Skerrit names 17 in  cabinet

ROSEAU – Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit on Tuesday named a 17-member cabinet more than a week after his Dominica Labour Party (DLP) was swept to power in the general election of December 6.

The ceremony was held at the Windsor Park in the heart of the capital and attended by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados, her Antigua and Barbuda counterpart Gaston Browne and St Vincent and Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves.

Among the notable absentees from the new cabinet, which includes five women, is Francine Baron, who served as Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, a position that has now gone to the former Minister of Environment Dr Kenneth Darroux.

Skerrit, who is also the Minister for Finance, Economic Affairs, Investment, Planning, Resilience, Sustainable Development, Telecommunications and Broadcasting, did not include his wife, Melissa Poponne Skerrit into the cabinet but appointed her to be the chairperson of the Roseau Vision 2020, mandated to help develop the capital into a new city.

During the ceremony, Browne praised Dominicans for fighting against “external intervention”.

(CMC)