PRESS STATEMENT
Roseau, Commonwealth of Dominica, March 2025: – The Electoral Reform Coalition (“ERC”), the membership of which is comprised of several patriotic Dominicans dedicated to advocating for free, fair, and transparent elections in Dominica strongly condemns the unjustified and unlawful use of force by the Dominica Police Force (“DPF”) against peaceful demonstrators on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Roseau.
The indiscriminate use of tear gas, against youthful and elderly protestors, the stoning of protestors by police officers; and the repeated assaults by the police are merely the latest episode in a campaign of violence to prevent Dominicans from exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right of freedom of assembly and freedom of association to protect their right to have free, fair and transparent elections in Dominica.
For the past four election cycles, the Skerrit-led administration has illegally imported hundreds of Dominicans residing abroad, some more than two decades to vote in Dominica’s general elections despite local legislation which indicates that this practice is illegal. They have done so in 2005, 2009, 2014 and 2019.
They did not do so in the general election 2022 because the United Workers Party and the Dominica Freedom Party boycotted the election because of the government’s steadfast refusal to implement electoral reform. They continue to refuse to institute reforms recommended by Election Observer Missions (EOMs) of regional and international bodies including the Organization of American States, (OAS), CARICOM, The Commonwealth
Secretariat, as well as several local civic organizations all of whom have warned that Dominica’s elections may be free but have not been fair and transparent.
In July 2022, the Caribbean Court of Justice, (CCJ) opined in a report, having examined the outcome of the 2019 general election warned that Dominica should not hold another general election given the “Taints” found in that general election, and in particular, the corrupted island’s electoral list which contains over 74,000 voters even though Dominica’s population is less than 70,000 people.
In another case where the CCJ ordered the holding of a trial on allegations of bribery and treating by the government in a general election, government lawyers wrote to the Director of Public Prosecution requesting that she nolle prosqui the proceedings, a request which she granted. Last year, the President, a former campaigner of the government, refused to appoint a Leader of the Opposition, even though she had the support of the majority of persons in Parliament who opposed the government.
Instead, the Prime Minister chose an opposition member, who was sympathetic to the government, to serve in that role. A decision which in our view, undermines the spirit and intent of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Dominica in which the appointment and role of the Leader of the Opposition is well outlined.
The widespread concern about Dominica’s flawed election practices includes the following:
a) The absence of any limits on campaign finance spending which has enabled the government to use the proceeds of the sale of Dominican passports, hidden in mysterious accounts in Europe and other Middle Eastern countries, according to a passport seller in a New York lawsuit to finance repeated general elections
b) The failure to cleanse a bloated voters list that contains the names of thousands of overseas Dominicans who have lived abroad for decades as well as the names of deceased Dominicans, irregularities that severely undermine the country’s democracy. The conclusion is that Dominica’s electoral list is not just bloated; it is deliberately inflated to allow for electoral manipulation and corruption.
c) The absence of any provision expressly stating that paying the airfare or seafarer of persons to travel to Dominica for the express or implied purpose of voting for a political party is a criminal offense and borders on treating and bribing.
Regrettably, none of the above-mentioned concerns and irregularities have been explicitly provided for in the Registration of Electors legislation that was just passed in Parliament on March 19, 2025. On the contrary the Electoral Commission has abdicated its constitutional responsibility to regularly cleanse the voters list of ineligible persons to vote for the last twenty years.
Rather than institute these reasonable reforms to maintain the integrity of Dominica’s elections, the ruling Labour Party has dug in its heels and has declared war on those who seek to preserve the integrity of our elections.
Even today, the government and the local police are hunting down persons involved in organizing the peaceful protest on March 19, 2025. We call on all patriots, organizations, and persons at home and abroad to voice their strongest condemnation of the Dominica Labour Party’s failure to adhere to basic internationally accepted norms regarding elections and the maintenance of the rule of law in the Commonwealth of Dominica.
Our call is also one for justice and democracy in Dominica.