By Rickey Singh
–in  Bridgetown
WHEN THE Christmas holidays are over, citizens of some five countries of the Caribbean  Community would be faced with a series of parliamentary elections. Between this month and during next year, a quartet of of parliamentary polls are expected, plus a snap general election, likely before mid 2015.

Dominica is already in the final phase for next Monday’s general election amid forecasts of a return to state power by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s incumbent Labour Party,  for a consecutive fourth term.

At the last general election, the DLP retained power with a landslide 18 seats to the  opposition United Workers Party’s mere three for the 21-member parliament. But the UWP’s new, young and quite militant leader, former journalist Lennox Linton, is bravely predicting victory this time around.

Other parliamentary elections due in 2015 would include those in St.Kitts and Nevis, St.Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and also expected in Jamaica—months prior to Guyana’s expected snap poll.
The snap poll is coming against the background of the recent prorogation of parliament ahead of a planned no confidence motion against the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Government of President Donald Ramotar, by the combined opposition coalition which holds a one-seat majority in the 65-member House of Assembly.

Across in T&T, official campaigning for control of state power  would intensify after the  Christmas season. Currently, Dr Keith Rowley, leader of the opposition People’s National Movement (PNM), appears agitated over the findings of a recent independent voters survey, conducted for the ‘Trinidad Express’, that points to a  ‘photo finish’ when voters trek to the polling stations, possibly by mid 2015.
Rowley, a seasoned politician and first-time leader of the PNM—a party that has been accustomed to recurring electoral victories under its founder-leader, the now late Dr Eric Williams—feels that the “photo finish” prediction is “only propaganda” to boost the morale of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s incumbent People’s Partnership administration.
The dominant party of the ‘People’s Partnership’ coalition is the United National Congress (UNC), of which the Prime Minister is its first woman leader. Indications are it is likely to develop a new

leadership structure and strategies for the 2015 election. She lost no time in declaring that the results of the Express poll could well further energize her party’s campaign for the coming 2015 elections.

In Jamaica
Across in Jamaica, where Portia Simpson-Miller is also the first woman Prime Minister and leader of the People’s National Party (PNP) which, like the PNM, is also accustomed to state power, new elections could well be held before next year’s Christmas.
The by-election victory scored by the PNP just this past Monday, against the JLP in the Westmoreland West constituency, could well further boost the PNP’s hope for a second term.
The PNP had won  a smashing victory at the snap general election called by the then new JLP leader, Andrew Holness, in December 2011, when it secured 42 of the  63 seats against the then incumbent. But Simpson Miller faces more complex governance problems than Persad-Bissessar.

Coming 2015 elections in the Eastern Caribbean will for sure include St.Kitts and Nevis, where Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas is looking  forward to securing a fifth consecutive term for the 15-member elected parliament, as well as in St. Vincent  and the Grenadines.
In the latter case, the incumbent Unity Labour  Party of Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, which had retained state power with a one-seat majority in the 15-member House, is expecting to again return to government, this time with a comfortable majority, a prospect certainly not shared by the opposition New Democratic Party’s leader, Arnhim Eustace.