The Commission, charged under the laws of Dominica to oversee free and fair elections has been thoroughly compromised by operatives of the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP). Leading the charge is attorney Alick Lawrence who serves as prime minister Skerrit’s personal lawyer.

In 2007, when the Commission announced that it would introduce identification cards, the DLP ran into full panic mode. Skerrit moved quickly to appoint Lawrence and party lackeys onto the Commission. Another government lawyer and personal confidant to the prime minister, Anthony Astaphan fired off an email to Skerrit on March 27, 2008.

According to Astaphan “There is madness going on at the Commission. You need to call in Richard and Kondwani [other Commission members]. I leave today. These guys are talking about reforms to include ID cards and COMPLETE REREGISTRATION! Such reforms will undermine your reelection legacy as the opposition will say look, the Commission agreed with us; reform was required because of wide spread fraud!”

Hereafter Skerrit moved quickly to remove Richard and install Lawrence to guarantee that no such action was taken by the Commission. A few days later Lawrence sent an email to Skerrit and Astaphan, which said in part: “I see from the documents sent to me that the Commission has taken a decision to introduce a new voter registration system before the next election. I have serious reservations about this and would like to have a chat with you both about it. I would prefer not to do so via email. Tony - I understand that such a new system was introduced in St Kitts, St Lucia and possibly St Vincent. Can you get me for tomorrow info on how long the implementation process took in those Islands.”

In the meeting with the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) the Commission coolly stated that they were not going to get the voters list cleaned up, at least not before December 2015. This is seven months after the elections are constitutionally due in Dominica.

Clearly, the DLP has no interest in free and fair elections. Their actions in the 2009 election prove without a doubt that this party will do everything illegal to remain in office. At that time they took advantage of an outdated and bloated election list to ferry hundreds of voters from overseas to vote in the elections.

The overwhelming majority of those voters should not have been allowed to vote. The laws of Dominica require that voters must have resided in the jurisdiction for a given time over the five year period from the last election.

The Skerrit voters who were illegally bribed to participate in the elections hardly qualified. Many were away from Dominica for over 15 years and voted in clear contradiction of the laws. Now the Commission has capitulated to Skerrit’s demand that no action be taken to clean the list.

In the process the Commission has handed Skerrit an easy way to once again steal the election. One wonders how can individuals who are supposed to stand for the rule of law, including Commission Chairman Gerald Burton be so callous in the dereliction of their duty to country.