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Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in a jubilant mood as he announced December 18 as Election Day.

ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Political parties were getting ready to announce candidates for the general elections, less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced that Dominicans would vote for a new government on December 18.

The ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP) that has asked voters to provide it with another five-year term in office, is likely to be the only party contesting all 21 seats at stake in the poll.

Nomination Day is December 2 for the election that the Prime Minister has called more than five months ahead of the constitutional deadline.

The DLP, which came into government as part of a coalition administration in 2000, is likely to launch its candidates over the coming days.

Meantime, the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP), which last won a general election in 1995, has said it would field candidates in at least 18 constituencies.

“Right now we have declared 16 candidates. We have two others that will be named…so we are certainly going to be contesting 18,” UWP leader Ron Green told reporters.

“We are ready. We expected it to come soon and we saw a desperate attempt to steal the elections,” Green said, expressing concerns that Dominicans residing abroad would be brought back by the ruling party to vote.

“It is clear that there are a number of organised efforts to bring in, illegally, Dominicans who are overseas. We are happy when they decide to exercise their democratic right and come home and vote,” Green said, adding however that it would be illegal if a political party paid for the airline tickets.

Leader of the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP), Judith Pestaina said while she welcomed the announcement of the election date on Thursday night, the party was still calling on Prime Minister Skerrit to answer a number of concerns that have been raised in the public recently.

“We need to have accountability in government and people need answers to the questions which have remained unanswered. So I would have imagined he would have started by wiping the slate clean last night and give the people the answers they are looking for,” said Pestaina, a former local and international public servant.

She is leading a revitalised party that once dominated the political landscape here from 1980 until 1995 when it was led by the late Dame Eugenia Charles. In the last general election in 2005, the party failed to win a single seat.

Pestaina has given no idea as to the slate of candidates but insisted “we are ready and we will fight the battle like everybody else”.

The Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) founded in 2007 by former DLP executive member, Dr. William “Para” Riviere and the little-known Real Labour Party have also said they were prepared for the polls, but have not revealed the names of their candidates.