ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) -- The Dominica Labor Party ousted the
government in a closely contested election that featured allegations of
corruption, pacts with gangsters and a secret deal with a religious sect.
"Labor time! Labor power!" supporters yelled as they paraded through the
streets of Roseau on foot and in a horn-blaring motorcade.
But Labor's narrow victory will force it into a coalition -- already discussed
before the vote -- with one-time rivals from the conservative Dominica
Freedom Party.
"I thought we would have done even better," the country's new leader, Rosie
Douglas, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He said he
would work to allow the Freedom Party "to feel comfortable in the
government, in that way we will be able to effectively rule."
Preliminary results Monday night gave Labor 10 seats, up from five, to
nine
for the outgoing United Workers' Party and two seats to the Freedom Party.
Official results were expected by early Tuesday. Some 60,000 people were
registered to vote.
"We concede that we have lost the election," the outgoing Communications
Minister Earl Williams said on private Marpin Channel 5 television.
Douglas told the AP that his government would immediately halt and review
a program to raise money by selling passports to foreigners that his party
charges has besmirched the image of Dominica.
"I'm going to stop it immediately," Douglas said. "It must be something
strictly to help the development of the country ... We need to get out
all the
kinks, and to see if it is able to measure up to international law."
The Labor Party warned the practice may make travel more difficult for
islanders and their relatives who have left the country. Dominica has fewer
than 80,000 citizens who live on the island, but another 100,000 live abroad.
Jasmine Felix, an 18-year-old teacher who was voting for the first time,
was
more concerned that the government was not getting enough money for the
passports. Under the "Economic Citizenship" program, agents can charge
whatever they want as long as they give the government $50,000 for each
"investor" who gets a passport.
"St. Kitts charges $200,000. We should get more," said Felix, referring
to
neighboring island state St. Kitts and Nevis.
Outgoing Premier Edison James denies charges of corruption and had hoped
to win a second term on his government's record of building homes, schools
and water pipelines and plans to build an international airport in hopes
of
quadrupling the number of tourists.
He also touted the island's economic growth of 3.5 percent last year, despite
troubles within the banana industry, the biggest earner of foreign exchange.
Some 2,500 of the island's 5,000 farmers have deserted the fields, James
said, since the United States successfully challenged Caribbean banana
producers' preferred status in the European market.
The U.S. State Department has also criticized Dominica's economic
citizenship program. In a report last year, it said passports had been
sold to
some 300 Russians. Noting the increasing power of Russian gangs, the
report said the passport sales raised concerns of money laundering in
Dominica.
Islanders became concerned after Canada arrested several Chinese people
carrying Dominica passports on suspicion that they are involved in an
immigration smuggling ring run by Chinese gangs.
The Labor Party dominated politics here from 1961 to 1979, when strikes
and internal bickering led to its ouster by the Dominica Freedom Party,
which was dominated by former plantation owners.
Dominica won self-government from Britain in 1967 and gained its formal
independence in 1978.
Fearing a Labor resurgence, James repeated charges Sunday that Douglas
had met with leaders of the South Korea-based Unification Church and
would allow it to return to Dominica. Several Caribbean countries expelled
the group, headed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, two years ago because
they consider it a cult.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.