Dominica: Prime Minister Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit announced a Proposed Electoral Reform Legislation to the Electoral Commission. On the behalf of the Government of Dominica, he announced in accordance with section-51 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Dominica that it provided the Electoral Commission with the copies of the proposed electoral reform legislation on Wednesday, May 15, 2024.
In his speech, the Prime Minister mentioned that they just need to update and inform the country that the government has submitted the Electoral Commission in keeping with Section-51 of the Constitution as all of the draft bills in relation to the electoral reform process.
PM Skerrit added that they will fulfil their commitment to finalize the bills, that they have been finalising by the Office of the Attorney General and the Attorney General himself. He cleared that they have been submitting copies, draft copies also to the President Sylvanie Burton.
Prime Minister emphasised that this is a major step to fulfil the commitment towards the nation and towards the international partners and the efforts towards electoral modernization, electoral reform.
He has also indicated towards the next step that the federation should make, which is probably to make copies available to all the members of the Parliament, with an intention to discuss the bills, hear the comments, hear the suggestions, in essence to do a review with them before the bills are taken to its final process of going to Parliament.
Following this PM Roosevelt Skerrit added that they will also make all of the bills available on the official websites of the government so that any Dominican citizen or resident who wish to review the bill and to look at it can apprise themselves of what is contained in those bills and that they will have the opportunity to do so.
Prime Minister of Commonwealth of Dominica expressed that he is glad to make the commitment and they have kept that commitment and hope and prayer which will appreciate the draft bills which will address some of the fundamental concerns or observations that been raised by the certain sections of the public.
He mentioned that they have also noted the observations and recommendations of the international partners. Furthermore, they will all send formal copies of the draft bills to the organizational American states, the commonwealth secretariat, the organization of Eastern Caribbean states, and CARICOM.
Moreover, with this process PM intends to keep it tight, while at the same time thinking of the government to go to the Parliament in June before the end of the financial year to do the first reading and quite possibly the second and third reading.
The federation intends to finalise this in the month of June so that all of the necessary budgetary allocations can be made in the upcoming financial estimates, with an effort to give the Electoral Commission not only the legislative mandate but also the financial resources that are required to advance the implementation of the electoral reform process.
Considerably, this can be informed too and apprised of the steps which the government has taken towards the fulfilment and finalisation of their efforts towards electoral modernization.