ROSEAU, Dominica, November 9, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has warned against any violence in the campaign for the snap December 6 general elections as the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP) presented its list of candidates for the polls at a public meeting in the heart of the capital on Tuesday night, sidelining several incumbent ministers.
Nomination Day is set for November 18.
Skerrit, on Sunday, shocked the nation by calling the election three years after he led the DLP to a convincing 18-3 victory over the main United Workers Party (UWP) in the 2019 poll. The UWP has since announced that it will not contest the snap general election reiterating the need for electoral reform ahead of any fresh general election in the Caribbean island.
The UWP had demanded electoral reform ahead of the last general election, but the Skerrit administration said it had been stymied by Opposition legislators who refused to debate the necessary legislation needed to advance the electoral reform process.
The UWP tried to get the 2019 general elections postponed to February the following year on the grounds that there was a need for electoral reform, more specifically, the issuance of picture identification cards and a cleansing of the voters’ list.
“Tell the Workers Party for me tonight to stop their nonsense about them not running because of a report on electoral reform. That is not true. They marched up and down for the last three months demanding elections,” Skerrit told DLP supporters on Tuesday night.
“Every Wednesday they in Roseau, Skerrit call the elections, call it, call it, and when Skerrit call the elections, they said they are not running for elections. If you are not ready, then don’t come and talk to me about your problem; that’s your problem.
‘We are ready, and we are ready to continue the advancement of Dominica for the benefit of the people of Dominica. If they don’t want to contest, then so be it. I have led a party in Parliament with 18 seats, and I am prepared to run a Parliament with all 21 seats,” Skerrit told supporters.
He warned the opposition against using violence to get their way, adding, “that nonsense they did the last election, blocking streets and burning streets, let me say to them that we will not sit down and take that nonsense again in Dominica.
“That nonsense will not happen in our country. This is lawless behavior. The government will not accept these people. You fight elections with policies, programs, and ideas, not blocking streets and burning streets. It is not going to happen again, and if it happens, we will deal with it according to the laws of the Commonwealth of Dominica,” Skerrit said.
In 2019, members of the Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS) were deployed to Dominica to help maintain law and order, as supporters of the main opposition party blocked the main road to the Douglas-Charles Airport and set fire to obstacles in the north-eastern constituency of Marigot.
The protesters said then that they were calling for electoral reform, including cleansing of the voters’ list and the issuing of ID cards to voters.
On Tuesday, the UWP said it had taken a decision not to contest the December 6 snap general election, saying it remains convinced that the electoral reform “as demanded by the Dominican population is needed to facilitate free and fair elections” in Dominica.
The party said that it was calling on President Charles Savarin “to revoke the calling of election by the Prime Minister,” who last Sunday announced the date for the polls three years after he led the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP) to a convincing 18-3 victory in the general election of 2019.
On Sunday, the sole Commissioner to advance efforts towards electoral reform in Dominica, Sir Dennis Byron, had proposed presenting the first phase of his report by the end of November with the Parliament tabling the Register of Elector’s legislation in December and the plan to enact it in January 2023.
Sir Dennis, a former president of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), had written to Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, as well as the Opposition Leader, Lennox Linton, indicating that he was “working towards expediting the presentation of my Recommendations for the improvement of the Electoral Process in the Commonwealth of Dominica.”
In the November 6 letter, which was also sent to the leader of the United Workers Party (UWP) and copied to the chairman of the Electoral Commission, Duncan Stowe, the prominent international jurist with over 50 years of judicial and related experience, also explained that he would be presenting the report in two phases.
“Phase I will deal with the Registration of Electors and Phase II with the Election Process,” Sir Denis wrote, adding, “I am in the final stage of the Phase I report.”
Meanwhile, at least seven government ministers, including National Security Minister Rayburn Blackmoore, Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Kenneth Darroux, and Trade and Industry Minister, Ian Douglas, are not among the candidates named by the DLP to contest the election.
The Speaker, Joseph Isaac, and the Parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Health, Ken Edwards, were also given the axe.
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