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Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said that he has written to both the Organization of the American States (OAS) and the Commonwealth asking that they provide two experts to work alongside eminent Caribbean jurist Sir Dennis Byron.<\/p>\n
Sir Dennis was chosen to perform the service of sole commissioner for electoral reform in Dominica.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I have decided to do, in addition to Sir Dennis is that I have written to the OAS, the Secretary General and the Commonwealth asking that they provide to us an expert from their organization to work alongside Sir Dennis, so that we do not have only Sir Dennis, we have international actors, the Commonwealth, noted for its election observation across the Commonwealth,\u201d the prime said during his Sunday talk show. \u201cWe have written to them to offer us an expert who will work alongside Sir Dennis and to ensure that all of these international best practices with electoral reform are met.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we say we support something, why do we oppose it when it is happening?\u201d\u00a0 The Prime Minister asked.<\/p>\n
Sir Dennis Byron is a former President of the Caribbean Court of Justice. He also serves as President of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, and is former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and former Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Skerrit also responded to criticism of what critics describe as a unilateral decision to engage Sir Dennis for a fee of $450,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am embarrassed by the people who want to question the fees that we pay to such a person, and to embroil Sir Dennis into this thing. It is not fair to the gentleman,\u201d he stated…\u201cLet us have a certain level of decency in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skerrit added that when he made the announcement in 2019 on the appointment of Sir Dennis, there was no objection.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody questioned his integrity, nobody questioned his ability, nobody said anything,\u201d he stated. \u201cUp until the announcement was made of the engagement that an agreement has been entered with Sir Dennis and the government, there was no talk in Dominica about electoral reform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skerrit pointed out that it is not fair to drag Sir Dennis’s name into something, \u201cas if he is taking the treasury and going away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cThis is not right. Direct the attack at me and leave the gentleman alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the announcement was made, Opposition Leader Lennox Linton said the United Workers Party (UWP) has no problem with the decision by the government to contract Sir Dennis but he has a problem with the styling of the assignment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no problem with them contracting with Sir Dennis Byron or anybody else to come in to do that, I have a problem with the styling of the assignment; but for me that is ok,\u201d he stated.\u00a0\u201cMake Mr. Byron come in and advise the government and hopefully he will be minded to work with the electoral commission which is why I am disappointed that there is no electoral commission at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
The electoral commission continues to be non-functional as two government and two opposition nominees have been appointed but no appointment has been as regards the position of chairman.<\/p>\n
Sir Dennis Byron is a former President of the Caribbean Court of Justice. He also serves as President of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, and is former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and former Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said that he has written to both the Organization of the American States (OAS) and the Commonwealth asking that they provide two experts to work alongside eminent Caribbean jurist Sir Dennis Byron. Sir Dennis was chosen…","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":239389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[77,235,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-homepage-carousel","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n