Dominica: The opposition United Workers Party (UWP) has confirmed that it is returning to the country’s parliament, ending more than two years of boycotting the House of Assembly, according to a Dominica NewsOnline report.
Opposition Leader, Hector John, told Dominica News Online, “Yes we are going back to parliament, we will be participating fully”, and explained that the UWP still has concerns about the alleged biasness of Speaker Alix Boyd-Knights, but would attempt to make a constructive contribution despite this.
The DNO report said according to John the Speaker has already angered the opposition ahead of the coming sitting of the House, by deleting a part of one of the questions the UWP wants answered by the government. He has defended the now ending boycott that saw UWP parliamentarians making brief appearances occasionally, suggesting that the party’s handful of MPs were able to draw attention in other forums to their concerns that include a lack of electoral reform.
John has denied that staying away from the house for more than two years was largely a waste of time. “We have been out there doing our work,” he said in defence of the boycott. “We will do everything within the law to get our message across,” John said of the strategy the party will employ to try to effectively make its case in the parliament.
He has called on the Speaker to stop being a “stumbling block” in the way of the UWP doing the business of its constituents in the House. Hector John says he will be taking his role as opposition leader seriously, and won’t be unduly put off by the fact that the party’s political leader, Edison James will also be in the House alongside him. “I am going to be a leader who is going to learn,” he told the DNO.
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