Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has warned against any violence in the campaign for the snap December 6 general election 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.
Roosevelt 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 election 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 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,” Roosevelt 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.
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 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 made 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.
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, the Parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Health, Ken Edwards, were also given the axe.
CMC/
