Systems and Procedures

The Electoral System

Members of the House of Assembly are elected for each constituency under the first past the post system.  Under this system, the Returning Officer declares the candidate who received the most votes as having been returned as the Member of the House for that constituency.

The Electoral Registration System

Under the Registration of Electors Act there is continuous registration of all qualified individuals who apply to be registered.

The Electors Lists are updated and published to reflect the inclusion of newly registered persons and exclude those that are no longer qualified.  The names of deceased persons, persons whom an objection to their registration is allowed, those absent from Dominica for a period exceeding five (5) years and those disqualified from registration under any other written law are deleted from the lists.

Qualification for Registration

In accordance with Section 5 of the Registration of Electors Act (PDF, 1.69 MB), a person is qualified to be registered as an elector for a polling district if he:

• Is a citizen of the Commonwealth of Dominica; or
• Is a Commonwealth citizen who has resided in Dominica for a period of twelve months immediately before the qualifying date; and
• Is eighteen years of age or over; and
• Has resided in that polling district for a continuous period of at least three months immediately preceding the date of registration; but in the case of a person who has attained the age of eighteen years within the period of three months immediately preceding the date of his registration, no such residence qualification shall be required.

Publication of List of Electors

Supplementary Lists of newly registered persons are published for the quarters (December to February, March to May, June to August and September to November) each year.

The Preliminary and Revised Annual Lists are published on September 30 and November 30 respectively every year.

The list used at any election is the Revised Annual List together with the Supplementary List (of persons registered after publication of the Revised Annual List).