By: Staff Writer
December 9, 2022
The Dominica elections are over and Roosevelt Skerrit’s Dominica Labour Party (DLP) has won 90 percent of the seats in the Dominica parliament albeit the official opposition decided not to put forward any candidates for the December 6 election showdown.
The results show that the DLP led by the current Prime Minister, Skerrit, has won 19 out of 21 seats. The remaining two seats were secured by independent candidates.
Polls only took place in 15 of the country’s 21 constituencies. In 6 constituencies, the running candidates were unopposed, thus securing their seats before the elections.
Prime Minister Skerrit, on a webcast immediately after the victory, promised a “15 year strategic plan” for Dominica. He said he came to this conclusion after having met with various civil society organisations and unions in the lead up to election day and from there he got a consensus on what needed to take place in Dominica.
Mr Skerrit added: “I already have a benefactor who has agreed to finance the drafting of that, using international firm to assist us in drafting that strategy plan for Dominica and so this is all a part of a national reset.”
Mr Skerrit is only promising Dominicans two more years before he departs office, but before that he wants to ensure that he either accomplishes a few things or have them started, key of these initiatives is “constitutional reform.”
Referencing the most recently circulated report on constitutional reform, he said: “This is the most recent document on constitutional reform and [we will] look at aspects of our Constitution which needs modernizing and there’ll be a white paper on this. And I’m trying to truncate this thing, because sometimes it takes too long, because everybody wants to be consulted, but it’s fine.
“But when you’re consulted, let the consultation be and let there be an end to it and if you agree on something, do not change your mind tomorrow, as we’ve seen with electoral reform, because if we had agreed on some of the elements in the reform, then we would not be here talking about electoral reform, and so forth.”
Electoral reform is the main issue why the Opposition United Workers Party sat out this election, citing major election irregularities. At the top of these irregularities was a faulty voter’s register and a lack of identification cards for voters.
Despite this, Mr Skerrit has now won and he has a new agenda for the people of Dominica.