ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Opposition Leader Jesmar Paul-Victor says she has written to President Sylvanie Burton, requesting that she “immediately revoke” the appointment of Sean Douglas as an opposition legislator.
Paul-Victor, one of two independent candidates to have won seats in the general elections last December, gave no reason for seeking the removal of Douglas, a former press secretary to two former prime ministers.
But she told the Nature Isle News (NIN) that she had written to President Burton instructing her to “revoke with immediate effect the appointment of Senator Sean Douglas.”
Douglas would not comment on his removal from the Senate, saying, “At this time, it is premature for me to speak on the matter ask the person who asked that the appointment be revoked.”
Paul-Victor appointed Douglas as a Senator after the December 2022 general elections that had been boycotted by the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) and the minor Dominica Freedom Party (DFP).
“I can confirm to you that I have written to the President of Dominica asking her to revoke the appointment of Senator Sean Douglas immediately,” Paul-Victor said, adding that the letter was dated November 6, 2023.
She said that Sje and her “team are in discussions” regarding a replacement for Douglas, who, during the vote to elect the new head of state in September, had questioned whether Burton had met the requirements under the Dominica Constitution to be nominated, claiming that she was still employed as a senior public servant.
“The nominee has engaged in certain acts which offend the Public Service Act, in which if she is President warrant her removal from office and as such the House should not proceed on the election of the President as Sylvanie Burton being a candidate or nominee,” he said.
But Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, who lamented that there had not been a consensus in the nomination for the position of the island’s 12th head of state since independence in 1978, questioned the facts being presented by Douglas.
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