分类： politics

‘Roseau North has spoken for the whole country’, says PM Skerrit on McDougall victory

A decisive by-election outcome in Dominica’s Roseau North constituency has cemented the ruling party’s hold on national politics, with Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit framing the win as a nationwide endorsement of his administration’s policy direction. The victory rally held Monday night following the vote drew an enthusiastic crowd of supporters, where Skerrit shared his interpretation of the results that saw the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) candidate Ashma McDougall claim the open seat.

McDougall outperformed two rival candidates to secure the win: United Workers Party contender Daniel “Danny” Lugay and independent candidate Sherman Boston. Preliminary vote counts confirm McDougall received 1,506 votes, compared to Lugay’s 983 and Boston’s 50. Skerrit emphasized that the win was an unchallenged landslide, noting that McDougall carried every single polling station across the constituency, an unprecedented showing that leaves no room for dispute over the outcome.

In remarks to cheering attendees, Skerrit argued that the constituency’s vote carries weight far beyond Roseau North’s borders. “I believe that Roseau North has spoken for the whole country. Roseau North has spoken for every part of the country, and I believe that the rest of the country has heard you and seen you,” he told the crowd. The prime minister went on to say that the by-election result resolves long-running public debate over whether Dominica is heading in the right policy direction. “And so I believe that the debate in Dominica is over on whether the country is on the right track or the wrong track. And I think Dominica is on the right track based on what you have said in Roseau North,” he added.

Skerrit praised McDougall personally for her tireless campaign effort, highlighting the personal qualities that he says made her successful. “She wanted to win, she did what she had to do to win, and it has paid off,” Skerrit said. He described McDougall as a dedicated public servant with strong capability, unwavering commitment, and a rigorous work ethic that will serve constituents well. He offered his full congratulations, confirming that the new lawmaker will soon be appointed to Dominica’s Cabinet of Ministers, and pledged that his full administration will offer ongoing guidance and support to help McDougall succeed in her new role.

The prime minister also noted that the high-stakes by-election had drawn international attention, with observers monitoring the race from outside Dominica’s borders. He thanked residents of Roseau North for their overwhelming support, calling the electorate “wise and smart people” who correctly identified the candidate and platform that would best serve their own interests, their families, and their local community. Skerrit also reiterated a core principle of his administration: that elected representatives must remain present, accessible, and accountable to the constituents who put them in office.

To honor the community’s support, Skerrit announced plans for a nationwide thank-you gathering and social event to be held in the Roseau North area, though specific dates and additional logistics are still being finalized. The by-election win allows the DLP to retain the seat it first claimed in the December 2022 general election, when the party secured a historic supermajority, winning 19 of the 21 total constituency seats in Dominica’s national legislature.

8 9 月, 2026
Nicaragua withdraws diplomatic mission from Dominican Republic

Diplomatic relations between Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic have entered a new phase of friction after Managua confirmed it will permanently close its embassy in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo. The development comes after months of escalating disagreements centered on Nicaragua’s domestic political landscape and recent electoral processes, marking the deepest rift between the two Caribbean nations in modern decades.

The closure, formally verified by local Dominican broadcaster CDN, impacts Nicaragua’s long-standing diplomatic mission in Santo Domingo, which was most recently led by Neysser Reyes Tijerino, serving as minister counselor and interim chargé d’affaires. In an official statement, the Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MIREX) confirmed it had received formal notification of Nicaragua’s decision, adding that the Dominican government would continue to monitor shifts in bilateral engagement through all existing established diplomatic channels.

The embassy closure is the culmination of a steady buildup of public disagreements between the two governments over Nicaragua’s internal political and electoral governance. The Dominican Republic has repeatedly made public its stance on recent developments in Nicaragua, while the administration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has pushed back firmly, asserting the country’s sovereign right to manage its own domestic affairs without external interference.

