BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – REPRESENTATIVES from Dominica’s two major opposition parties were in St. Kitts earlier this week to inform OECS leaders about their concerns regarding the “fraudulent” election in their country.
“We came here to speak to the OECS Heads about the irregularities, the illegalities and the threat to democracy in our country. We came here to announce that the United Workers Party (UWP) is engaging in a Parliament boycott supported by the wider opposition, and we are calling for serious attention to electoral reform,” said Ronald Green, former Leader of the Opposition.
The UWP is the lead Dominican opposition party. In the general election held on December 18, Green’s party captured three of the 21 seats, while the incumbent Dominica Labour Party (DLP) won the remaining 18.
Green, along with UWP President Edison James and Leader of the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP), Judith Pestaina, held a press conference at the Ocean Terrace Inn on Wednesday (Dec. 30) to publicly express their alarm over the election and to notify the media about their response.
The former Opposition Leader revealed that in meetings with Vincentian Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and St. Lucian PM Stephenson King, there had been agreement for the need for electoral reform in many Caribbean countries. He urged OECS and CARICOM to institute a special forum on the issue.
Green then outlined UWP and DFP concerns over the recent election, which he deemed “the saddest day in recent political history”.
“There was the unprecedented use of bribery to unlawfully influence the election results. There was the denial of the opposition of access to the state-owned media which rendered the elections grossly unfair.
“There was the paid movement of large numbers of overseas-based persons to vote, which substantially influenced the outcome of the elections in an unlawful way. Four to five thousand Dominicans were paid to return to vote for the DLP, only to leave the next day. Effectively, this election was bought.”
James, who was the country’s Prime Minister from 1995 to 2000, promised that election petitions would be mounted and that UWP lawyers were examining the matter. He grimly predicted that if nothing was done about the situation, no Dominican party other than the DLP would ever be able to win another election.
Meanwhile, Green noted his lack of confidence in the OAS and CARICOM observer missions, particularly as it related to the return of overseas-based voters. Admitting that he was not “impressed” with their presence, the UWP leader stressed that persons from those teams should have been placed at Melville Hall Airport.
“In my constituency, where they claimed I lost by two votes, we counted about 100 persons who returned just to vote for the DLP. We do not get the impression that the observers did an effective job of monitoring what went on at the airport.
“We must move from observers to either supervisors or monitors. The word “observer” portends just what we have been saying – a superficial observation - and we need to move towards a deeper kind of opportunity to see what is happening to us as a region in terms of our democracy, because there are so many abuses and violations over the region,” Green added.
“We have to press upon our regional bodies to take that more seriously. Other countries have seen the benefits of more substantial monitoring and supervision of elections.”
