(DNO)President of the Dominica State College (DSC) Dr. Donald Peters said he will be the first to take legal action against the government of Dominica if a bill is ever adopted to prevent Dominicans living overseas from voting during general elections. He made the announcement during the DBS Radio ‘Discoveries’ program on Sunday night.
There have been arguments from members of the public during the recently held series of consultations on electoral reform. Some believe that Dominicans who reside overseas and have renounced citizenship of their country of birth should not be allowed to vote during the country’s general election, while others contend that the names of Dominicans who have resided overseas for more than five years should be removed from the voters list.
“This electoral reform that people talk about bothers me scientifically because, really the opposition is running on a concept that is so scientifically wrong that if they can prevent people, disenfranchise Dominicans from voting they can win an election,” he said. “They are not asking for reform; they just want to get Dominicans overseas from not voting.”
Dr. Peters is of the view that the government is spending a lot of time discussing electoral reform when there is nothing wrong with society.
“I can say here that if government ever adopt a bill to prevent anybody from voting, I will be the first one to take them to court, because they are violating the rights of a citizen,” he argued.
According to Dr. Peters, there is nothing wrong with the system.
“In fact, the only problem with our constitution is it violates the declaration of human rights,” he remarked.
He continued, “This nonsense about you have to come every five years. They should take that out. So, when you are asking for 90 days or give them a special constituent, I think that is mass ignorance, so I ignore it.”
He went on to state that a citizen is born with the right to vote in his/her country.
“You cannot take that away, you cannot take him off a list,” Dr. Peters stressed.
He pointed out that if the constitution says this is possible, it needs to be revised.
“People need to educate themselves…,” he stated. “A citizen of a country cannot be disenfranchised under the declaration of human rights by the United Nations in 1974 and 1978. We signed it.”
In terms of sanitization of the voters list, Dr. Peters strongly believes that a citizen should be removed from that list once he/she is dead.
Meanwhile, he said, a citizen should be able to present a national ID card when voting during general elections.
“These people are calling for an ID for voting which would cost millions of dollars, whereas countries richer than Dominica ask for a government-issued ID card which is a passport, driver’s license, or social security or anything that the government has issued and that’s enough,” he explained. “Why would I need another card to walk with in my pocket and I use it every five years?” He asked.
This, he said, makes no sense.
‘I will be the first to take legal action against the Government of Dominica’