Tensions boiled over into open crisis in July of this year, after Ortega delivered a verbal attack referring to Dominican authorities as “vassals” of foreign powers. The inflammatory remark triggered an immediate diplomatic response from Santo Domingo: on July 23, 2026, Dominican President Luis Abinader formally instructed MIREX to recall the Dominican Republic’s ambassador to Nicaragua, Acsamary Guzmán Nina, for urgent consultations. Guzmán Nina returned to Santo Domingo by the end of that month, and the Dominican mission in Managua has operated with only an interim chargé d’affaires at its helm ever since, according to MIREX.

Notably, even following Nicaragua’s decision to shutter its Santo Domingo embassy, the Dominican Foreign Ministry has stressed that the country’s overall stance toward bilateral relations remains unchanged. Officials reiterated that the Dominican government will continue to track all developments in ties through formal diplomatic channels, leaving open the possibility of future de-escalation.

This latest move carries historical weight for the relationship between the two nations. Permanent mutual diplomatic presence between Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic was only reestablished in October 1966, following a six-year rupture tied to collective sanctions imposed on the Dominican Republic by the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1960. Today’s closure marks the most significant shift in that relationship in the 60 years since diplomatic ties were restored.

8 9 月, 2026
Criminal complaint filed against three journalists and Color Visión

In a high-profile legal development centered on press freedom and reputational rights in the Dominican Republic, three legal professionals have launched a formal criminal complaint paired with a civil damages claim against three working journalists and a major national television network. Lawyers Francisco S. Durán González, Enrique Alfonso Vallejo Garib, and Carlos Julio Martínez Ruiz submitted their official filing to the National District Prosecutor’s Office on April 16, 2026, targeting journalists Danny Alcántara, Óscar Medina, and Luisín Mejía, as well as Color Visión, the country’s Channel 9, which the plaintiffs name as the civilly responsible party for the disputed content.

The legal action stems from comments aired during the November 13, 2025, edition of Hoy Mismo Matinal, a popular morning news program broadcast by the network. According to the submitting legal team, the statements put forward by the on-air team during that segment caused measurable harm to the three lawyers’ professional and personal honor and standing within the community.

The complaint details that the journalists either made, publicly endorsed, or distributed remarks that meet the legal definition of defamation and injurious libel under Dominican law. The plaintiffs specifically argue that the content in question violates four key provisions of Law No. 53-07, the nation’s landmark legislation covering high technology crimes and offenses: Articles 21, 22, 60, and 64. The law explicitly outlines penalties for defamatory and insulting content disseminated through digital and broadcast media platforms, which the plaintiffs argue applies directly to this case.

At present, the inquiry into the allegations has been assigned to two seasoned prosecutors: María Miguelina Palma and Jhon Richard Suncar, both members of the Intellectual Property and High Technology Crimes Investigation Department based at the Ciudad Nueva Courthouse. As an early procedural step, all three respondents named in the complaint have been formally summoned to appear for questioning before the assigned prosecution team on September 10, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. The summons notes that the accused are permitted to bring legal representation to the hearing if they wish.

Moving forward, the ongoing investigation will systematically unpack the context and content of the disputed statements to clarify what occurred during the broadcast, and ultimately determine whether any criminal or civil legal liability attaches under existing Dominican law. The plaintiffs’ filing reaffirms that deliberate defamation and personal insult distributed through modern media platforms carry clear legal penalties under the country’s current regulatory framework, setting the stage for a closely watched case that will test the balance between reputational rights and press freedom in the Dominican digital media landscape.

8 9 月, 2026
Dominican lawmaker proposes making Creole mandatory in schools nationwide

A sweeping proposal to overhaul the Dominican Republic’s K-12 education system by mandating instruction in three additional foreign languages has ignited fierce opposition from across the country’s political, historical and civic sectors, stirring national conversations over cultural identity, sovereignty and educational priorities.

