ROSEAU, Dominica – Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has brushed aside calls by the opposition for President Charles Savarin to rescind the writ for the December 6 snap general elections, insisting that the polls will go ahead two years ahead of the constitutional deadline.
Prime Minister and DLP leader, Roosevelt Skerrit campaigning in Cocaine on Sunday night (CMC Photo)Addressing a meeting of his ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP) in the north eastern village of Cocaine on Sunday night, Skerrit said the opposition parties were not prepared for the snap poll, and instead are seeking another two years to ready themselves.
“Well, Dominica cannot wait two years to re-ignite its economy. Dominica cannot wait two years to kick start its geothermal sector, Dominica cannot wait two years to accelerate the building of an international airport, Dominican cannot wait two years to relocate residents of the south eastern districts,” he told the rally, saying that these issues are current and need to be acted upon now.
He said that the DLP, which won 18 of the 21 seats in the 2019 general election, is seeking a re-set, adding “we shall hit the road in 2023 re-energized and ready for the challenges that lay ahead.
“I am saying to the voters of this country, do not be distracted by the shenanigans of the opposition forces. They want elections put back because they are not ready,” Skerrit said, adding “they cannot ag4ree among themselves who should lead them”.
Last weekend, a coalition of opposition political parties and civil society organizations, said they planned to stage peaceful protests from next Thursday to stop the general election, insisting that no elections should be held in Dominica without electoral reform.
Nomination Day is November 18.
Former agriculture minister Athie Martin, who has been staging weekly protests here, told a news conference of the Electoral Reform Coalition (ERC) that while there were many options available to protestors, “I am suggesting if you are going to start this campaign, which we have agreed to start it must be a campaign to the finish.
“We must not stop until the desired outcome is obtained. The desired option comes in stages. If we can stop the nomination process that is stage one, if we can stop the actual election that is stage two.
“What is stage three, I leave it to your imagination that all I have to stay to that,” he told reporters.
The Concerned Citizens Movement of Dominica (CCM) said it was joining the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) and the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) in urging citizens to boycott the elections until Sir Dennis Byron, the former president of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) completes his assignment as the sole commissioner advancing the efforts towards electoral reform.
Sir Byron had proposed presenting the first phase of his report by the end of November with the Parliament tabling the Register of Electors legislation in December and the plan to enact it in January 2023.
Sir Dennis 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, explained also 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 in the letter a copy of which had been obtained by the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), adding “I am in the final stage of the Phase I report”. regarding electoral reform here.
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 need for electoral reform, more specifically the issuances of picture identification cards and a cleansing of the voters’ list.
UWP Interim Leader, Francisca Joseph, told the news conference that the Electoral Commission is not prepared for the election, and that the “Chief Elections Officer was caught with his pants down because he was not ready and he is still not ready”.
Skerrit told DLP supporters on Sunday night that the party would be staging a “peaceful” rally on Saturday.
“The elections are on and they do not want to run, but they want to march. They are marching all for the wrong reasons. They are marching so as to have a picture of 300 people walking around Roseau. They want to give the world an insight into what his happening in Dominica.
“Well, I will help them do this. They march for confusion, violence and disruption. They will march on Thursday, November 17, Nomination Day is Frida, November 18 and I am announcing tonight that my candidates and I will have a peaceful walk for peace, progress and prosperity on Saturday, November 19…, culminating in a youth rally,” he said.
