal thereby implicating persons like you who fleece the country for selfish personal gain. Your guilty conscience is eating you out so you wish we were gone from Dominca completely. This won’t happen so keep on writing nonsense.
Boss, if the Report was earlier, you would have said that THIS was done in a rush and you would try to invoke all sorts of problem with the report. The gentleman is taking his time and precaution to make sure all goes right to satisfy and please every ELECTORATE and POLITICAL PARTY, YOU already have a problem with that?
What is really WRONG with YOU POWER HUNGRY MAMMALS?
Just the opening paragraph says it all. Another Unpruned SUKER of the UWP.
I read no further.
Why you (pea brain KID) and Dog Biter don’t do some serious reading. Both of you always embarrass yourselves on this forum.
KID, electorate is not one person. It means all the eligible voters in a country or an area. Secondly, you have to be facetious to put forth that spurious reason for the delay in presenting the report.
I’m not looking forward in great anticipation of Mr. Denis Byron’s report. He had no prior experience, not even a nanosecond, in reforming any electoral system. The Commonwealth, OAS and CARICOM have given a comprehensive report on the best electoral reforms for Dominica. A report by a novice (Mr. Byron) isn’t necessary at this juncture in time.
KID, you would do yourself well if you go and educate yoourself by reading a book everyday.
We all know that it is a delaying tactic.Do you really believe skerrit would invite Justice Byron to conduct this exercise if he knew it would harm him politically?The goal is to have Byron publish his findings near the next general election and then skerrit will claim there is not enough to implement such measures.
Electoral reform is the only door of opportunity for Dominica. Nothing else. Any leader who is scared to play by the constitutional rules, is afraid of honesty, hiding and dealing in the shadows is a downright corrupt and deceitful dictator. We want fairness and uprightness. These should be some of the basic attributes of a leader. Skerrit doesn’t come close to being a leader. He is a sellout! And we want him out.
Mr Leblanc, the whole world has been impacted by Covid and all over the world the norms which we knew then is also put on hold, There is no delaying tactic as far as Covid is concerned. Have you asked about the health of the person doing the review? Do you know how or whether he has been able to conclude his review and present his report and recommendations since the onset of Covid? Get real. There are more important things in life than the silly things you whinge about. How do you think the families of the 47 people who have died so far from Covid are feeling? Elections and election reform is the last thing on people mind in these trying times.
Thanks god for Covid… another welcome excuse for this lying, corrupt PM.
Why the endless phantasms created by conjecture to establish a mischievous political agenda with a pretence to deceive. The remedy to destroy this mischievous political agenda of pretence, making it obsolete, is TIME, time will tell.
He who pays the piper calls the tune. Skerritt personally involved Dennis Byron to do his bidding and told us of it after the fact, not withstanding that the rubber-stamping colleagues of his would have had no choice but to go along with his decision, no ifs ands or buts. Skerritt is a weak leader who only plays by the rule of deceitfulness. Many play along with his scheme and personally benefit, the country and Constitution, be damned in his point of view. The process which Dennis has engaged in is fraught with misgivings from many quarters, but for half a million dollars, let the Dominican people eat crow, as far as these actors are concerned. Other countries have had electoral reform from which many lessons could have been learned to enable the Skerritt/Dennis exercise to proceed much quicker but what’s holding up the results? We all know it’s to engage in nefarious acts to continue to deny the people the benefit of a fair process and remain in power. Alibaba.
Don’t expect anything above board to happen under Skerrit’s stewardship. He ascended to his present position by default. Once he tasted the power and privileges of the office he has cemented himself in there by all means necessary, most of them questionable.
Why all this political machinations, shenanigans and skulduggery coming from the office of the prime minister? Why everything is done in darkness, clotheed in controversy, ill-advised and does not redound to the benefit of the country but only the I-man, his nuclear family and his enablers like the Nassiefs.
Mr. Skerrit suffers from intellectual dwarfism. He cannot properly articulate his policies to convince the populace. So he often tries to circumvent the laws to get the advantage. This man has to go NOW for Dominica to do a Phoenix.
I was happy when you stated that you are not a political group, but look at your first article out. smh
…and what exactly is the difference? They care about the country and it’s citizens. If that, in your opinion, is too political for you I guess it would be better if you refrain to drink that red kool aid. It seriously messes with your upstairs.
Politics means to be concern.
