Dominica Labour Party

Dominica Labour Party
Leader	Roosevelt Skerrit
Founded	1955
Ideology	Social democracy
International affiliation	Socialist International (observer)[1], Sao Paulo Forum
Website
www.dlp.dm

The Dominica Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Dominica.

History

Founded in 1955 by Phyllis Shand Allfrey and Emmanuel Christopher Loblack, it is the oldest political party in Dominica.^[2] It first contested general elections in 1961, winning seven of the eleven seats. In the next elections in 1966 it won all but one of the seats. It retained power in the 1970 elections, although it was reduced to eight seats. A fourth consecutive victory was achieved in the 1975 elections when it won 16 of the 21 seats.

In 1980 the party suffered a major defeat, seeing its vote share reduced from 50% to 17%, and losing all its seats as the Dominica Freedom Party won the elections. It regained five seats in the 1985 elections, losing one in 1990 and gaining one in 1995. In the elections the party regained power for the first time since 1975, winning 10 of the 21 seats and forming a coalition with the DFP, after which Rosie Douglas became Prime Minister. However, on 1 October 2000 Douglas died suddenly after only a few months in office and was replaced by Pierre Charles. On 6 January 2004, Charles, who had been suffering from heart problems since 2003, also died. Foreign Minister Osborne Riviere acted as Prime Minister, until Education Minister Roosevelt Skerrit was named political leader of the party and sworn in as Prime Minister.

In the 2005 elections the party won 12 seats and remained in office. A third consecutive victory was achived in 2009, when they won 18 of the 21 seats.

References

1. ^ http://socialistinternational.org/viewArticle.cfm?ArticlePageID=931
2. ^ Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p225 ISBN 9780199283576

External links

• Party website