Attorney Noelize Knight Didier has said that on close examination of the election legislation proposed by Sir Denis Byrun, she has concluded that it doesn’t adequately address the concerns of Dominicans over the years.
She said, “When we look at what Dominicans have been asking for up to this point…,we’ve been asking for a cleansing of the list, …that is the main thing…that’s what we want. Number 2, we want to look at the issue of persons coming into Dominica to vote, what criteria is there to decide whether you reside in Dominica or not…Reading the report I see that Sir Denis himself struggled with that. We have to define that, what does that mean whether it is ordinarily resident, absent for five years, and this is what this legislation definitely needs to address for it to be acceptable”.
She added that the reconfirmation period in the legislation provides for dead persons to be removed since they cannot reconfirm themselves unless someone tries to impersonate them, and also requires biometrics or facial proof. However, as it relates to other concerns of Dominicans, the legislation is inadequate.
“My main issue is the ability of persons who do not qualify, meaning that they have been absent from the state for a period of five years whether you say continuously or whether you say they haven’t been here for the 90 days, I think that the way that the proposed legislation is right now, that there is still the possibility of these persons finding themselves back on the list and that is an issue. That is a problem.”
She continued, “When we look at the regulations required for the reconfirmation process, it provides a form. So there’s a form that you fill up and on that form there is a space that says residence status. So I can say that I am a resident. I just put in there that I am a resident and that’s it. What are the documents that are going to be required to prove that you are resident or not resident. The bill is silent on that. That is an issue.”
Didier added that the bill does not address other major issues such as the payment of passages for persons to come down to vote among other issues, and this is what the legislation needs to address. This is what Dominicans have been asking about since 2000.
Didier made these comments in the past week on a radio show.
