Dominica Government and Politics

State and politics

Reference: Dominica Flag Meaning

GOVERNMENT

According to AllCityCodes.com, Dominica became an independent republic within the British Commonwealth in 1978. Also see AbbreviationFinder for abbreviation of DM and its meanings of Dominica. Its president is elected by Parliament for a term of five years and can be re-elected once. A presidential candidate is jointly nominated by the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition. Such a person must be a Dominican citizen, at least 40 years of age and have lived in Dominica at least five years before the nomination. All heads of state since independence have been men. President since 2013 is Charles Savarin (born 1943). In practice, the executive power is held by the government, which is led by the prime minister.

Parliament has a House, consisting of 21 elected representatives and nine senators, elected or appointed by the President. In addition, the President and the Chancellor of Justice are members of Parliament.

Policy

The 1995 parliamentary elections set the stage for Dominica Freedom Party’s (DFP) 15-year reign. Party leader Eugenia Charles had been prime minister since 1980. The party lost four of its eleven seats to the Dominica United Workers’ Party (UWP) and two to the left-wing Dominica Labor Party (DLP), and UWP’s Edison James (born 1943) became new Government.

UWP lost government power in 2000 to DLP, which has since retained it. In the 2005 election, DFP became without a mandate in Parliament and Dominica has since then practically had a two-party system. Prime Minister since 2004 is Roosevelt Skerrit (born 1972). After the 2014 elections, three of the 21 elected members (14 percent) were women; together with the President and three appointed members, the total number of female members was seven out of 32 (22 percent).

Judiciary

The legal system is based almost entirely on the reception of English law. Dominica has its own courts, which are sentenced in the first instance, while the Court of Appeal is shared with several other Caribbean islands. The death penalty can be punished for some serious crimes.

Heads of State

Presidents

History. – Formerly part of the British West Indies (1958-62), Dominica had obtained internal autonomy in 1967. The dominica Labor Party (DLP) hegemony, majority since the 1960s, ended in 1979, when the attempt to part of the government to introduce measures restricting trade union and press freedoms caused a serious political crisis and the splitting of the DLP into opposing groups. The subsequent elections (July 1980) saw the victory of the conservative Dominica Freedom Party (DFP), but the protracted tension led the new government to proclaim a state of emergency several times while two coup attempts occurred (1981), involving the same former Labor Prime Minister, Fr. John, who was convicted in 1985 to 12 years in prison, but released in 1990. Reconfirmed by the July 1985 elections (despite the reunification in that year of the various Labor factions in the Labor Party of Dominica, LPD) and in May 1990, the government chaired by the leader of the DFP, ME Charles, led a policy of close alliance with the United States. Economically, he tried to promote Dominica’s development through an increase in agricultural production (agrarian reform), infrastructure and foreign investments, while austerity measures (in addition to the rather authoritarian style of the prime minister) aroused a certain discontent. launched in agreement with international creditors. In the elections of May 1990, the DFP suffered a sharp decline, while maintaining a weak parliamentary majority (11 seats out of 21), while in the opposition the newly formed (1988) Dominica United Workers’ Party (DUWP) established itself as the second party (6 seats) in front of the LPD (4 seats).