The president of the United Workers Party (UWP), Lennox Linton, said it is unthinkable that 43,000 foreigners are able to vote in Dominica’s elections within the last 7 years. He revealed that the DLP administration sold CBI passports to 43,000 aliens in 7 years, and this potentially made the foreigners eligible to be placed on the voters register – if they spend three months in the country.
Linton said this situation is part of the problems that should be taken care of during electoral reforms. He emphasized that purging the voters list is necessary to bolster electoral integrity in Dominica, and that all problematic aspects of the electoral process must be addressed. “We have to have those conversations because of where we have gone,” he said. “Who would have imagined that 10-15 years ago, we will be battling these electoral issues…”
Furthermore, the UWP president identified “dark money” as part of the corruption bedevilling Dominica. He lamented that the DLP is the only beneficiary of funds generated from CBI sales – and that the funds should be distributed to all political parties in the country in the spirit of fairness. He noted that it is unacceptable that only one political party benefits from a national resource.
According to Linton, the solution is that federal agents selling CBI passports and corporate entities being awarded government contracts be legally mandated to contribute CBI funds to all political parties equally – or to stop making all contributions whatsoever – instead of funding only the ruling party. To this end, beneficiaries of government contracts and passport-selling agents are either to contribute CBI funds to all political parties in Dominica or to not do so at all.
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