Skerrit predicts DLP will win upcoming polls by 'bigger margin'

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit is predicting that his Dominica Labour Party (DLP) will win the upcoming general election” by a bigger margin” than it did when it won a fourth consecutive victory at the polls in December 2015.

General elections are constitutionally due by March next year, but political observers believe that Skerrit will name an election date before year end.

Both the DLP and the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) have been launching their candidates for the 21 seats over the past few weeks. In the last general election, the DLP won 15 of the 21 seats.

The UWP said it would launch its full slate of candidates on Sunday.

“On Sunday, 19th May our 21 member team of champions for real change in the governance of the affairs of Dominica, our Isle of Beauty, our Isle of Splendour will be presented to the people of Dominica, to the people of the Caribbean and the rest of the world,” said UWP leader, Lennox Linton.

Skerrit, speaking at a Mother’s Day function in the capital on Sunday, said he was confident of victory in the elections.

“In my case it is easier for a cow to go through the eye of a needle than for me to lose my seat,” said Skerrit, the parliamentary representative for the Vielle Case constituency since 2000.

Skerrit, who turns 47, next month, will be challenged by the UWP’s Clement Marcellin Jr for the seat.

Skerrit, who has been prime minister here since 2004, told supporters that he was “so very confident” that another seat, the Bagatelle constituency, a village on the island’s southeastern would remain with the DLP.