Stop being sot
NJAM are you the New Junior Amateur Militia or just plain National Jesters Adolescent Massive, the material or issues you are putting forward are the same gripes of the opposition. How are you going to improve the lives of Dominicans give us achievable goals.
My boy stop the braying and go and take care of the Covid-19 riddle virus that’s presently plaguing the island. The world is almost on lockdown mood and you are talking crap about election reform. If the virus isn’t contained there will hardly have anyone to vote, consider the well-being of others first. You people are so power hungry and pathetic.
Thank heavens for Covid. Thank heavens for Maria. Thank heavens for Erica. Anything else you can think of to defend the indefensible??? Pathetic!!! It’s YOUR PM and his government that are being paid for to solve those ‘riddles’. Not the opposition, not NJAM nor any other political or non political entity in DA.
I have said it before and I will say it still. That, without electoral reform the labor party will never lose an election. So people, let’s not sleep on this very important and institutional rights of the people of Dominica. Every passing day without working to make this a reality is a wasted day. And before we wink, it’s election time where the dead, many dead people are resurrected to vote. So please, let’s not sleep on Electoral Reform.
That was the intention in the first place. What gets me is the intention of this exercise was clear from day one and yet folks act like they expected something different. How can a country of 70 k people allow one man to tell them how they should practice thier own democracy. The clown that is running the legislature is doing all in the power the office allows him to devalue the people and they love it. Without the office of state Roosvelt Skerrit is nothing but damaged goods trapped in his own miserable head. He will continue to use anyone he can to satisfy his never ending thirst for self importance. The main cause of sociopaths are rejection or lack of love from real parents. Man an women who experience this grow up without connection to anyone and people around them are needed for nefarious reasons. Democracy was lost since 2004
Not surprised, in the least, that Denis Byron is playing Hide and Seek with his Electoral Reform Report. Anyone who Mr. Skerrit recruits to work for him is compromised. Money is their sole motivation.
Denis Byron has no experience with electoral reforms. The Commonwealth, the OAS and CARICOM are perennial observers and advisers of elections in the region. Imagine this! Their recommendations were summarily rejected by Skerrit for those of a novice, Denis ‘ No Experience ‘ Byron.
The emphasis is clearly on Electoral Reforms but Constitutional Reforms are just as urgent. The present constitution gives the prime minister ( no matter the political party) too much power. So much so that an unethical, amoral and corrupt prime minister can easily become a ruthless dictator.
CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS and ELECTORAL REFORMS are absolute MUST if Rule of Law and Good Governance are to prevail in Dominica.
Tony Leblanc has laid out the key issues re electoral reform very clearly.. It is quite evident that the DLP maneuvers are to sidestep, corrupt and delay the process to the disadvantage of free and fair elections and to cause damage to democracy..
Tell Tony get a life and you as well Clayton Shillingford. I guess as long as the DLP keeps winning the elections through the will of the people, there was no electoral reform. What a joke. Only when the UWP wins, then there was electoral reform. I guess there was electoral reform in Margot, Roseau North and where Spaggs John comes from, Salisbury. Right? The people have spoken. Skerrit all the way. They even rejected Handbag and trashed him in a trash bag for collection.
The election observers said the 2019 general election in Dominica was FREE and FAIR.The Dominican PEOPLE are the 23,643,59.1% and the 18-3 who voted DLP.NJAM will have to wait,or they can try an overthrow if they wish.In that case the leaders of NJAM will face the consequencies and they will pay a heavy price.NJAM cannot impose their will on the PEOPLE ,the majority of the PEOPLE do not care a F about electoral reform.NJAM another bunch of GREEDY politicians.I have always said there should be no damn electoral reform.UWP should have done it when they were in power.Government should never listen or have anything to do with NJAM,the PEOPLE have spoken.
Whether the people have spoken or not, sir, there is need for reform of this old system. There lots of things that can be done differently. If you do not see this, then you are really a clown; Bozo at that.
In your own words, what do you believe happened to Sir Byron? Has he just made of with the money the PM paid him, or was it just again a matter of one for you and one for me. I guess it’s good bye to electoral reform again but to be fair I never expected anything sensible to come out of this charade in the first place! Just another one of those famous smoke screens initiated by that so called PM and his so called government.
Oh by the way, when your party sits and calculates how many persons they need to bring down to vote, buy tickets and bring these people down, you are so dam right!!
The GREEDY have indeed spoken.
One of these days … one of these days ….
Of course it is. Right from the onset it was another one of Skerrits famous smoke screens.