The initiative, which was formally tabled before the Chamber of Deputies on August 31 by ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) deputy Julio César Beltré, aims to transition the nation’s education framework to an official multilingual model. If enacted, the mandate would apply to all public, private, and jointly administered schools that operate under the authorization of the Dominican Ministry of Education (Minerd), requiring all students from primary through secondary grade levels to complete coursework in Creole, English, and French alongside the country’s native Spanish language.

According to the bill’s opening preamble, the inclusion of Creole as a core mandatory subject stems from the deep historical, cultural, economic and migratory connections between the Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti — the two nations that share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Proponents frame the bill as a forward-thinking move to align Dominican education with regional integration and global workforce demands, but critics have pushed back with sharp criticism rooted in concerns over national identity and territorial sovereignty.

One of the most prominent voices of opposition comes from the Duarte Institute, a respected Dominican historical and civic organization. Institute president Wilson Gómez has publicly rejected the mandate for mandatory Creole instruction, arguing that the language does not align with the requirements for comprehensive education laid out in the Dominican Constitution. Gómez has also raised practical and procedural red flags, warning that rolling out the new requirement would force the education ministry to hire hundreds of Haitian educators to fill gaps in teaching staff, while creating incentives for a sharp rise in Haitian student enrollment at overburdened Dominican public schools.

Leaders of the opposition Fuerza Nacional Progresista party have gone even further in their criticism, framing the entire piece of legislation as a deliberate strategy to legitimize what they describe as the unauthorized occupation of Dominican territory by Haitian migrants. Historian and prominent essayist Manuel Núñez has echoed the skepticism, arguing that adding Creole to the list of mandatory core subjects would move the Dominican education system backward rather than forward, undermining decades of investment in strengthening native Spanish instruction.

The bill is currently in the early stages of the Dominican legislative process, where it will undergo committee review, debate and votes in both chambers of Congress before it can be sent to the executive branch for enactment. Its path forward remains uncertain amid the growing public and institutional pushback, as national debate continues over how the country should balance multilingual education goals with protection of its cultural and national sovereignty.

8 9 月, 2026
Roseau North by-election ends with DLP victory amid reports of polling concerns

The closely watched Roseau North by-election in Dominica has moved one step closer to finalizing its outcome, with preliminary vote counts placing ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP) candidate Ashma McDougall on track to claim the vacant parliamentary seat, overcoming challenges from opposition and independent contenders.

According to preliminary figures released after voting closed on September 7, McDougall secured 1,506 votes, outpacing United Workers Party (UWP) nominee Daniel “Danny” Lugay who earned 983 ballots. Independent candidate Sherman Boston finished third with 50 votes. An official statutory recount of all ballots got underway at 9 a.m. local time on September 8 to confirm the preliminary results.

McDougall’s projected win means the DLP will retain control of a constituency it first won in the 2022 December general election, where the party secured a landslide 19 out of Dominica’s 21 national parliamentary seats. The 2022 national vote was boycotted by both the UWP and the Dominica Freedom Party, which raised widespread concerns over the integrity of the island’s electoral system and refused to participate in national elections until comprehensive reform measures were implemented. Those reform efforts, including ongoing voter list verification and the rollout of new official voter ID cards, have proceeded alongside preparations for the Roseau North by-election triggered by the resignation of former DLP representative Miriam Blanchard.

While the preliminary result has given the DLP a projected victory, the polling process has already drawn multiple allegations of irregularities from voters and opposition-aligned observers. A Dominica News Online reporter on the ground at multiple polling locations, including the Goodwill St. Alphonsus Parish Hall, spoke with voters who raised red flags about polling day conduct. One elector claimed that Cecil Joseph, a prominent local media personality and manager of DBS Radio, was present inside the restricted polling station yard taking notes and collecting personal information from voters. The same voter also alleged that DLP supporters were allowed inside the restricted yard to gather voter data, while UWP supporters were confined to a tent outside the legally mandated 100-yard exclusion zone. She further reported a verbal confrontation with a man she identified as a DLP supporter at the site.

