(DNO)Leader of the United Workers Party (UWP), Lennox Linton, believes that the 2019 General Election was not “free and fair” therefore he says his party does not recognize the results.
Elections in Dominica were held on Friday 6th, December 2019 with the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) being re-elected into office for a fifth consecutive term.
According to the preliminary results, the DLP won 18 seats while the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) took 3.
“The election was not free; the election was not fair. It was rigged and stolen, so we do not recognize the results,” Linton said. “We should not elevate skullduggery through a virtue of congratulating those who succeed with dishonesty.”
He continued, “Similarly, we cannot recognize governments where ruling parties pervert democracy, subvert the will of the people by stealing elections.”
He added, “We do not recognize this government that has come by the theft of the elections of 2019.”
He accused the DLP of bribing people to vote in the election.
“There is nothing right about bribing people to vote in an election,” Linton remarked. “So right there, we cannot be talking about a fair election.”
He contended that the people of Dominica, particularly the young people of Dominica, had their hopes and dreams set aside dashed by “yet another stolen election.”
“The young people of Dominica, I am more concerned about at this time…their parents hurt for them; their grandparents hurt for them,” he remarked, adding, “the future that they know is possible in Dominica, just continues to elude [them].”
The UWP leader called on the people of Dominica to demand fresh elections, “and as far as they are concerned, this illegitimate result renders elections null and void and it renders the government null and void.”
Linton insisted that the only way to move on is for the people of Dominica to stand up and rise and make sure that those who have done wrong must be made to pay for it.
“…That’s only how we stand up and do justice to our role…” he said.
The opposition-leader designate said his party notes the observations by the observer missions, two of them so far the OAS and the Commonwealth which have indicated in broad, that the elections reflected the will of the people who voted.
The report of the OAS Observer Mission has since been released and also supports the view of the CARICOM and Commonwealth missions that the elections reflected the will of the people.
“It seems everybody who is supposed to help us, everybody that’s supposed to give an idea of where we could be heading and how we could be heading where we are going, is turning their back on us,” Linton lamented.
“We don’t have no President who is working in the interest of the people; no Electoral Commission that works in the interest of the people, we have no police organization who works in the interest of the people,” Linton stated adding that there is a series of institutions of state “basically doing the bidding of the very same man who has decided there will not be and fair elections in Dominica, so there will be no reform.”
And what is being requested, he pointed out, is basic electoral reform, which involves merely cleaning the list of electors and implementing ID Cards for voting.
Meantime, Linton thanked those who turned out “in large numbers to cast their vote for real change and the UWP-Team Dominica.”
“This was an exciting time for us, following us through the many campaigns and the message for real hope and change for the people of Dominica,” he said. “I know of the great disappointment, the hope, the feeling of despair, what people are experiencing right now. I know it is a very difficult time for many people…”