– Focus on ruling party’s US$8.3M budget
THE SCALE of foreign funding, particularly for Dominica’s governing Labour Party (DLP), for the coming December 18 poll could well prove a decisive factor in favour of the incumbent’s bid for a third successive term.

Nominations for that Windward Island’s 21-member elected parliament closed last Wednesday evening amid controversies involving allegations of significant campaign funding from overseas, as well as claims of dual citizenship by some candidates of both the ruling DLP and the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP).

When the parliament was dissolved last month for the poll, in the height of the Christmas season, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s ruling DLP held 12 of the 21 seats.

That was based on the results of the December 2005 election; and eight by the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP), now under the leadership, for the first-time, of Ron Greene.

There was one successful ‘Independent’, while the once formidable Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) of the late Eugenia Charles failed to win a single seat under then leadership of Charles Savarin.

In the face of passionate claims about sources of campaign funding and disputes over dual citizenship, the three traditional primary contestants registered a total of 49 candidates on Nomination Day.

They comprised a full slate of 21 for the DLP; UWP 17, and 11 from the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP). For the first time, an array of fringe parties and ‘independents’ have made up an additional 13 candidates. Some of these are expected to create severe challenges, with split votes in marginal constituencies, of which there are at least five.

As far as funding for the main contesting parties by foreign governments is concerned, it seems a case of deja vu for campaign 2009, with persistent claims that Prime Minister Skerrit’s DLP is a big beneficiary of assistance from the ‘friendly’ governments of Venezuela and the People’s Republic of China.

On the other hand, the UWP’s primary foreign source of campaign funding is said to be Taiwan — as it was in 2005.

‘Friendly’ Funders
Unlike 2005, however, when China was said to be the primary funder, following the DLP’s severing of diplomatic ties with Taiwan, Prime Minister Skerrit’s party is now reported to have President Hugo Chavez’s government as its major funding partner — a claim that has been denied.

However, a rationale for foreign funding could be found in a privately-circulated document — a copy of which was obtained by this writer.

Titled ‘Dominica Labour Party — Budget Outline’ for campaign 2009, it explains how the DLP envisaged campaign expenditures to total approximately US$8.338 million.

This includes some US$1.2 million to cover costs for chartered flights and also “facilitate” Dominicans from the Caribbean Diaspora, as well as from within CARICOM (600 of them), whose “participation is vital to our success”

— according to the budget document which states on page two:

“It is anticipated that Taiwan will once again come to the assistance of opposition forces. This means that the Dominica Labour Party will have to lean heavily on some of its longstanding friends for direct and meaningful financial support in underwriting the cost of a high-energy and focused election campaign…”

A Barbadian political activist is among “the team of strategists and consultants” to be paid “professional fees” from a budget allocation of US$600,000.

While a leading consultant and legal adviser to Prime Minister Skerrit said, in response to questions, that “the party considers the document to be bogus,” the UWP has openly challenged the DLP to “publicly explain what aspects of the budget document are bogus.”

At the same time, former Prime Minister and ex-UWP leader, Edison James, was adamant that his party “has not received one cent from Taiwan for this election campaign. Let the Prime Minister and his party come forward with evidence to the contrary…,” he challenged.

Prime Minister Skerrit remains at the centre of the row that surfaced on Nomination Day about how and when he acquired French citizenship (he is known to have been born in Dominica on June 8, 1972.

He is, nevertheless, quite optimistic that his party “will secure a decisive” third-term victory and, for him personally, a second full five-year spell as Head of Government.

Skerrit’s optimism is linked to an opinion poll, conducted for the DLP last August by the Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES) of well-known political scientist and pollster, Peter Wickham. The results gave the incumbent a clear parliamentary majority, with a seven per cent swing in its favour.

Not unexpectedly, the main opposition UWP has not only disagreed with the CADRES forecast, but said on Wednesday that “evidence on the ground at this time shows that our party will return to power on December 18…”

According to reports out of Roseau, it appears that the bitter campaign is heading for a close finish, with speculations of a victory for the party with an unprecedented campaign budget in Dominica’s post-independence history — the incumbent DLP.

Last month, both the UWP and DFP refused to sign a Code of Conduct prepared by the Dominica Christian Council and the Dominica Evangelical Association, partly as a consequence of the religious bodies’ public silence on the denial of access by contesting opposition parties to State-owned Dominica Broadcasting Service (DBS).

At the 2005 general election, the DLP had won its 12 seats with 19,741 votes (52.1 per cent), or an overall plurality of 2,118, compared with the DLP’s 16,529 (43.6 per cent), and the lone Independent’s 1,194 votes (3.2 per cent). The national voter turnout was 57.5 per cent.