Contacted for comment at the Goodwill Primary School polling location, Joseph addressed the concerns over electoral conduct and voter verification processes directly. “That’s rather unfortunate if people do have concerns of the electoral process,” Joseph stated. He noted that calls for electoral modernization and voter list cleanup had been a central topic ahead of the by-election, leading parliament to approve an adjustment to verification rules that allows birth certificates paired with a passport-sized photograph to serve as an additional valid form of voter identification. In his view, there should be no confusion or contention over the multiple approved identity document options, arguing that voters should face no unnecessary barriers to casting their ballots.

Joseph also confirmed that election officials strictly enforce identity checks, sharing an example of a voter who was turned away from polling because the surname listed on his birth certificate did not match the name he commonly used.

Despite the official rule that new voter ID cards — currently being produced as part of the ongoing electoral reform process — would not be distributed on polling day, multiple reliable eyewitness accounts allege that at least one DLP supporter was privately issued a new ID card at the polling location. Another allegation claims that a DLP supporter told a voter who arrived without approved identification to go through the voting process anyway, promising the voter would receive $300 in compensation after casting a ballot.

In her first public statement following the release of preliminary results, McDougall posted to the official DLP Facebook page on the evening of September 7 to thank Roseau North constituents for their support. She pledged to “stay accessible, work hard, and be ready to serve whenever you need me” during her tenure as representative.

A businesswoman by profession, McDougall centered her campaign platform on targeted community improvements across Roseau North, particularly in the Gutter neighborhood. Her key promises included upgrading footpaths and access routes, overhauling outdated drainage systems, improving public sanitation and waste collection services. She also committed to expanding community recreational and training facilities for children, young people and adult learners, addressing unmet local housing needs, and maintaining transparent, consistent communication with all constituents.

8 9 月, 2026
PM Warns Untimely Industrial Demands Could Destabilise Antigua and Barbuda

As Antigua and Barbuda navigates mounting turbulence in the global economy, Prime Minister Gaston Browne has issued a stark warning that unplanned industrial action and ill-timed stakeholder demands threaten to undermine the nation’s economic and social stability. His remarks came in direct response to recent pushback from gas station dealers and other fuel industry businesses, who have pushed for adjustments to raise their current profit margins.

The dispute recently led multiple fuel service stations to temporarily cease operations, before industry representatives agreed to sit down for negotiations with the prime minister. During these talks, dealers outlined a host of growing cost pressures that have eroded their bottom lines, including rising credit card processing fees and steadily increasing labor costs across the sector.
Browne has conceded that many of the grievances put forward by fuel dealers carry legitimate weight. But he pushed back firmly on the timing of their demands, pointing to the aggressive measures the Antigua and Barbuda government has already implemented to cushion fuel consumers and industry operators from global price volatility. The administration has already scrapped a 15% consumption tax on fuel and allocated millions of dollars in public spending to keep domestic petroleum prices subsidized.

To address the industry’s long-term concerns, a cross-stakeholder committee made up of fuel wholesalers and retailers has been convened to conduct a full review of the sector’s current pricing and profit margin structure. According to Browne, the core goal of this review is to craft a balanced, fair framework that will gradually bring industry operators to an equitable, mutually acceptable parity on profit levels.

Speaking during an appearance on the Browne and Browne Show, the prime minister emphasized that preserving national stability is the country’s top priority amid ongoing global volatility. He argued that resolving industry disputes through collaborative consultation, rather than disruptive work stoppages, is the only way to eliminate unnecessary friction and protect domestic economic momentum.
Browne went on to appeal to all segments of national life — ordinary citizens, organized labor, and private businesses — to refrain from any actions that could spark new domestic instability, at a time when the country remains highly vulnerable to external economic shocks and geopolitical unrest. “There will always be irritants; there will always be issues, but that doesn’t mean you must throw out the baby with the bathwater and destabilise the society,” he noted.
He reiterated that even a fundamentally reasonable demand can become problematic if pushed forward at the wrong moment. “If you’re going to add to that global instability by also having a lot of industrial action and making unreasonable demands — or untimely demands, because a demand could be reasonable but untimely — all you’re going to do is destabilise the country,” Browne added.

