Attorney-at-law Wayne Norde is seeking to provide representation to the constituents of the Roseau South.
This time not at the court but hopefully in the House of Assembly as their next Parliamentary Representative.
This, as Norde has confirmed his intention to contest the December 6, 2022, general election as an independent candidate in the said constituency.
In a statement to the media, the defense attorney revealed that while he was apathetic in joining the political ring, he credited the support and public outcry for proper representation in Roseau South propelled his political journey.
“Two months ago, the last thing on my mind was participating in general elections in Dominica,” Norde noted. “After the Prime Minister announced that he had instructed the President to dissolve Parliament and that we would go to the polls on December 6th, 2022, my close friend, in what I would call a joke, indicated that I should consider running for office and proceeded to make a flyer, stating that I was a candidate for the Roseau South constituency.”
To Norde’s surprise, the now widely circulated flyer garnered immediate traction.
“I began receiving calls from various people in the Roseau South constituency. The constituents were complaining of their plight and voicing concerns that they had been forgotten and simply lacked Parliamentary representation,” he said.
The lawyer continued, “The thought of me offering myself as a candidate in the general election appeared to have brought some relief and renewed hope to the people of the Roseau South constituency. The calls came from friends and also people that I hardly knew however, their cries were consistent. They were facing hard times and they felt like they had no representation in the House.”
In view of the decision made by the opposition parties to boycott the election, Norde said careful consideration was given on his part on the way forward.
“I understand and respect the decision of the opposition as it relates to their consistent position on the issue of electoral reform and their reputation/beliefs,” he stated. “After looking closely at the letter from Sir Dennis Byron to Mr. Lennox Linton dated the 6th November, 2022, I also reviewed the relevant laws of Dominica, including the Constitution and the judgments referred to by the opposition.”
The attorney opines he is not convinced that the approach to boycott the election, if employed by everyone except the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) candidates, would be in the best interest of the people of Dominica.
“I agree that there is a need for electoral reform of the nature suggested by Sir Byron in his letter to Mr. Linton. I also agree that the integrity and motives of the Prime Minister MUST be called into question in light of his decision to have the President dissolve Parliament before such reform could have been implemented and despite his assurance that another election would not be held before electoral reform,” Norde stressed.
He went on to state, however, “While I note that Sir Byron’s letter made various proposals for electoral reform, there was no mention that a legitimate election could not be held under the current legislation. I also noted that the final court of appeal (the CCJ) did not state that another election should not be conducted under the present legislation.”
Norde further pointed out that there are very limited circumstances under which the President could amend (not revoke or rescind) the writ. Therefore, he stated, if the Labour candidates are nominated unchallenged, a new legitimate government would be duly elected as of November 18th, 2022.
“Most importantly, I do not believe that the people of Roseau South constituency, or of Dominica on a whole, have the luxury of being able to wait for electoral reform before they can be properly represented,” Norde insisted. “There’s an urgent cry for help!”
“The people of the Roseau South are tired of this political environment and are fed up with the political discourse that always places them as pawns on the chessboard of each political party instead of in the driver’s seat of their own destiny.”
He added, “The people of the Roseau South, and I dare say of Dominica as a whole, are tired of voting for representatives hand picked to do the bidding of a party leader. They are ready to chart the course of their own destiny.”
As such, Norde said he is resolute in his decision to offer himself as an independent candidate charting a new way for the people.”
“On November 18th, 2022, we will challenge the current political environment of party politics by nominating me, Wayne Norde, to contest the 2022 general elections. We must not sit this one out!”
Mister is just a simple little snake.
Wayne take your jumbie money and shot your damn mouth
you know damn well is for Skerrit you doing this.
That is another lawyer who have read the constitution and the laws of Dominica and understand them.It is foolishness to always be on the losing side.
Partner i applaud your courage but question your motivate, where were you when this “political monster” forced himself on the freedom and democracy of this country; like they say bro “silence is——-??”, thanks but no thanks my brother.
