News Americas, ROSEAU, DOMINICA, Fri. Dec. 6, 2019: Re-elected Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, says he and the Dominica Labour Party “are completely committed to the dual task of healing the nation and building the nation.”
Skerrit made the comments on the heels of his 4th re-election victory on Dec. 6th. In a Facebook post, the PM said after being sworn in: “There is no doubt that the election campaign was a bruising one (but) our citizens have made their choice. We must all now respect that.”
According to preliminary results of the election, the DLP won 18 of the 21 seats in the island’s parliament with the wife of the Prime Minister, Melissia Skerrit, comfortably winning the Roseau Central seat which has been a stronghold of the United Workers Party (UWP).
But UWP Opposition leader, Lennox Linton, has charged that the December 6th election was stolen from the people of Dominica and he has no intention of recognising the results. In fact, he is calling for fresh elections as he described the election results as illegitimate, along with the government.
However, the observer missions from the Organization of American States (OAS) and the independent Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) said the election results reflected the will of the people who voted.
The OAS, however, recommended the establishment of permanent, physical locations for returning officers at the constituency level, in order to register eligible voters and facilitate management of the voters list by full-time staff and the issuing of photo ID cards to voters, and in this context, amending the legislation to provide the Electoral Commission with the authority to collect and use electors’ biometric data.
Skerrit said that his new Cabinet would be sworn in on December 17th.
