An open letter to the Prime Minister on voter registration and confirmation

Disclaimer: The views, and claims, expressed in this letter are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of Duravision Inc., Dominica News Online, or any of its subsidiary brands.

Dear Prime Minister,

Re: Voter registration, confirmation and confidence in our democracy

This is the fourth time I have written on electoral reform, voter registration and confirmation.

1. The facts that cannot be dismissed

On 19 March 2025, the House of Assembly passed three electoral reform bills, transforming our system of registration and confirmation, and providing for the issuance of voter identification cards.

On that very same day, contrary to law, continuous voter registration was suspended. For 355 consecutive days –from 19 March 2025 until 9 March 2026 – new eligible voters were unable to register.

During that period, city and village council elections were held, including the Roseau City Council election on 23 March 2026. For 369 days leading up to that election, no new voter could register and participate.

In 2019, about 40,000 votes were cast out of nearly 75,000 names on the voters list, even though International IDEA estimated Dominica’s resident voting-age population at roughly 55,000, with deceased persons and longterm emigrants bloating the register.

As of today, about 13,000 people have applied to confirm and about 350 new voters have applied to register – fewer than 14,000 in total, representing only about 25% of our approximately 55,000 eligible voters.

Of these roughly 14,000, only around 4,000 have actually been confirmed – barely 28% of those who have applied and a meagre 7% of eligible voters.

We are now six months, or roughly halfway, through the confirmation period which began on October 15, 2025, and not a single one of the 14,000 who have applied has a voter ID card in hand – 0%.

As you know, I intended to apply to register but could not. I waited patiently until 9 March 2026, when I finally applied. As of today, a month later, I am still not approved to vote. I am far from alone in that situation.

2. Who is being “Mischievous”?

At your 25 March 2026 press conference you said, “I do not believe in any shape or form that the delay in continuous registration would impact any election in Dominica – any village council election, any city council election, any town council election, and certainly the general elections in our country.”

With respect, it defies common sense to claim that shutting new voters out could not possibly affect the outcome of any of those elections. Take just one example. In Ward 1 of the Roseau City Council, Mr. Lenny Jno Baptiste lost by eight votes. You should look him in the eye and explain that the campaign he ran – including his efforts to register supporters – was “free and fair.”

At the same press conference you stated: “The confirmation process has been ongoing since October, it is left to people to go and avail themselves to the opportunity and to protect their franchise, to protect their constitutional right, and stop complaining.”

Prime Minister, with respect, this is unfair. For nearly a year, citizens could not register at all. For half a year, citizens have been confirming without receiving the ID cards that the law promises them, and with the majority still not appearing on the new list. New registrants like myself are still not approved a month after applying. It is not citizens who have failed to “avail themselves”; it is the system that has failed to be available.

And on Voter ID cards, you stated: “Now on the issue of ID cards, as I understand the Electoral Commission had in fact ordered ID cards, my understanding further is that they would have made further changes to the design of the ID cards and they will be soon receiving the new ID cards and so people will start receiving their ID cards. And so we are happy that the commission has made that important progress. But I think had it not been for the change, based on what they are saying, in the design, they would have been issuing ID cards to Dominicans who the confirmation had been approved by the Chief Election Officer as per the law.”

You acknowledge that, but for a late design change, voter ID cards should already have been issued to confirmed voters “as per the law.” Yet six months into confirmation, the cards are not even in Dominica. To describe this as “important progress” is to trivialise both the Commission’s legal obligation and the frustration of citizens who have done everything asked of them and still hold no card.

A journalist asked you a very direct question: “Prime Minister, can you tell us if you will allow the voter confirmation process to be completed before calling a general election in Dominica given all of the challenges with voter registration?”

You responded: “With regards to the confirmation exercise and the voter registration, this is managed by a creature of the Constitution, that is the Electoral Commission… the Parliament by way of the Constitution defines clearly who can call an election, but if you read the Constitution, it has not constricted the authority of the Prime Minister to call an election… we must have an election when it’s due, and it’s due any time… I don’t think it can be ‘you should not call an election because of that’ or ‘you should not call an election because of this’. I think we would be asking the Prime Minister to violate the Constitution.”

