The Improbable Tale of the Flown-In Dominican Diaspora

Dominica’s General Election, held on 6 December, resulted in a resounding victory for Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and his Dominica Labour Party (DLP). Skerrit won 18 out of 21 parliamentary seats, with only three seats being secured by the opposition United Workers Party (UWP). This is three seats less than in the last election, indicating growing discontent with the UWP and confirming Prime Minister Skerrit’s prediction that “the people” and “the momentum” were with his party.

Despite the DLP’s comfortable win, UWP leader Lennox Linton said the outcome was tarnished by an unfair electoral system, and accused the governing DLP of subsidising trips home for Skerrit-aficionados: the Dominican diaspora. Indeed, he said that an additional 13,000 voters had come from abroad, swinging the vote in Skerrit’s favour.

Yet voter turnout records tell a different story. Of 74,895 registered voters, only 40,189 (53.66%) cast votes. Voter turnout in 2019 was therefore less than in the 2014 General Election (57.45%), the 2009 General Election (55.15%), the 2005 General Election (59.08%), the 2000 General Election (60.14%), and the 1995 General Election (65.18%).

Furthermore, had 13,000 people really travelled to Douglas–Charles Airport, which can only welcome small passenger planes carrying 74 persons each, at least 185 flights full of voters would have had to land in Dominica for the elections. This would have caused a furore at the airport and in Dominica’s skyline for days.

As was the case for Linton’s so-called ‘missing citizenship by investment funds,’ the UWP’s accusations seem both baseless and intellectually incompetent, and may well be the reason why so many Dominicans voted clearly in favour of the current Government. Indeed, while Linton claims that thousands of Dominican citizens travelled from abroad solely for the purpose of casting their vote on 6 December (and that all these citizens voted for the DLP), WIC News survey statistics suggest that barely 400 votes were casted by members of the diaspora. This is not even close to being enough to upset the 7,380-vote majority obtained by the Prime Minister and his party.

Notwithstanding Linton’s dubious assertions, there remains the question of whether it would be fair to disenfranchise the Dominican diaspora.

Many Dominicans living abroad participate in the nation’s growth through remittances. According to the IMF, high-skilled workers “contribute to the economy by sending remittances of around 5% of GDP per year.” One Dominican living in the United Kingdom said: “I send about a quarter of my wages back home each month to support my parents,” while another said he sent over half of his earnings to support his family, including his brothers. These Dominicans have a positive impact on the nation’s economy, sending money to the island without making use of local resources. Cutting them out of the electoral process and making them feel like second-class citizens could spell disaster for one of Dominica’s most reliable and significant sources of funds. It would also be unwelcome news for those Dominican families that have come to depend on remittances to help them pay their bills, and who may see this income disappear.

On 6 December, the DLP received 23,541 total votes, the opposition claimed a mere 16,161, and 487 votes were invalidated. The electoral process was monitored by the CARICOM Election Observation Mission (CEOM), the Organization of American States (OAS) Electoral Mission, and the Commonwealth Observation Group (COG), all of which said the elections reflected the will of the people of the Commonwealth of Dominica.