8 9 月, 2026
Late Guyana President Burnham’s daughter among lawyers petitioning King Charles for slavery reparations

On Tuesday, 8 September 2026, a landmark legal action targeting historical transatlantic chattel slavery entered a new phase when a team of three high-profile lawyers led in part by Ulele Burnham submitted an unprecedented reparations petition on behalf of the Jamaican government to King Charles III.

Ulele Burnham carries deep regional political heritage: she is the daughter of Guyana’s iconic founding leader Forbes Burnham, who established the People’s National Congress, led the South American nation to independence from Britain in 1966, and served as its first executive president from 1980 until his death in 1985. Based at the UK’s renowned Doughty Street Chambers, Ulele Burnham is a widely respected legal expert, ranked as a Band 1 Court of Protection practitioner by Chambers and Partners 2026, with extensive experience in equality and anti-discrimination law. She joins co-counsel Edward Fitzgerald KC and Harj Narulla on the legal team, instructed by Lawrence Cartier of Keystone Law.

Doughty Street Chambers has framed the filing as a defining, never-before-seen milestone in the decades-long global movement for reparatory justice for victims of slavery and their descendants. A high-level Jamaican government delegation traveled to London to formally submit the petition, which invokes a little-used special jurisdiction granted to the British monarch under the 1833 Judicial Committee Act. This statute allows the King to refer questions of significant legal and constitutional importance to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the body that serves as the final appellate court for several Commonwealth nations including Jamaica.

Buckingham Palace confirmed receipt of the filing in an official statement, noting that the Jamaican government is seeking to have the petition considered by the Judicial Committee. “We understand the Jamaican government is seeking a petition to be heard before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council,” a palace spokesperson stated. “The process for seeking a petition is to lodge it with the Judicial Committee so that referral under section four of the 1833 Act can be considered. We also understand the Jamaican representatives will be received by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for bilateral discussions.”

The petition asks King Charles, in his capacity as Jamaica’s formal Head of State, to refer three core legal questions to the Judicial Committee for advisory determination: First, whether the mass abduction of African peoples, their forced transatlantic transport, and their enslavement as property in Jamaica was ever legal under English common law. Second, whether these same acts constituted, and remain, a violation of international law. Third, whether the United Kingdom holds a binding legal obligation to deliver reparations to the people of Jamaica for the ongoing harms of slavery.

This historic legal move has already garnered broad global and regional endorsement. Every head of government across the 15-nation Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has publicly backed the petition. Last month, Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama also expressed his public support during an address to the Jamaican parliament, and reaffirmed that backing in subsequent official correspondence with the Jamaican government.

The filing comes amid a growing global momentum for slavery reparations, marked by two major recent international actions. In March 2026, the United Nations General Assembly adopted landmark Resolution RES/80/250, which formally designated transatlantic chattel slavery as “the gravest crime against humanity” in international law. Just over a month prior to the petition filing, on 31 August 2026, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) released General Recommendation No. 40, a landmark guidance document that outlines reparatory justice frameworks for addressing the persistent harms of colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade, and racialized chattel slavery.

King Charles will now review the petition and determine whether to refer the three legal questions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for formal consideration. Legal observers note that whatever the monarch’s decision, the filing itself marks a watershed moment for the global reparations movement, bringing the legal question of accountability for historical slavery into one of the world’s most established legal forums.

