Dominica: On Friday, the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Islands rejected an appeal by Dominica’s opposition United Workers Party (UWP), which upheld the High Court’s ruling on petitions filed by the party regarding the outcome of the December 2019 general election.
“The court today unanimously ruled that the appeal should be dismissed because there was no right of appeal … and interestingly enough, the court ordered that the court be paid to every respondent except Hillary Shillingford and Wayne James … because they did not appear in the case,” Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan told reporters after the verdict.
The UWP has so far made no statement on the latest court ruling.
The UWP, which was defeated 18-3 by the Dominica Labor Party (DLP) at the ballot box, submitted petitions to challenge the results in ten constituencies that the DLP won in the election in which the regional and international observation teams said, reflects the will of the Dominican voter.
The DLP called the petitions “frivolous and troublesome” and asked the court to strike out the petitions. It is noteworthy to mention that in the opposition of Dominica, the United workers party, after facing a crushing defeat, moved to court, calling the elections biased. The party leader Lennox Linton made continuous attempts to defend the country and alleged the government of hijacking the polls. In contrast, other international monitoring authorities have stated that the elections were free and fair in nature. Read More.
They also added that the people of Dominica had shown their faith in the Dominica Labour Party government in the country. It is noteworthy that many stakeholders have criticised opposition leader Lennox Linton for fraudulently making false allegations against the government. Moreover, the leader of the opposition was exposed by Al Jazeera’s documentary revealing his commitment of selling diplomatic passports to people who were ready to fund his political party in the elections. Read More.
