Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has set Dec. 8 as the new date for general elections.
“With full confidence in the capacity of voters to decide objectively and choose wisely, I have today, in accordance with the provisions of section 54 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Dominica, advised his excellency, the president, to dissolve the Parliament of Dominica, with immediate effect, and to issue a writ for the holding of general elections,” said Skerrit in an nationwide radio and television address last Wednesday.
He said Nomination Day will be Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014.
A poll by the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES) has predicted that Skerrit’s Dominica Labor Party (DLP) will win another term in office.
CADRES Director Peter Wickham, the most significant political observation the survey generates is the projected political swing of -two percent away from the DLP or four percent towards the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP).
“The variation between the two projections is a result of the fact that the CADRES projection tool relies on the electoral history of both political parties and on this occasion the Dominica Freedom Party’s (DFP’s) historic support remains unallocated,” he said.
“Notwithstanding, the direction of the swing is consistent in both instances and consistent with what would be a normal trend in the case of a fourth-term government in the Caribbean,” Wickham added.
He said that 43 percent of respondents indicated a preference for the DLP, while 30 percent promised to support the UWP. Thirteen percent of respondents were unsure which party they would support in the next election, while 14 percent refused to tell CADRES interviewers their preferred candidate or party.
Wickham said although the DFP is not fielding any candidates, 0.4 percent of respondents identified themselves as DFP supporters.
But the UWP has strongly rejected Wickham’s poll, according to Dominica’s CBN4News.
The CADRES poll used a sample of 1,000 potential voters, with a margin of error of + or – five percent.
