ROSEAU – Dominicans go to the polls to elect a new government on December 8, with Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit appealing to voters to ensure that his Dominica Labour Party (DLP) is returned
to power to continue the socio-economic development of the island.
The DLP will face a challenge from the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP), which is going into a general election with a new leader, in Lennox Linton,who has been branding the opposition as “Team UWP”.
Prime Minister Skerrit, in a radio and television broadcast, said he had asked President Charles Savarin to dissolve Parliament and that Nomination Day
is scheduled for November 19.
“Accordingly with the full confidence of voters to decide objectively and choose wisely, I have today, Wednesday the fifth day of November 2014, in accordance with the Constitution of Dominica, I have advised his Excellency the President to dissolve the Parliament of Dominica with immediate effect and to issue a writ for the holding of general elections,” Skerrit said.
He noted that while there will be differences in policies between the parties contesting the polls “let us never lose sight of the need to keep the best interest of Dominica in the forefront of our conduct, utterances and actions”.
In the last general election, the DLP won 18 out of the 21 seats with the remaining three going to the UWP. Both parties are expected to put forward new candidates.
The announcement of the election date comes less than a week after the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES) said it did not expect there would be a change of government in Dominica following the next general election.
CADRES said the “significant political observation” of its latest political opinion survey conducted earlier this month “is the projected political swing of minus two per cent away from the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP)
or a plus four per cent towards the United Workers Party (UWP)”.
Linton said the UWP had stepped up its campaign and that the party would embark upon “heightened activities” in the coming days and on Sunday will stage a “mega rally” at the Newtown Savannah, on the outskirts of the capital.
Linton said that the party “would be all around Dominica in every single constituency with a bloc meeting . . . designed to present our state of readiness to the voters of Dominica. (CMC)
