Snap general elections were held in

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

on 6 December 2022.

Background

On 6 November 2022 (three days after independence day), Prime Minister

Roosevelt Skerrit Roosevelt Skerrit (born 8 June 1972) is a Dominican politician who has been Prime Minister of Dominica since 2004; he has also been the Member of Parliament for the Vieille Case constituency since 2000. Regionally, he has served as the chairman ...

called a snap election "to ensure the continued renewal" of his government. Nomination day would be 18 November, and the election itself on 6 December. The ruling

Dominica Labour Party The Dominica Labour Party is a centre-left social-democratic political party in Dominica. History Founded in 1955 by Phyllis Shand Allfrey and Emmanuel Christopher Loblack, the Dominica Labour Party is the oldest political party in Dominica. N ...

(DLP) announced its candidates on 8 November. Opposition parties, including former ruling parties United Workers' Party (UWP) and

Dominica Freedom Party The Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) is a conservative political party in Dominica. It shares much of the same socially and economically conservative principles as the Conservative Party in the UK. The party has been led by Bernard Hurtault since 2 ...

(DFP), and civil society organisations published an

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

on 9 November condemning Skerrit's call for elections. External observers, including the

OAS OAS or Oas may refer to: Chemistry * O-Acetylserine, amino-acid involved in cysteine synthesis Computers * Open-Architecture-System, the main user interface of Wersi musical keyboards * OpenAPI Specification (originally Swagger Specification) ...

, the

Commonwealth Secretariat The Commonwealth Secretariat is the main intergovernmental agency and central institution of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is responsible for facilitating co-operation between members; organising meetings, including the Commonwealth Heads o ...

, Caricom, and the

Caribbean Court of Justice The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ; nl, Caribisch Hof van Justitie; french: Cour Caribéenne de Justice) is the judicial institution of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Established in 2005, it is based in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. ...

, had made recommendations for

electoral reform Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems which alters how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of: * Voting systems, such as proportional representation, a two-round system (runoff voting), instant-ru ...

in Dominica in order to assuage concerns of voter fraud, among other reasons. By 2022, Skerrit had implemented none. In light of this situation, the UWP and the DFP decided to boycott the elections and call on

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Charles Savarin to reconvene the Assembly. In a separate letter, the nonpartisan Nature Island Dominica Civil Liberties Foundation (NIDCLF) pointed out irregularities in past elections which occurred due to the lack of reforms. A three-month-old party which did not sign the open letter, Team Unity Dominica (TUD), announced its readiness to take on the DLP, and asked for support from other opposition parties. TUD general secretary Alex Bruno also claimed to be in contact with potential defectors from the DLP. Individual

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

candidates have also announced plans to contest the election. Political scientist Peter Wickham pointed out that the call for elections occurred soon after the UWP's leader resigned, so that Skerrit would avoid competition from a new opposition leader.

Electoral system

The 21 elected members of the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

are elected in

single-member constituencies A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vot ...

under

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

. A further nine members are either elected by the Assembly after it convenes or appointed by the President (five on the advice of the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

and four on the advice of the

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

) to be Senators; from there the President is chosen by the Assembly and the President appoints a Prime Minister.

Candidates

45 candidates were nominated, 19 of whom were independent candidates. 10 of the incumbent DLP members were not nominated for a new term. In six constituencies, the DLP nominee was the only candidate, winning by default. PM Skerrit and Health Minister Irving McIntyre were re-elected in this manner. The remaining four were new nominees.

Conduct

The

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

Secretariat Secretariat may refer to: * Secretariat (administrative office) * Secretariat (horse) Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse who is the ninth winner of the Ame ...

, Organization of American States (OAS),

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM or CC) is an intergovernmental organisation that is a political and economic union of 15 member states (14 nation-states and one dependency) throughout the Caribbean. They have primary objectives to promote eco ...

and the Latin American Council of Electoral Experts (LACEE) sent

election observers Election monitoring involves the observation of an election by one or more independent parties, typically from another country or from a non-governmental organization (NGO). The monitoring parties aim primarily to assess the conduct of an electi ...

with the

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

concluding that "election day and the pre-election atmosphere were largely peaceful and voters were free to exercise their franchise, the results of which are a collective will of those who voted. They also commended Electoral Office and its staff on their performance during the electoral process," noting that "while wholly consistent with the Constitution, the announcement of the snap elections on 6 November created certain challenges for some stakeholders."

Results

References

{{Dominican elections Elections in Dominica

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...