James Says Moves to Shut Down Opposition is First Step in a Gestapo State

President of the United Workers Party Edison James says moves by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit to silence the opposition “is one of the first steps in what is called a Gestapo state”.

James made the statement earlier this week during a silent mini protest staged by the UWP outside the premises of the state-owned DBS radio against what they perceive as attempts by the station to deny the party access to the airwaves.

James said that the Prime Minster rushed to call general elections in the Christmas season because he intended to shut up “those persons who have been criticizing him and making discoveries about what he would not like Dominicans to know.”

The former Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition criticized the decision as “one of the first steps in what is called a Gestapo state in which the people are not free to express their views.”

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has been embroiled in a number of alleged scandals and has come under heavy fire from a number of individuals and opposition parties.

James also heavily criticized and condemned the decision taken by the state-owned DBS to unilaterally ban all political broadcast. He says the move was carefully orchestrated to give a decided advantage to the governing Dominica Labour Party.

“They have devised a tactic, a strategy to pretend that they are not discriminating against the UWP and the opposition relative to the ruling party, but they do.” “There is another station which the ruling party has free access to and we are hearing each night all day on the other station. The only other station available to us right now does not have all island wide coverage.”

With less than twenty-one (21) days to go before the December 18th 2009 polls, the UWP and other opposition parties are struggling to get their message out to their constituents and public at large.

Thursday’s protest says James, was designed to draw attention to what was happening and to reiterate calls for a free and fair election.

James made it clear however that their anger and frustration were not directed at the DBS staff but its Chairman, Aurelius Jolly and the Labour administration for either masterminding or else going along with Jolly’s decision. James reported that “any request for the live broadcast of party activites must have the written approval of Mr. Jolly, any access to the ‘What’s On’ programme must have the written approval of Jolly and he has obviously refused.”

James described the actions and activities of Jolly and his board “another example of the Gestapo type tactics of this Labour Administration,” and called on Jolly “to stop messing around with the people of this country.”

The UWP ended its protest with a renewed call for election observers. “I wish to draw to their attention that they would see one of the major aspects of a non-free, non fair election, the closing down of the national radio to opposition parties is taking place here right now