Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has said that he will hold a consultation with Sole Commissioner, Sir Dennis Byron next week to have a first look at the report and the associated legislation for electoral reform.
Sir Byron was selected by Prime Minister Skerrit in 2020 to serve as the sole commissioner to advance efforts toward electoral reform in Dominica.
Over the years the United Workers Party (UWP), and various groups and movements have held protests advocating for electoral reform. The topic has since become a firebrand issue following the calling of the snap general elections last year.
“I will hold a consultation with the sole commissioner, Justice Sir Byron on Monday 23rd of January to have a first look at the report that he has presented and the associated legislation, so I will have a meeting with him on Monday the 23rd,” Skerrit said while addressing a press conference held at the Ministry of Finance Conference Room on Monday.
According to him, Dr. Kenneth Darroux is already at work to carry out the national coordination of all aspects relating to electoral modernization.
“Our hope is that very soon we will start engaging the public on the various aspects of electoral modernization,” he stated.
He also hopes that the process can be efficient in terms of the country agreeing on exactly what are the elements of the reform, “and that we can go to parliament as quickly as possible to enact the legislation and start the process of affecting the issuance of the national ID cards and to go through the process of verification of voters on the elector’s list.”
Prime Minister Skerrit continued, “And so I am hoping that the dissonance that may exist could be eliminated very quickly so that we have electoral modernization in Dominica and this one thing can disappear very quickly in this new term.”
Sir Byron is a former President of the Caribbean Court of Justice. He also serves as President of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, is former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and former Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.