Dominica is heading to the polls.
In an address to the nation tonight, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced that general elections would be held on Tuesday, December 6.
Skerrit said that he asked the President to dissolve the current parliament effectively immediately.
Nomination day will be on Friday, November 18.
Calling for a national reset, Skerrit indicated that he has no intention of serving in office beyond April 2025.
“You have given me a mandate that allows me to remain in office until April 2025. I don’t intend to go beyond that date. I have run my race and I intend to finish the course with Dominica safely back on the road of sustained progress and prosperity. That is why I am calling for a national reset,” he said.
While he would be leading a new slate for the election, Skerritt said he wants to preside over the peaceful and dignified transition of Prime Ministerial leadership to someone of his party’s choosing.
He said it is his intention to stay on for another two and half years but some of his colleagues have collectively agreed that the time for renewal is now.
Skerrit said he wants 2023 to begin with a new mandate and with a new team to tackle the challenges presented by COVID-19, the effects of the war in Ukraine and other issues.
The new DLP slate will be presented in Roseau on Tuesday, November 8.
Skerrit’s DLP won an unprecedented fifth term in the 2019 elections. The DLP won 18 seats with the United Workers Party winning the remaining three seats.
The election was marred by protests in the Marigot and Salisbury constituencies, two UWP strongholds.
In October, Lennox Winton resigned from his post as leader of the main opposition, the United Workers Party.
The UWP is expected to elect a new leader at the party’s delegates’ conference later this month.