作者： admin

As Dominica prepares for the upcoming Roseau North by-election and subsequent national general elections, the leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Joshua Francis, has formally raised urgent concerns about expanding misinformation targeting the confidentiality of the voting process, calling on the country’s top election official to launch a widespread public education initiative to counter the false narratives.

In an official letter addressed to Chief Elections Officer Anthea Joseph, Francis alleges that baseless claims disputing the secrecy of ballots have already begun to stir widespread anxiety among registered voters. He warns that this climate of fear could ultimately depress voter turnout and undermine the foundations of the country’s democratic process by discouraging electors from exercising their constitutional right to participate.

Francis is pushing the Electoral Office to disseminate accessible public materials, including educational bulletins and official announcements, that clearly outline voters’ legal rights and reaffirm the ironclad confidentiality built into the country’s voting procedures. “I submit this letter in quest of soliciting your good office to drive public awareness on the ‘secrecy of the ballot’ and ‘choice of voting’, and to deflate, if not eliminate the calculated misinformation that there isn’t secrecy in voting,” Francis wrote in the correspondence.

Beyond public education, Francis is also demanding that the Chief Elections Officer issue a formal public denunciation of what he frames as coordinated voter suppression, intimidation and coercive tactics targeting electors. He notes that such intimidation tactics are not new: during previous electoral cycles, bad actors have circulated threatening claims including “we will know who you vote for” and “we have spies embedded at polling stations” to force voters to back preferred candidates.

Francis emphasized that all election officials and relevant stakeholders carry a binding legal obligation to protect ballot secrecy under the nation’s laws. Any violation of this requirement, he argues, should trigger a full official investigation and, where evidence supports action, prosecution in line with the 2025 House of Assembly Act.

For Francis, the fundamental right to a secret ballot is non-negotiable to the function of a healthy democracy. This core principle, he explains, shields voters from undue pressure and coercion, while preserving public trust in the integrity of the entire electoral system. “The right to cast a secret ballot in a public election is a core value in our democracy and system of self-governance,” Francis stated. “And secrecy and privacy in elections guard against coercion and are supposed to protect the integrity in the electoral process.”

Concluding his letter, Francis expressed cautious optimism that the Electoral Office would move forward with his requests. He noted that expanded public education around voting procedures and ballot confidentiality would go a long way toward clearing up common misconceptions, reduce voter anxiety, and ultimately strengthen public confidence in the fairness of upcoming elections.

Ahead of the upcoming Roseau North constituency by-election, the Dominica Business Forum (DBF), a non-partisan non-profit organization, has finalized and published binding guidelines for a structured public candidate discussion scheduled for Wednesday, July 29. The event, which will run from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Dominica China Friendship Hospital Auditorium, marks a return to organized electoral candidate exchanges after more than 20 years of absence in the country.

Three candidates contesting the open constituency seat have all received official invitations to join the discussion: Danny Lugay representing the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP), Ashma McDougal of the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP), and Sherman Boston, who is running as an independent candidate. DBF organizers have stressed that the gathering is framed as an educational idea exchange, not a confrontational political debate, with a core goal of fostering respectful engagement between candidates and the electorate.

The published rules outline a structured, fair process designed to ensure equal speaking time for all participants. Candidates will draw lots to determine the order of their opening remarks, with each candidate allocated exactly seven minutes to lay out their policy priorities and campaign plans for the constituency and the broader nation. Following the opening presentations, moderators will ask each candidate one targeted follow-up question. Pre-selected audience members will then have the opportunity to pose questions, with each candidate guaranteed to receive the same number of questions from the public. Individual audience questions are capped at one minute, and candidates will have up to three minutes to deliver each response.

To maintain the event’s civil tone, the DBF has implemented strict prohibitions: direct arguments between candidates, personal attacks, and character assassination are all explicitly banned. All questions and comments must be routed through the event’s moderators, and each audience member may only pose one question or make one brief statement, with no opportunity for additional follow-up. Applause is only permitted during the opening introduction of candidates and at the close of the entire discussion. Any attendee who disrupts proceedings or violates the established guidelines will be asked to leave the venue immediately, and organizers have committed to wrapping up the full event within the scheduled two-hour window.

The full agenda for the evening follows a formal, structured flow: it opens with the playing of the national anthem, an opening prayer, a welcome address, opening remarks from DBF leadership, the introduction of moderators and candidates, the candidate presentations and audience Q&A segment, closing remarks, and a formal vote of thanks. Two experienced local broadcast journalists, Kaywana Fontaine-Wilson and Matthias Peltier Jr., have been selected to serve as co-moderators, and the DBF has confirmed that both will oversee the discussion with strict impartiality.

DBF leadership noted that the discussion was organized in response to longstanding calls for greater electoral transparency and public engagement. The organization says it hopes this event will reestablish the tradition of structured, respectful candidate exchanges that has not been seen in Dominica’s electoral process for over two decades, giving voters a direct opportunity to assess each candidate’s positions before they cast their ballots.

As public questions have emerged about protocols at voter confirmation centers across the Caribbean nation, the Electoral Office of Dominica has moved to formally outline its step-by-step confirmation process and address widespread concerns about procedural integrity ahead of upcoming electoral activities.

In an official public statement released this week, the agency emphatically clarified one non-negotiable rule: the voter confirmation process cannot be finalized through document submission alone. For a voter’s registration status to be updated and confirmed, their physical attendance at an official confirmation center is a mandatory requirement, the Office stressed.

Breaking down the full workflow for public awareness, the Electoral Office explained that the process kicks off when a voter arrives at a center alongside an eligible witness. First, election officials verify that both the voter and their witness are already registered voters, and confirm that the witness is registered in the same electoral district as the voter seeking confirmation.

Next, officials review the voter’s official government-issued identification documents, after which the voter fills out the required confirmation application form. The form must be co-signed by the accompanying witness before it is reviewed and officially endorsed by the center’s Enrollment Officer.

From there, the voter proceeds to a data entry station, where a dedicated officer inputs all collected information into a centralized electronic confirmation system. A key transparency measure built into the process, the Office noted, is the dual-screen setup at every confirmation station: one screen for the data entry officer, and a second visible directly to the voter, so they can oversee and review every detail as it is logged into the system.

The process does not reach completion until three final critical steps are finalized: scanning of all supporting voter documents, capture of an updated in-person photograph, and collection of the voter’s electronic signature. The agency added that the electronic system is intentionally designed with a built-in lock: no information can be saved, transmitted to central servers, or added to the official national voter database until both the photograph and electronic signature have been successfully captured.

The electronic system is structured with mandatory sequential verification steps, the Office explained, meaning no stage of the process can be skipped or bypassed to move ahead to the next step. This structural design, the agency noted, reinforces why the physical presence and active participation of the voter is non-negotiable to the entire process.

In closing, the Electoral Office offered a public assurance that the ongoing voter confirmation process is being conducted with the highest standards of security, transparency, and accountability. It reaffirmed its commitment to sharing accurate, trustworthy updates with the public at every stage of the pre-electoral process, adding that protecting the overall integrity of Dominica’s electoral system remains the agency’s top priority moving forward.