Roosevelt Skerrit (born 8 June 1972) is a

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 ...

n politician who has been

Prime Minister of Dominica The prime minister of Dominica is the head of government in the Commonwealth of Dominica. Nominally, the position was created on November 3, 1978 when Dominica gained independence from the United Kingdom. Hitherto, the position existed de facto ...

since 2004; he has also been the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the

Vieille Case Vieille Case, sometimes spelled as Vielle-Case, is a village on the north coast of Dominica. The Commonwealth of Dominica in the West Indies was first inhabited by the Kalinago tribe referred to by the Europeans as Caribs. Itassi (pronounced: e- ...

constituency since 2000. Regionally, he has served as the chairman of the

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS; French: ''Organisation des États de la Caraïbe orientale'', OECO) is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal ri ...

(OECS) and most recently as chairman of the

Caribbean Community The Caribbean Community (CARICOM or CC) is an intergovernmental organization 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 econom ...

(CARICOM) in 2010. Skerrit is currently the longest-serving prime minister of Dominica.

Prime Minister

Roosevelt Skerrit, also known as "Roozey" by some of his closest family and friends, became Prime Minister after the death of Pierre Charles in January 2004. At the time of Pierre Charles’ death, Skerrit was Member of Parliament for the Vieille Case constituency, a position he had held since his election in February 2000. In addition to being the Prime Minister, he has also served as

Minister for Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

since 2004, Minister of Education, Sports and Youth Affairs, and

Minister for Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between coun ...

and is the political leader of the Dominica Labor Party. Upon taking office Skerrit became the world's youngest head of government, surpassing

Joseph Kabila Joseph Kabila Kabange ( , ; born 4 June 1971) is a Congolese politician who served as President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between January 2001 and January 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, Presi ...

of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. With his party's May 2005 election victory, Skerrit became the world's first democratically elected national leader born in the 1970s. As of December 2010 Skerrit remained the youngest head of government in the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...

and the third youngest in the world, surpassed only by Madagascar's

Andry Rajoelina Andry Nirina Rajoelina (Malagasy: ; born 30 May 1974) is a Malagasy politician and businessman who has been the president of Madagascar since 2019. He was previously president of a provisional government from 2009 to 2014 following a political ...

and Montenegro's Igor Lukšić. In 2015, the Chinese billionaire

Ng Lap Seng David Ng Lap Seng (; born June 1948) is a Macau-based Chinese billionaire real estate businessman, chairman of the Sun Kian Ip Group (新建业集团). He is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Con ...

was arrested by the FBI. This was due to an ongoing UN bribery investigation. Skerrit was photographed with Ng shortly before the arrest. The ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' stated that Ng told associates that he helped persuade Dominica to switch diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan. The opposition party scrutinized Skerrit on the matter. Skerrit informed them that the FBI was not interested in him. A 2019, an Al Jazeera investigation alleged that Skerrit had been receiving money in exchange for diplomatic passports and ambassadorships. RooseveltSkerrit

In December 2019, incumbent Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit won his fourth consecutive general

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

eighteen seats to three, becoming the first Dominica Prime Minister ever to do so.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skerrit, Roosevelt 1972 births Living people People from Roseau Prime Ministers of Dominica Foreign ministers of Dominica Finance ministers of Dominica Dominica Labour Party politicians Members of the House of Assembly of Dominica New Mexico State University alumni University of Mississippi alumni