Nothing in the Constitution compels you to call an election before the new electoral framework – which you have championed – is properly implemented in practice and has earned the public’s confidence through use. Exercising that power prematurely would not be a constitutional necessity; it would be a political choice – one that proceeds to a general election without the system delivering what is required of it and expected of it.

If, as you say, our electoral system “must not only be fair, it must be seen to be fair,” then elections should only be called after Dominicans have had enough time to experience a system that functions efficiently and fairly in practice.

We are not even close to being there, and that gap between words and reality is precisely why confidence remains so low.

You also said: “Registration was delayed, that is water below the bridge. We moving forward… So I don’t think it is fair to the Commission to bring past challenges to the fore… Go and confirm, go and register. Because the process will come to an end on the 14th of October.”

Referring to a year where new eligible voters were disenfranchised as “water below the bridge” shows a troubling disregard for the democratic process. We also know, Prime Minister, that the law allows the Commission to extend confirmation by an additional 90 days if deemed necessary by the Commission, so saying “the process will come to an end on the 14th of October” preemptively undermines the independence of the Commission.

Most importantly, public confidence in elections cannot be restored by declaration. Confidence is not created because a Prime Minister says that all is well. It is painstakingly created over time, particularly after such setbacks, by citizens themselves experiencing a system that actually works in the way that was intended: where they can register whenever they become eligible, confirm without obstruction, receive their voter ID cards promptly, and see that every election is conducted under those conditions. Right now, after a year without registration and six months of confirmation with very slow approval rates and no cards issued, we are very far from that reality.

And finally: “The issue now is ensuring that the work is carried out in a timely, efficient and transparent manner. People want to see progress, they want to know that they can visit a centre in their communities or nearby, register, confirm their details, receive their voter ID cards in a timely manner, and have confidence that the system is working as it should, and that confidence is critical, because our electoral system must not only be fair, it must be seen to be fair.”

On this, we fully agree, and by that standard, Prime Minister, the system is nothing less than a failure. No reasonable person can say that what we have experienced over the past twelve months is “timely, efficient and transparent.”

At that same press conference you also referred to “the writings of some” as “mischievous”. If every serious concern raised is dismissed by you as mischief, you will continue to silence exactly the kind of civic engagement Dominica’s democracy so desperately needs.

3. Where we should go from here

You are also aware that on the issue of voter registration the legislation itself gave the Commission the option to continue registrations manually even before the electronic system was fully ready. That option was not used. The year‑long halt in registration was therefore not inevitable; it was the product of choices made by the Commission. Likewise, the fact that Voter ID cards are not even on island a full year after the legislation was passed is the Commission’s responsibility. As is the unacceptable pace of approvals and the updating of the new voters’ list.

In the interest of restoring confidence, I respectfully urge you to:

1. Recognise that the current Commission has lost public confidence and invite all five members to resign, to make way for a new Commission whose composition and conduct can command broad trust across the society.

2. Ensure that any new Commission is given the independence, resources and time needed to fix operational issues, reset timelines, and complete registration and confirmation in a way that truly meets your own standard of being “timely, efficient and transparent.”

3. Allow the new Commission to review all village and city council elections and determine whether they can be considered legitimate or whether those elections need to be invalidated and new ones called with sufficient time for new eligible voters to register.

4. Support a strong, nonpartisan public education campaign on registration, confirmation and voter ID cards, led by the Electoral Office and civil society, to rebuild trust in the process and to encourage all eligible Dominicans –regardless of party – to register, confirm and vote.

5. Publicly support the Electoral Commission’s right to extend the confirmation period if, in its judgment, this is necessary to ensure that eligible voters have a genuine opportunity to register, confirm and receive their cards.

6. State clearly that you will not call a general election until that confidence is restored, and that you will not treat legal powers as a licence to proceed over the objections of citizens who have been locked out of the process.

What Dominica needs now is not another legalistic argument about who has the power to call an election, but a moral commitment from you that no election will take place until the system you have legislated is fully working and is trusted by the public. As Prime Minister you can continue to say, “The Commission will do what it has to do, and I will do what I have to do,” or you can put legitimacy before expediency. Only then will the authority of any future government truly rest on the freely expressed will of the Dominican people.

Respectfully,

Gregor Nassief