Dominica

Table of Contents:

• Exclusion or Potential Exclusion Based on Disability
• Assistive Tools and Policies
• Candidacy or Holding Office

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Section 7, subsection 3 states:

If at any time between the issue of a writ for an election and the declaration of the result of that election the returning officer dies or becomes incapable of performing his duties as such, the election clerk shall forthwith report the fact to the Chief Elections Officer and shall discharge all the duties and exercise all the powers of the returning officer until some other returning officer is appointed or the former officer ceases to be incapable of performing his duties, as the case may be.

 

Section 10, subsection 10 states:

If any presiding officer dies or becomes incapable of performing his duties during the taking of the poll, the poll clerk shall forthwith assume the office of presiding officer and shall appoint some other person to act as poll clerk.

 

Section 34, subsection 2 states:

The presiding officer shall instruct the elector how to make his mark, and shall properly fold the elector's ballot, directing him to return it, when marked, folded as shown, but without inquiring or seeing for whom the electors intends to vote, except when the elector is unable to vote in the manner prescribed by this Act on account of blindness or other physical incapacity.

 

Excerpts from the House of Assembly (Elections) Act (1954, last amended 1990)

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Section 36 states:

(3) An elector who is incapacitated by any physical cause other than blindness from voting in the manner prescribed in this Act, may apply to the presiding officer to adopt one of the following modes of voting:

• (1) the elector may request the presiding officer to mark his ballot paper on his behalf, in which case the presiding officer shall require the elector to make oath in Form 23 of his incapacity to vote without assistance and shall thereafter assist the elector by marking his ballot paper in the manner directed by the elector and shall place the ballot paper in the ballot box: if so requested by the elector, the presiding officer shall mark the ballot paper in the presence of the poll clerk and of the sworn agents of the candidates or any of them but of no other person;
• (2) alternatively, the elector may apply to the presiding officer to be allowed to vote with the assistance of another person by whom he is accompanied (in this subsection referred to as "the companion"), in which case -
  • (1) the presiding officer shall require the elector to make oath in Form 23; 2. on the elector making such oath the presiding officer shall require the companion to make a declaration in Form 25, that the companion is a qualified person within the meaning of subsection (4) and has not previously assisted more than one physically incapacitated person to vote at the election;
• (3) upon the applicant and the companion complying with subparagraphs (i) and (ii), and subject to the provisions of this Act, the presiding officer shall grant the application, and thereupon anything which by this Act required to be done to or by the elector in connection with the giving of his vote may be done to, or with the assistance of, the companion.

4. For the purpose of subsection (3)(b), a person is qualified to assist a physically incapacitated person if that person is either -

• (1) a person who is entitled to vote as an elector at the election; or 2. the father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife, son or daughter of the physically incapacitated elector and has attained the age of eighteen years.

5. The presiding officer shall either deal with a blind elector in the same manner as with an otherwise incapacitated elector, or, at the request of any blind elector who has taken the oath in Form 24, and is accompanied by a friend who is an elector in the polling district, shall permit the friend to accompany the blind elector into the voting compartment and mark the elector's ballot paper for him; and if the elector so requests, the presiding officer shall accompany them into the voting compartment and the friend shall mark the ballot paper in the presence of the presiding officer. No person shall at any election be allowed to act as the friend of more than one blind elector.

6. Any friend who is permitted to mark the ballot paper of a blind elector as aforesaid shall be first required to take an oath in Form 25A that he will keep secret the name of the candidate for whom the ballot of the blind elector is marked by him, and that he has not already acted as the friend of a blind elector for the purpose of marking his ballot paper at the pending election.

7. Whenever any elector has had his ballot paper marked as provided in subsection (3) or (5), the poll clerk shall enter in the poll book opposite the elector's name, in addition to any other requisite entry, the reason why the ballot paper was so marked.

 

Section 51 states:

Every officer who - …

• (2) permits any person whom he knows or has reasonable cause to believe not to be a blind person or an incapacitated person to vote in the manner provided for the blind persons or incapacitated persons, as the case may be;
• (3) refuses to permit any person whom he knows or has reasonable cause to believe to be a blind person or an incapacitated person to vote in the manner prescribed for blind persons or incapacitated persons, as the case may be… is, on conviction of indictment, liable to imprisonment for two years.

 

Excerpts from the House of Assembly (Elections) Act (1954, last amended 1990)

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Section 7, subsection 3 states:

If at any time between the issue of a writ for an election and the declaration of the result of that election the returning officer dies or becomes incapable of performing his duties as such, the election clerk shall forthwith report the fact to the Chief Elections Officer and shall discharge all the duties and exercise all the powers of the returning officer until some other returning officer is appointed or the former officer ceases to be incapable of performing his duties, as the case may be.

 

Section 10, subsection 10 states:

If any presiding officer dies or becomes incapable of performing his duties during the taking of the poll, the poll clerk shall forthwith assume the office of presiding officer and shall appoint some other person to act as poll clerk.

 

Excerpts from the House of Assembly (Elections) Act (1954, last amended 1990)