Prime Min­is­ter Roo­sevelt Sker­rit will on Mon­day next week, ta­ble leg­is­la­tion al­low­ing for “the ef­fec­tive op­er­a­tion of the Elec­toral Com­mis­sion” as well as a bill to make new pro­vi­sions for the reg­is­tra­tion of elec­tors.

A gov­ern­ment said that in ad­di­tion,  Sker­rit will be pre­sent­ing for a first read­ing on­ly, leg­is­la­tion to make pro­vi­sion for the elec­tion of mem­bers to the House of As­sem­bly.

But the Elec­toral Re­form Coali­tion (ERC) said it is dis­ap­point­ed that af­ter “al­most two decades of de­mand­ing elec­toral re­form” the gov­ern­ment is pro­ceed­ing to take to par­lia­ment the elec­toral re­form bills “with­out prop­er pub­lic no­tice and scruti­ny.

The ERC said that the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Elec­toral Com­mis­sion were not made pub­lic to al­low the pop­u­la­tion to know whether or not their de­mands were met.

As a re­sult, the ERC said it is de­mand­ing that  the Elec­toral Com­mis­sion make pub­licly “im­me­di­ate­ly,” the rec­om­men­da­tions sent to the gov­ern­ment pub­lic and that the makes the leg­is­la­tion that is be­ing pre­sent­ed to par­lia­ment “more ac­ces­si­ble to the gen­er­al pub­lic.”

The ERC said it is en­cour­ag­ing con­stituents to per­suade their par­lia­men­tary rep­re­sen­ta­tives to sup­port the elec­toral re­form process for free and fair elec­tions and is plan­ning a “vir­tu­al ral­ly ral­ly” for Sat­ur­day “to dis­cuss the volatile sit­u­a­tion.”

In ad­di­tion, the ERC said it is “strong­ly” urg­ing cit­i­zens “to make their pres­ence felt out­side of par­lia­ment on Mon­day …to reg­is­ter their con­cern for gen­uine elec­toral re­form which will pro­vide for free and fair elec­tions.

”The pub­lic sec­tor, pri­vate sec­tor, civ­il so­ci­ety or­ga­ni­za­tions, and cit­i­zens at home and abroad are en­cour­aged to dis­play their sup­port for the cause of elec­toral re­form,” the ERC said, adding that it is “ap­peal­ing to all to raise their voic­es in this eleventh hour to de­mand that the gov­ern­ment al­lows …our right to gen­uine elec­toral re­form which should lead to Free and Fair Elec­tions.”

In May, the gov­ern­ment said it had pro­vid­ed the Elec­toral Com­mis­sion (EC) with copies of the pro­posed elec­toral mod­ern­iza­tion leg­is­la­tion as part of the elec­toral re­form process.

It said that the sub­mis­sion to the Elec­toral Com­mis­sion fol­lows ex­ten­sive pub­lic de­bates, dis­cus­sions, writ­ten rec­om­men­da­tions from in­di­vid­u­als and en­ti­ties, and pro­longed gov­ern­ment-ini­ti­at­ed elec­toral re­form con­sul­ta­tion.

The gov­ern­ment said that copies of the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion have al­so been pro­vid­ed to  Pres­i­dent Syl­vanie Bur­ton and will be sub­se­quent­ly pub­lished on the gov­ern­ment web­site and on oth­er me­dia plat­forms for pub­lic re­view.

In June last year, the for­mer pres­i­dent of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Jus­tice (CCJ), Sir Den­nis By­ron, sub­mit­ted a re­port on elec­toral re­form to the Do­mini­ca gov­ern­ment.

Sir Den­nis had been the sole com­mis­sion­er ad­vanc­ing the ef­forts to­wards elec­toral re­form, a ma­jor is­sue here with the op­po­si­tion par­ties, the Unit­ed Work­ers Par­ty (UWP) and the Do­mini­ca Free­dom Par­ty (DFP) boy­cotting last gen­er­al elec­tion.

The boy­cott led to the rul­ing Do­mini­ca Labour Par­ty (DLP) se­cur­ing 19 of the 21 seats, with the re­main­der go­ing to in­de­pen­dent can­di­dates.

ROSEAU, Do­mini­ca,  Dec 13, CMC -