CANA is reporting that Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit is predicting that his ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP) will win the next general election, constitutionally due by March next year, but widely expected to take place later this year.
Speaking at a town hall meeting of his Cabinet in the west coast village of Mahaut on Tuesday night to discuss the recently passed EC$1.02 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) budget, Skerrit also said he was optimistic that the DLP, which won 15 of the 21 seats in the 2014 general election, could also be victorious in the Marigot constituency which is represented in Parliament by Opposition Leader Lennox Linton.
He said as far as the Mahaut constituency was concerned, the DLP had it “locked down” as he predicted a better result that the 2014 outcome..
“I will say to you in 2014, we won 15 seats, the last time I checked which was this morning, how many seats labour is going to win in the next election, I count 19”.
He said when the party holds its meeting in Marigot, north east of here on Sunday, he would be in a better position to gauge which way the results could be.
“Based on what I am hearing coming from Marigot, when I get there on Sunday, I will know how we stand out there. But based on what I am hearing in Marigot it is 50-50”.
During the meeting, Skerrit said that from September 6 this year, citizens would begin to benefit from the “Dominica-China Friendship Hospital” on the outskirts of the capital.
He said the hospital would have all of the amenities “and top notch equipment that you would need here in Dominica to provide better medical services to us”.
“They (opposition) criticised the Chinese government, but come the sixth of September anyone of us who falls sick in Dominica and would require an MRI you will not have to go anywhere else but the Dominica-China Hospital”.
He said persons under the age of 18 as well as those over 60 “would continue to enjoy free medical care at our new hospital.
“So from September 6, you will have access to the first wing of the hospital,” he said.
The US$40-million China-funded project forms part of the four-pillar projects agreed to in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the governments of Dominica and the People’s Republic of China when the two countries established diplomatic relations in 2004.