{"id":237166,"date":"2019-10-24T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T16:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=237166"},"modified":"2019-10-24T13:37:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T17:37:23","slug":"astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Astaphan threatens legal action over alleged removal of names from voters list"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Left, Tony Astaphan Senior Counsel and Ian Michael Anthony Chief Elections Officer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the government\u2019s top legal advisers, Senior Counsel Tony Astaphan is investigating what he said are reports from residents that the Chief Elections Officer has been removing people\u2019s names from the voters list.<\/p>\n

There have been public calls for a cleanup of the voters list ahead of the upcoming general elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been approached by persons indicating that there are a number of electors who have been removed or the Chief Elections Officer [Ian Michael Anthony] has decided to remove from the voters list, without notice of the objection, without a hearing and without notification of the decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to him the regulations make it extremely clear the procedure to be followed on the notice on the receipt of an objection and the court of appeal and the High Court of these OECS countries including Dominica, Antigua, Nevis and others, have made it clear that they must follow the procedure for objections on under the regulations in Nevis that led to the reinstatement of names on the list.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore importantly the court of appeal has said you cannot remove persons from the voters list without a full hearing of the objection, the reasons and the decision,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cIf what I am hearing is true that the Chief Elections Officer is removing persons from the list without a hearing following an objection, this is going to lead to litigation; this is going to lead to chaos and this is going to lead to the corruption of the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Astaphan said, “it is inconceivable to me that in this day and age with multiple authorities to back it up, that the Chief Elections Officer believes that he can remove persons from the voters list without any notice to them, without a hearing, without their right to be represented which the regulations required.<\/p>\n

Astaphan said he intends to ascertain whether this is true, \u201cand if this is true I am going to have to ask the political leader of the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) and the members of Parliament to get names together for us to institute promptly, immediately and urgently, an application for an injunction to…and, I’m going to use this word again, stop this madness from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dominica NewsOnline (DNO) contacted Chief Elections Officer, Ian Anthony, who declined to comment at this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the government\u2019s top legal advisers, Senior Counsel Tony Astaphan is investigating what he said are reports from residents that the Chief Elections Officer has been removing people\u2019s names from the voters list. There have been public calls for…","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":237167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[77,235,9,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-homepage-carousel","category-news","category-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAstaphan threatens legal action over alleged removal of names from voters list - Dominica News Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Astaphan threatens legal action over alleged removal of names from voters list - Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the government\u2019s top legal advisers, Senior Counsel Tony Astaphan is investigating what he said are reports from residents that the Chief Elections Officer has been removing people\u2019s names from the voters list. There have been public calls for...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-24T16:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-10-24T17:37:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-yalsPujlv9pCRh.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"856\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71cd1f1f2accca6a7c47573faafb74b4\"},\"headline\":\"Astaphan threatens legal action over alleged removal of names from voters list\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-24T16:00:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-24T17:37:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":425,\"commentCount\":61,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-yalsPujlv9pCRh.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Homepage\",\"Homepage Carousel\",\"News\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/\",\"name\":\"Astaphan threatens legal action over alleged removal of names from voters list - Dominica News Online\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-yalsPujlv9pCRh.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-24T16:00:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-24T17:37:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71cd1f1f2accca6a7c47573faafb74b4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-yalsPujlv9pCRh.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-yalsPujlv9pCRh.jpg\",\"width\":856,\"height\":300},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Astaphan threatens legal action over alleged removal of names from voters list\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dominica News Online\",\"description\":\"The most popular news site in the Commonwealth of Dominica\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71cd1f1f2accca6a7c47573faafb74b4\",\"name\":\"Admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3c1b110e3014e3476f4152480a3d3069d1b1344862bb7e77d87392410ac870c0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3c1b110e3014e3476f4152480a3d3069d1b1344862bb7e77d87392410ac870c0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3c1b110e3014e3476f4152480a3d3069d1b1344862bb7e77d87392410ac870c0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/joni-durand\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Astaphan threatens legal action over alleged removal of names from voters list - Dominica News Online","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Astaphan threatens legal action over alleged removal of names from voters list - Dominica News Online","og_description":"One of the government\u2019s top legal advisers, Senior Counsel Tony Astaphan is investigating what he said are reports from residents that the Chief Elections Officer has been removing people\u2019s names from the voters list. There have been public calls for...","og_url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/","og_site_name":"Dominica News Online","article_published_time":"2019-10-24T16:00:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-10-24T17:37:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":856,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-yalsPujlv9pCRh.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Admin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/"},"author":{"name":"Admin","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/71cd1f1f2accca6a7c47573faafb74b4"},"headline":"Astaphan threatens legal action over alleged removal of names from voters list","datePublished":"2019-10-24T16:00:29+00:00","dateModified":"2019-10-24T17:37:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/"},"wordCount":425,"commentCount":61,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-yalsPujlv9pCRh.jpg","articleSection":["Homepage","Homepage Carousel","News","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/","url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/","name":"Astaphan threatens legal action over alleged removal of names from voters list - Dominica News Online","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-yalsPujlv9pCRh.jpg","datePublished":"2019-10-24T16:00:29+00:00","dateModified":"2019-10-24T17:37:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/71cd1f1f2accca6a7c47573faafb74b4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-yalsPujlv9pCRh.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-yalsPujlv9pCRh.jpg","width":856,"height":300},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/astaphan-threatens-legal-action-over-alleged-removal-of-names-from-voters-list\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Astaphan threatens legal action over alleged removal of names from voters list"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/","name":"Dominica News Online","description":"The most popular news site in the Commonwealth of Dominica","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/71cd1f1f2accca6a7c47573faafb74b4","name":"Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c1b110e3014e3476f4152480a3d3069d1b1344862bb7e77d87392410ac870c0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c1b110e3014e3476f4152480a3d3069d1b1344862bb7e77d87392410ac870c0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c1b110e3014e3476f4152480a3d3069d1b1344862bb7e77d87392410ac870c0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Admin"},"url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/author\/joni-durand\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-yalsPujlv9pCRh.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237166"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237185,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237166\/revisions\/237185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}