Dominica’s Election 2019 – Grand Theft, Fraud and a Failed State

By Special Correspondent to Dominica Patriot News

On December 6, 2019 Dominica held general elections. The event was a carnival of bribery, fraud and vote rigging. The bought and paid for result yielded the ruling Dominica Labour Party a 18 – 3 “victory” over the Parliamentary Opposition United Workers Party – Team Dominica. This election took place the day after foreign troops bloodied the Opposition stronghold of Salisbury on December 5, 2019. In a vicious attack, aided and abetted by troops from the Regional Security System, Salisbury residents faced live ammunition and tear gas shot into their homes in the dark of night while they slept. The psychological terror inflicted on the people of Salisbury was meant to intimidate the democracy movement on island into silence.


The election took place after the Dominican government rejected the recommendations of the Organization of American States, Caricom and the Commonwealth to implement electoral reforms. Those reforms in summary required:

1. Cleansing of the voters list which exceeded the population of the country and was riddled with those long dead.

.2. issuance of voter ID cards.

3. Implementation of a system by which to ensure that ineligible voters resident overseas were not allowed to vote in violation of Dominica’s electoral laws.

With the rejection of the above recommendations by Attorney Levi Peter of the ruling Dominica Labour Party the stage was set for the election to be stolen. It had happened before. In 2009and 2014 Skerrit had presided over elections in which his agents transported hundreds of overseas voters to Dominica, after having bribed them with airfare and spending money. It was that illegal conduct which was complained of that led to the recommendations of the OAS, Caricom and Commonwealth electoral reform mission of August 2019.

Skerrit and his regime have “won” a rigged election. They spent millions of dollars to install themselves in power over a hurricane ravished island still recovering from the devastating winds of Hurricane Maria in 2017. With many schools, clinics and the national library still roofless, Skerrit spent millions on chartering flights from the US mainland, and ferries from neighboring islands, to bring in overseas resident Dominicans.

Skerrit spent millions of dollars to steal an election while he denied civil servants and police officers salary increases. Skerrit stole the election by appealing to the religiosity of a psychologically weakened population by flying in high-priced gospel singers from the US mainland such as Donnie McClurkin and Yolanda Adams to give free concerts. The election campaign used the entire apparatus of the state to favor the ruling Dominica Labour Party and denied the Parliamentary Opposition United Workers Party any access to state media. The scale was tipped even more toward bias as the Dominica Election Commission was under the command and control of the regime.

Skerrit acted recklessly in rigging the poll. He did so with the full knowledge that to provide any voter something of value (in this case airfare and spending money) to induce a vote is bribery. He also knew it was wrong to bring in persons from overseas who were in violation of the residency requirement of Dominica’s election laws. He acted in violation of the law and all applicable ethical standards anyway, just as he had in the past.

Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election fraud, election manipulation or vote rigging, is illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both. This is exactly what happened in Dominica.

The international community should not recognize this fraud perpetrated on Dominicans. While Skerrit does have his fanatical supporters, there is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Skerrit has bribed voters and violated Dominica’s electoral laws to win this election.

According to a rotund female voter clad in red and posing dramatically on social media “I vote for Skerrit. He paying me. I don’t have to go and work.” She also used vulgar language to describe the nature of her sexual relationship with the Prime Minister unworthy of being repeated here. It must be noted however that Skerrit runs a money dispensing enterprise for his supporters called the Red Clinic. Those who attend that Red Clinic and receive funds are expected to support, and vote for, the ruling Dominica Labour Party.

The Dominican people now languish under a corrupt government in a failed economy. The institutions of the state as in a professional police force and civil service have withered away under the one-party state philosophy of Roosevelt Skerrit – the main ally in the Caribbean of Venezuela’s despotic ruler Nicolas Maduro. Dominica is now a failed state, where one man dominates the entire country.

Democracy loving Dominicans appeal now to the OAS, Caricom and Commonwealth nations to reject the results of this rigged election.


We ask the United Nations to also join us in this cause. We expect the United States, from whose shores many of the law breaking voters departed, to act in the defense of democracy on Dominica. An undemocratic Dominica is a threat to regional security and stability.

This election must be declared null and void by any law abiding democracy. The liberty of the Dominican people have been stolen. We reject this fraud and grand larceny posing as a free and fair election.

We shall struggle relentlessly to restore law, order, fairness, justice and liberty to Dominica.

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