DOMINICA-Fontaine re-elected leader of the opposition party.

ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Economist Dr. Thomson Fontaine has been re-elected as the political leader of the main opposition United Workers Party even as he acknowledged that his prolonged absence from Dominica had hampered his first stint.

Fontaine, who has been employed as an economic and international policy adviser to the government of South Sudan for the past four years, was re-elected at the party’s conference held at Marigot, northeast of here, on Sunday night.

Former party leader and opposition leader Lennox Linton was re-elected as party president.

“The decision of the delegates humbles me. Despite the apparent challenge of my absence, I am delighted that they allowed me to lead the party.

“I think I was able to persuade them that we can do this together (and) that at the end of the day, it is about giving Dominica good representation; it’s about challenging a government that has not worked for the people of Dominica,” said the former employee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“I am excited tonight. I am delighted to get to work, and …my focus in this coming year will be, of course, on the constituencies, rebuilding the base of the party, putting in place party structures, building our youth arm, building our women’s arm…and as well we have to keep the pressure on electoral reform”.

The Roosevelt Skerrit government has received the report of Sir Dennis Byron, the one-person commission appointed to examine the constitutional reform issue here. The report has been circulating here, with the government indicating it wants to bring the matter before Parliament as soon as possible.

The UWP had boycotted the last general election held last December over election reform issues.

Fontaine, who is due to appear before a High Court here on a 2022 charge of inciting violence and obstruction of justice in connection to the February 7, 2017, riot in the city of Roseau, said unity is also needed among members of the party going forward.

“In my speech, I shared the need for a united party. Everybody can’t agree on everything, but I think at the end of the day we need to understand that the only way we are going to make this is if we stand united,” said Fontaine, who is on EC$75,000 (One Ec dollar=US$0.37 cents).