{"id":3262,"date":"2010-02-02T09:46:08","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T15:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/?p=3262"},"modified":"2010-02-02T12:07:08","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T18:07:08","slug":"uwp-defends-position-to-boycott-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/news\/politics\/uwp-defends-position-to-boycott-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"UWP defends position to boycott Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_3263\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3263\" style=\"width: 272px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/edison-james.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3263\" title=\"edison james\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/edison-james.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"272\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3263\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">UWP President, Edison James<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC &#8211; The main Opposition United Workers Party (UWP) Tuesday defended its decision to boycott the first sitting of Parliament since the December 18 general election, insisting that persons in the three constituencies it won would not be neglected.<\/p>\n<p>UWP president Edison James told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that while the duly elected members will not \u201cgive legitimacy\u201d to what it deems an \u201cillegitimate parliament\u201d, his party\u2019s work would continue in several key constituencies.<\/p>\n<p>James was among the three successful UWP candidates, but both the party leader, Ron Green and the deputy leader, Claudius Sanford, were among the causalities of the 18-3 rout by the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP).<\/p>\n<p>In protest of what it called fraudulent election practices, the UWP announced it would not send its three elected members to the House and demanded fresh general elections within 18 months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will be representing our constituencies and we will be doing the work that as constituency members we have to do. I might add that when you look at the practicality of it, Parliament meets at least three maybe four times a year for three to four days. The real work in representing your constituency is done outside of Parliament and we intend to do that,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n<p>He said all three parliamentarians had held extensive consultations with their constituents and were confident they had their blessing to snub the Parliament when it convenes for the first time since the December polls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose very people have endorsed the decision that we have taken in conjunction with the party not to go to Parliament. I think the people you will hear suggesting that what we are doing is wrong are the people who didn\u2019t vote for us,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have had public meetings, one-on-one meetings and I can tell you there is no one who I am aware has voted for me who did not endorse the decision,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>James contends that the absence of an opposition in the Dominica parliament should not seriously affect the functioning of the legislative chamber, claiming that there had been a bias against opposition legislators over the past five years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have been in the parliament for the last several years which has been essentially hijacked by the government and the speaker so that I do not know that our absence with three seats as opposed to 18 will have any significant impact,\u201d he suggested,<\/p>\n<p>The former prime minister also added his voice to condemnation of Prime Minister Skerrit\u2019s decision to fill key civil service positions without the necessary consultation with the Opposition Leader.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey will be in the Parliament talking to themselves. They have done everything that they could do outside of the law to have a one party state so they will enjoy themselves,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n<p>The UWP said it will participate in an alternative \u201cPeople\u2019s Parliament\u201d being organised by the recently formed Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) that is also scheduled for Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>A MRD statement says the \u2018People\u2019s Parliament\u2019 will serve as an alternative forum to ensure the survival of vibrant debate \u201cduring this period of political crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC &#8211; The main Opposition United Workers Party (UWP) Tuesday defended its decision to boycott the first sitting of Parliament since the December 18 general election, insisting that persons in the three constituencies it won would not be&#8230;","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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