CHALLENGING SKERRIT: Dominica opposition contests PM's election

ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC - The validity of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s election to Parliament last December is one of six matters due to be heard by a High Court judge here on Wednesday.

The opposition United Workers Party (UWP) is bringing the petitions that will be argued by Trinidad-based Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes.

The UWP, which was soundly trounced by Skerrit’s Dominica Labour Party (DLP) by an 18-3 margin at the last national poll, is claiming that Skerrit should have been ineligible to contest the Vielle Case constituency on the grounds that he is a French citizen.

That petition, filed on behalf of the UWP candidate, Maynard Joseph, who lost to the Prime Minister, claims that Skerrit “at the time of his nomination and at the material time, was a person by his own act under an acknowledgement of allegiance and/or adherence to a foreign power of state, namely the Republic of France”.

According to the court documents dated January 8, Joseph also argued that Prime Minister Skerrit “was not qualified and was disqualified from being nominated and from being elected and/or returned as a member of the House of Assembly for the said constituency of Vielle Case in the said election”.

Joseph had asked the court to declare that Skerrit’s nomination and his return as the Member of Parliament for the Vielle Case constituency to be declared “invalid, null and void and of no legal effect,” and to declare Joseph “the only qualified, validly nominated candidate on the 18th day of December, 2009”.

The opposition party, which has boycotted the Parliament since the election that it maintains was stolen by the DLP, has cited a number of allegations in its other petitions, including irregularities, bribery and corruption.

Among the results being contested is that in the La Plaine constituency, where UWP leader Ron Green lost by two votes to the DLP’s Petter Saint Jean.

Lawyers for the ruling party have dismissed the petitions as frivolous.

CMC