PRESS STATEMENT
Statements from the Prime Minister about the Grandbay Bye-Election occasioned by the death of Hon. Ed Registe, make it crystal clear that it is not a contest between political parties on the issue of representation of the people, by the people for the people of Grandbay. Instead, it is a straight fight between Roosevelt Skerrit and the Grandbay Constituency to decide whether he owns and controls the people of Grandbay and can therefore abuse them with impunity for his personal gain.
Roosevelt Skerrit has told the people of Grandbay what they need in a Member of Parliament (MP) that Grandbay does not have and what he needs from the seat of the Grandbay constituency in Parliament that he cannot find among the people of Grandbay and will therefore impose on Grandbay from outside of Grandbay.
Since the Dominica Labour party took office in 2000, the three members of Parliament who died in office in questionable circumstances (two of them from Grandbay) are all members of the Dominica Labour Party. At every unfortunate turn, Roosevelt Skerrit has leveraged his DLP leadership privileges to enslave the people of Grandbay and their elected representatives to his will.
- Grandbay MP and Prime Minister Pierre Charles was betrayed by his Dominica Labour Party Colleagues in what DLP spokesman Anthony Astaphan described as “a campaign of vilification, treachery and back stabbing that drove him to his grave”; Skerrit replaced Hon. Pierre Charles as Prime Minister and triumphantly chanted “Hip, Hip, Hooray” at a DLP memorial event in Grandbay shortly after his death.
- Hon John Fabien served a single term and stepped down under the pressure of not being empowered to make things happen for the people of Grandbay. He died after leaving office; Skerrit blocked Ambassador Crispin Gregoire, a close friend and confidante of Hon. Pierre Charles, from contesting the 2009 general election as the DLP candidate for Grandbay, and then replaced the Grandbay patriot at the United Nations with the DLP’s discarded St Joseph MP Vince Henderson; Hon. Ed Registe was driven to his grave under unrelenting pressure in Skerrit’s Cabinet that rendered him powerless to make things happen for Grandbay.
- Days after his burial, Skerrit’s Senior Minister openly accused the deceased Grandbay MP of corruption in public office.
In the clearest example yet of Skerrit’s ongoing assault on the independence of the people of Grandbay and his intention to have them enslaved to his will, he has imposed Vince Henderson from St Joseph as the DLP candidate for the November 25th, 2021 bye-election, insisting in the process, that there is no one of the people of Grandbay, by the people of Grandbay capable of standing for the people of Grandbay. This, by the way, is the same Vince Henderson who teamed up with the same Roosevelt Skerrit in the February 2000 threat to take down the DLP government of Rosie Douglas if they were not appointed to full ministerial responsibility.
Grandbay was served by a Labour Party MP long before Skerrit entered the political arena as MP for Vielle Case. His war with Grandbay, has never been against any political party in opposition to the DLP. It has been exclusively against Grandbay and its elected DLP representatives.
This bye-election showdown of Skerrit versus the People of Grandbay is therefore no place for competition between political parties that will stand in the way of the people of Grandbay uniting as one behind an independent candidate to fight for their independence, their democratic freedoms and the right to choose their own representatives.
The independent candidate must be supported by all patriotic, democratic and honest Dominicans who desire a better Dominica. At a time when Dominican passports are sold like fish on the roadsides of the Middle East without any accountability to the people of Dominica, we must reject Skerrit’ s imposition of a Skerrit puppet on Grandbay designed to make Grandbay a base of support for the unlawful diversion of Dominica’s passport billions into foreign hands.
While the Skerrit regime is squandering Dominica’s millions on palaces and other excesses of tyrants, our people in Grandbay and around the country face increased poverty. Despite the Covid 19 depression of our economy, there has been zero economic stimulus assistance for our people. In this bye-election, let the small axe of an honest, independent candidate bring down the big tree of a corrupt leader that has done little for Grandbay while consistently using, abusing and disrespecting the people of Grandbay.
The United Workers Party urges the people of Grandbay from all political persuasions (DLP, UWP, DFP and any other) to think beyond their partisan preferences and come together as one to defeat the clear and present danger posed by the anti-Grandbay alliance of Roosevelt Skerrit and Vince Henderson.