8 9 月, 2026
Burning Flames Highway Repairs Targeted for Completion Before CHOGM

As Antigua and Barbuda prepares to welcome global leaders for the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the country’s top official has outlined an aggressive timeline to finish critical infrastructure upgrades on one of its busiest thoroughfares. Prime Minister Gaston Browne recently confirmed that major repairs to the heavily used Burning Flames Highway are on track to be wrapped up before the high-profile diplomatic gathering kicks off, marking a key milestone in the government’s island-wide road rehabilitation initiative.\n\nSpeaking during an appearance on the local Browne and Browne Show, Browne revealed that a regional construction enterprise has tabled an 8 million Eastern Caribbean dollar bid for the repair contract, a figure that aligns closely with cost projections compiled by the nation’s Public Works Department. According to the prime minister, the selected unnamed firm could mobilize and break ground on the project within just a few weeks, putting the timeline for pre-CHOGM completion within reach.\n\n“ We have a regional firm that should be starting on the Burning Flames Highway very shortly, ” Browne told listeners. “ I think they have put in a bid for about $8 million to repair that road. ” While Browne confirmed that completion “ possibly ” will be achieved in advance of the international summit, he stopped short of releasing a binding, detailed construction schedule. He also did not disclose whether the 8 million Eastern Caribbean dollar bid has secured final government approval, nor did he release the identity of the regional contractor selected for the job.\n\nThe Burning Flames Highway upgrade is just one component of a far broader government-led effort to overhaul Antigua and Barbuda’s road network, which includes both major arterial routes and smaller local community roads. Browne added that two additional key corridors – Anchorage Road and Factory Road – have also been flagged for necessary repair work, while active construction is already ongoing on community roads across the southern region of Antigua.\n\nGovernment officials have indicated that additional details, including a formal groundbreaking date and final contract confirmation, will be released to the public once all contractual arrangements have been finalized. The infrastructure push comes as Antigua and Barbuda gears up to host international delegates for CHOGM, a major diplomatic event that will put the small Caribbean nation in the global spotlight, making timely completion of critical transport upgrades a top policy priority for the Browne administration.

8 9 月, 2026
PM urges ‘digital by design’ transformation as AI reshapes public finances

At the opening of the *Financial Management for AI: Harnessing Digital-by-Design Workshop* held on Monday, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Godwin Friday issued a clarion call for a complete overhaul of public financial management practices across Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS), pushing regional leaders to move beyond superficial digitization to a full digital transformation rooted in strong governance, climate resilience, and unwavering human accountability.

Friday opened the event by welcoming dozens of delegates from across the Caribbean, alongside key development partners including the International Monetary Fund’s Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) and the government of Canada. He positioned the workshop as a critical step forward in the long-running struggle SIDS face to maximize limited public resources, update decades-old administrative systems, and protect long-term fiscal stability at a time of rapid global technological shift and growing frequency of devastating climate shocks.

Public financial management, Friday emphasized, sits at the core of effective, trusted governance. For those unfamiliar with government operations, it may read as nothing more than dry technical work, but behind the line items and budget tables lie high-stakes trade-offs that shape every sector of public life: from healthcare access and public education to national security, support for vulnerable communities, and investments that drive long-term economic growth. For small island developing states in particular, Friday noted, constrained institutional capacity and scarce public revenues leave no margin for waste, duplicated programs, or ill-informed policy decisions – yet these systemic flaws remain widespread across the region.

Drawing on his own country’s experience, Friday highlighted St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ existing fiscal responsibility framework, which enshrines the principle that credible budget drafting, disciplined program execution, and accurate fiscal forecasting are non-negotiable for maintaining public trust and upholding fiscal sustainability. The core stumbling block, he argued, is that most current systems supporting these core functions were built for an era far different from today’s digital, climate-vulnerable reality. Across the Caribbean, public administration remains hampered by departmental silos, manual data entry, and paper-reliant processes, all of which increase the risk of misallocation, waste, and bad decision-making – risks that resource-constrained small economies simply cannot absorb.

Against this backdrop, Friday backed the workshop’s core mission: drawing a clear distinction between incremental digitization of old processes and true digital transformation that builds digital-first systems from the ground up. He aligned St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ reform ambitions with the IMF’s official digital solutions guidelines for public financial management, outlining three core foundational shifts needed for meaningful reform: first, re-engineering core government business processes to be genuinely digital by design; second, building adaptive, cross-system interoperable information technology architecture; and third, updating outdated legal and data governance frameworks to enable responsible, effective use of new technological tools.