Based on some of the reasoning proffered by Wayne Norde in his submissions to the courts on behalf of his clients, I would rather vote for a broomstick than him. I do not get the sense he graduated high up in his class at law school.
I do not trust this guy…
REJECT HIM!!!
Not all lawyers are astute.. Many are just mediocre including this one. How can anyone outside Roosevelt’s circle of deplorables expect to succeed when the electoral system is corruptly designed to guarantee a complete ‘win’ for one political party?
This man spends most of his time in a courthouse begging leniency to a judge or magistrate for leniency for his clients because he loses an extremely high percentage of his cases. Seems like he is been driven by ulterior motives.
Don’t you find it disgraceful and dishonest for the UWPPITES not to participate and are encouraging others to run as independent? Wow, you must be mad like hell. So any intelligent and sane person will conclude that the good lawyer is correct.
Anyone voting in this election will give the result a legitimacy it doesn’t deserve.
And though it’ll be very easy for the party in power to give the impression that opposition party voters took part, by maybe getting a few trusted supporters to lodge token votes for non-party candidates, an extremely low turn out will show something’s not right.
But voter ignorance/apathy will probably mean nothing’s gonna happen after the inevitable landslide election victory.
As reportedly having made the pledge at the last election of not having an election within 100days, and now calling this election 2 1/2yrs early has been forgotten by most.
Though legally allowed, the action of the sitting prime minister is totally immoral, and shows a total lack of respect for the post he holds, and it needs to be called as such.
This is nothing more than a back-door dictatorship, which educated Dominicans need to make those less in the know aware of.
Boycotting the Election is the only correct way…
This could go so many ways
Skerrit could get total control
Skerrit could take it one step to far and inadvertedly spark a revolution
A previously unknown face could be the new opposition leader
A new political force may be born from this which will be strong enough in 5 years
The most unlikely scenario is that legal action will stop the election. Skerrit controls the police, courts – the entire judicial system, so he will never allow it to stop him.
This is the beginning of the end for Skerro, his last 5 years. This disregard for electoral integrity will be a stain on him he can’t remove.
Mr Norde, I hope you have the strength to endure what Skerrit have plan for you. He will send white men at ur home to set you up, embarras you, arrest you etc! Good luck.
Norde, could you explain to us what exactly you want to achieve? You are not seriously thinking that you could win this seat. All you are doing is helping the CM to justify this nonsensical election. What’s your agenda? I guess time will tell. I have my suspicions. For the time being, all I can say: no election without reform.
Tim tim… Bwa chesse. The fact that Wayne had to give a long-winded reason why he’s running to represent the Roseau South constituency proves he’s ingenuity. After all Wayne must have known that opposition held constituencies like Salisbury, Marigot and Wesley have representation, however the Skerritt cabal deliberately denied developmental support to those areas, so how does he intend to force Skerritt’s hand to do for the residents of Roseau South which he didn’t do even when his Labor party candidate was the parl rep? It suggests to me that Wayne seeks more that political office because he must know that Skerritt’s modus operandi is to be vindictive towards those who oppose him. Who does Wayne think he’s fooling?
I agree with the lawyer that we must not sit this one out. Da too blessed with the materials we need to sit this election out.
In every village or town we are blessed with a beach and river. While we don’t have the sandy beaches like our neighbors we are very rich with stones in our rivers and beaches and stones and rocks are legal to have in our hands and we can have bags loaded with them and there’s a lot we can do with them.
They can be used both as defensive and offensive material. In Exodus 4:2 The LORD asked Moses”What are you holding?” “A walking stick,” he answered. And God used the walking stick to perform wonders. So yes, don’t sit this one but hold something in your hand.
You remember how David killed Goliath in 1 Sam 17: 40 …he chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag…
stones are powerful and we are blessed with them in Dominica. Goliath had his spears and rods equivalent to the machine guns of armies. So let’s hold…
Try something stupid and you will definitely have an appointment and an interview with the hang man or the executioner.
