Voting progressing well
Electoral officials in Dominica were reporting a steady trickle of voters heading for polling booths around the country yesterday morning, as the island holds a general election.
A total of 62 candidates are contesting the 21 constituencies at stake. The country’s 67,000 voters are choosing between the incumbent Dominica Labour Party (DLP) of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, the United Workers Party led by Opposition Leader Ron Green, the minority Dominica Freedom Party and a handful of smaller parties and independents. The DLP is fielding candidates in all 21 constituencies, the UWP is contesting 17 and the DFP 11.
The poll is being monitored by Organisation of American States and Caribbean Community (Caricom) observers.
PAM predicts January date
The opposition Peoples Action Movement (PAM) in St Kitts and Nevis said on Friday that it is preparing for an 18 January general election. The election date hasn’t been named by Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, who announced on Tuesday that the country’s parliament was being dissolved. Douglas promised at the time that he would announce the election date in the coming weeks.
But PAM leader Lindsay Grant told supporters at a rally that he had been reliably informed that polling day would be in a month’s time on 18 January.
The Hague denies Chavez allegation
The Dutch government has denied that it is allowing the United States to use Dutch Caribbean islands to prepare a possible military attack against Venezuela.
The allegation was made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Copenhagen, where he is attending the climate change summit. A statement from The Hague said Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen had asked Venezuela’s ambassador to clarify the claims made by Chavez. A foreign ministry spokesman confirmed that the US does use civilian air fields on the self-governing islands of Curacao and Aruba. However, he said the US forces were solely combatting narcotic trafficking and using unarmed aircraft.