With artificial intelligence topping the workshop’s policy agenda, Friday offered a pragmatic warning to regional governments against rushing to adopt AI purely for the sake of keeping up with trends, or being misled by overblown industry hype. “We are all aware of the incessant drumbeat of AI. We know the times are changing, and as the songwriter says, we better start swimming, or we will sink like a stone,” he acknowledged, but stressed that governments must avoid adopting technology in isolation without clear public purpose. The real test of any new tool, he argued, is whether it solves existing, pressing public problems – not whether governments can rework existing systems just to create unnecessary use cases for the latest technology. “We must not invent problems simply so that AI could solve them. Rather, we must see how AI solves the problems that we have now,” Friday said.

When deployed with clear, problem-focused intent, Friday noted that emerging technologies including AI can deliver substantial public benefits, but he emphasized that technology must always remain a tool to serve public needs, not an end goal in itself. He was also clear that digital tools can never replace human accountability for public spending. “Technology such as AI is an enabler for our public offices. It is not a substitute for human accountability,” he said. “AI cannot fix a fundamentally flawed process, nor can algorithms replace professional judgement, institutional ethics, and public oversight. Not yet, anyway.”

To unlock the full benefits of AI and digital public financial management, Friday concluded, regional governments must make sustained investments in upskilling their workforces, ensuring public servants have the training and support needed to work effectively alongside emerging technological tools.

8 9 月, 2026
Telecom Companies Face Hefty Fines for Failing to Assist Police Investigations

The government of Antigua and Barbuda has enacted strengthened legal provisions that will impose maximum fines of up to EC$50,000 on telecommunication service providers that fail to turn over requested customer and network data to law enforcement agencies within a reasonable timeframe, Prime Minister Gaston Browne has publicly confirmed.

The policy update comes in direct response to longstanding barriers that local police investigators have reported encountering when seeking critical telecommunication data to advance active criminal cases. During a recent appearance on the local *Browne and Browne Show*, Assistant Commissioner of Police Lisbon Michael first brought the systemic challenge to public attention, explaining that mobile phone evidence seized from crime scenes is often one of the most powerful tools for investigators to identify potential suspects and map connections between co-conspirators in illegal activity. Despite the central role that this data plays in solving crimes, Michael noted that law enforcement teams continue to face unnecessary delays and pushback from a subset of service providers operating in the country. “We still have a few challenges with some of the service providers in terms of coming forward with information,” he told the program.

In his formal response to these disclosed obstacles, Prime Minister Browne directed senior police leadership to document every instance of non-compliance and forward those reports to his administration for immediate legal action. The prime minister specifically named the four major telecommunication providers operating in Antigua and Barbuda—Digicel, APUA, PCS, and Flow—stating that any of the firms that refuse to meet law enforcement information requests will face legal consequences. “If you have any issue with Digicel, APUA, PCS and Flow in terms of providing the police with information, let us know,” Browne said. “We will invoke the law, take them to court and fine them accordingly.”

Browne emphasized that the ceiling for fines for non-compliance has been raised to the new maximum of EC$50,000 specifically to act as a meaningful deterrent against delays and uncooperative behavior. He detailed that investigators frequently recover mobile devices from suspected criminals, only to wait extended periods for required data from service providers, who often put forward repeated excuses to avoid turning over records. The updated legislation is designed to eliminate these delays by mandating timely compliance with all lawful law enforcement requests.

“We have strengthened the laws now to make sure that they are compelled to provide information in a timely manner, failing which they will pay a hefty fine,” Browne added. As of the public announcement, neither the prime minister nor law enforcement leadership has identified any telecommunication company that has already been prosecuted or fined under the newly strengthened legal provisions.

8 9 月, 2026