Welcome to the ring. I have no knowledge of your capacity as a leader or of your ability to represent people’s voices. Additionally, I have often wondered at the abjectly weak quality of the arguments that you sometimes offer in Court on behalf of your clients. So, I do not have confidence in your ability to effectively represent in the Parliament. However, I applaud you for your courage and self-less decision. Cheers!
any rational minded Dominican would not give an ounce of credit to this joke of an election, much less to consider participating in it. and it’s for this I may have reason to suspect that Skerr put u up to this. however, giving you the benefit of the doubt, you haven’t said what you were going to do for the constituency and how. no plans, just “representation”. with that much unreadiness, better you stay in your lane bro.
By now one would have expected Ibo MALAPROP France to have reacted to this decision. FACTS are stubborn things. Clean sweep. 21/21 DLP.
And sadly this is going to be the results if this folks do not focus on taking appropriate steps. All the plans mentioned are idiotic and will bare no fruit. Sending 1000 men to get registered will not impact the holding of elections. Talking on radio all day will not do it. One most aggressively resist the holding of elections. The constitution has been suspended for years and the incumbent government is not in charge playing by it. So if you all one to sit there like hypocrites and talk about morality and decent thing to do you will be stuck for ever. Just as Dr. Aaron said years ago, Tony and Ghost said last night there is no morality in politics. Tony continued to say any thing goes because it’s a blood sport.
Stay there talking about constitutional and morals. Sac sot.
Skerrit done told us during a DLP meeting at Wesley in 2014, that if we voted him out and vote for Lennox Linton and UWP the blood of Dominica would be on us. In other words, even if we legally voted him out he wouldn’t leave without bloodshed. As bad as the country was in 2014, things are 3 times worse today. So my advise is blood for blood we better off shedding blood now and save our country than shedding blood when it’s too late,
It is more than that mr.Norde. I am not at all convinced that you could beat the DLP candidate and current MP. By standing as an independent you are playing into the hands of Roosevelt Skerrit, who then can say that he beat his opponents fair and square. Trust me he is working like Machiavelli to do the same in all the other constituencies so he can say that in a fair fight he beat everybody and now has the support of the entire House without any opposition. That is the way this develish man operates believe me. Do you really want to help Skerrit achieving this goal. You are more educated than me so you may know something I don’t but to my simple mind your action makes no sense at all if you really want to beat Skerrit.
Mr. Norde you may have some brains because one does not become a lawyer if he is daft. However, your decision to go against the majority in the public sphere is selfish, self serving and myopic. Imagine someone like you who know better is trying to pull a Skerro on us. Yes, you have basically said to hell with Dcans and Dca I come first. SMMFH
My friend you are doomed to fail. You can campaign all you want but that effort will be futile. Remember I said so, keep the money it’s alleged that you got for running against SKeeeeerika but you can NEVER win that seat without reforms to the process. The sham election has already been decided. Keep on running you selfish P*G let me see how far you will get
@ Bwa this is called politics Stop attacking and insulting others because they don’t follow your doorsteps. UWP is my party but they have left us hanging in the air so it’s important for as many people as possible register as independent candidates in every constituency. We can’t afford to allow a dangerous and known dictator and very evil and corrupt Roosevelt Skerrit to go unchallenged.
It is clear that we can’t legally get this dictator out so we all must think of how we can do our thing and say like Roosevelt Skerrit “No law No constitution can stop us from doing what we have to do.
So we should start by taking the nine new candidates plus two others to a trip, and keep them on the trip well fed until Sunday morning so they can’t register. That’s all
I in that tooo!
Yeah the candidates all look scared and need a well deserved vacation. A trip to anywhere will do them good. Even if they are protected by the manicou gang 24/7 and are able to register as candidates, they must be exposed to the full weight of the people and made to back out. Anyone who do not heed the call of NO REFORM, NO ELECTION is an enemy of the state and shall be held accountable.
Duly elected legally this elections by the same policy that has them in a state of electoral reform, disrupting with false legal acts, a guise of limiting the success of non-party political supporters of this regime. An umbrella with limited scope, if you are able to give up your rights and liberties. It’s an irrelevant election, like when they used to change our math teacher in high school. It’s our studies tho, that graduates us.