Roseau Dominica, June 30th, 2011 - Commonwealth Secretary General, His Excellency Kamalesh Sharma discusses with Hon. Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit and members of Cabinet Commonwealth Secretary General, His Excellency Kamalesh Sharma, paid a one day visit to Dominica on Thursday June 16th, 2011. While here, the Indian Diplomat paid courtesy calls on President of Dominica, His Excellency Dr Nicholas Liverpool and Prime Minister Hon Roosevelt Skerrit.
When Hon. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and other Ministers of Government on Friday June 17, 2011, met with Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat, efforts were made to consolidate and discuss existing areas of mutual cooperation between the Commonwealth and Dominica.
Discussions surrounded how the Commonwealth can further support the island’s capacity building efforts.
One of the points put forward by Prime Minister Skerrit to the Secretary General was the need for more technical assistance to be granted towards Dominica’s electoral reform agenda.
Prime Minister Skerrit spoke about it when he addressed members of the media following his official talks with the Secretary General on Friday morning.
“As you know, the Government intends on introducing a National ID Card which will be used for voting purposes and the Commonwealth has had experience in this area.
While they many have not done it themselves, but they have the necessary contacts because we would certainly need professional experience and guidance in respect to the various implementations of the reformed agenda.”
The Government in recent times has been speaking about introducing national ID cards to assist in the voting process.
“As far as the Government is concerned, the Government’s role in this matter is to appropriate the funds to the Electoral Commission because the Government does not want to have any additional role in respect to the implementation of that aspect of it, and for obvious reasons.
However, the Government believes that there are issues of security that it has a part to play in and recognising that the Commonwealth, itself, has had experience in providing technical assistance for the implementation phase, the guidance required by the Electoral Commission that is where we believe the Commonwealth can come in.
We will also be discussion with the OAS, as we have done in the past, on this matter. So as far as electoral reform and the implementation and introduction of that National ID Cards, that is where we would like the Commonwealth to assist us in the implementation phase, the oversight phase, assisting us in better managing the process because you would recognise that we do not have any experience in that regard.”
The main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) has been calling on the Government to introduce the voter ID card as a means of ensuring free and fair elections in the country.
The Cabinet of Dominica has been engaging the Electoral Commission through His Excellency the President Dr. Liverpool to clarify certain matters with respect to voter identification cards.
Meantime, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat, His Excellency Kamalesh Sharma, said that his organisation has a wealth of experience in electoral work and is keen on assisting Dominica as a Commonwealth Nation in that regard.
Commonwealth Secretary General, His Excellency Kamalesh Sharma “It is one of our core values because elections are the pivot of democracy. If elections cannot be held with the credibility and to the satisfaction of the citizens, all your national gains get jeopardised.
For this reason, a recommendation was put forward in the last Commonwealth bi-annual summit in Port of Spain that we create a network of election management bodies and the leaders endorsed that suggestion. This network has now come into existence.
The point of this network is: it is a peer group of all election management bodies of the Commonwealth to collaborate with each other into creating the highest standards, whether it is in voter registration or the principles of demarcation of constituencies or level playing field or media policy or the deployment of security or transparency in the procedures in elections. They help each other in this field.
So, working in this field in Dominica for the Commonwealth is something which we will do with great eagerness.” Hon. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit also referred to a number of areas where the Commonwealth Secretariat has been of tremendous assistance to Dominica.
The country’s leader underscored capacity building assistance received from the Commonwealth Secretariat through the Dominica Youth Business Trust as significant.
“At the initial stages, they were at the forefront of the Youth Business Trust. They were the first institution which made a financial pledge and also technical assistance in the development and introduction of the Youth Business Trust that has provided training for several dozens of our young people. Also, we guarantee funding for their investments.”
His Excellency Kamalesh Sharma reaffirmed the Secretariats support to Dominica and other Commonwealth countries in its capacity building pursuits.
“Particular emphasis from inside of the Commonwealth is on capacity building which means that whatever you do must contribute to the resilience of our member states.
For instance, we were very happy to provide the leadership to the Agricultural and Industrial Institute and at the same time, to have a mentoring capability so that, after this first head, subsequent heads are all nominated here and the institution, itself, gets strengthened and can flourish on its own.
So when we talk of debt software, for instance, of the eighty (80) nationals who have received training in the last five (5) years from Dominica, we are really talking about resilience in creating capacity in the country, and not just a form of episodic assistance. We have discussed many of these areas and continue to be a strong part.”
His Excellency Sharma said that the Commonwealth’s programmes are largely cantered on the development of young people. "Most of the citizenship of the Commonwealth now consists of progressively younger people.
They are the ones who are going to live through most of the century and they are the ones who need to be equipped to be able to contribute to nation building and society building. It is an obligation that we have and which we have to discharge.”
His Excellency Sharma became Commonwealth Secretary General on April 1, 2008. He was appointed to the post by Commonwealth Heads of Government at their meeting in Uganda in November, 2007.
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