Roosevelt Skerrit

Roosevelt Skerrit (born June 8, 1972) is the Honourable Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica as well the Member of Parliament for the Vielle Case constituency. In addition to being Prime Minister, he holds the ministerial portfolios of Finance, Planning, National Security and Overseas Nationals. Regionally, he is the Caricom Lead Head of Government with respect to Free Movement as part of the implementation of the CSME. Skerrit is an alumnus of the Dominica Grammar School and of the University of Mississippi (USA), from where he graduated with a BSc in English and Psychology. As a high school senior he was elected 'head boy, a student learship position.

He was initially a member of the youth arm of the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP), the Young Freedom Movement, but became a member of the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) when he returned to Dominica from college. He was an English lecturer at the Clifton-Dupiny Community College until he was elected to parliament for the Vieille Case constituency in the February 2000 elections. He initially served as minister of sports and youth affairs, and upon the death of Roosevelt Douglas he was made minister of Education, Sports and Youth affairs. As minister of education, he established the Dominica State College. In addition, he led a secret mission to the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Barbados, irrespective of the fact that Dominica already had diplomatic relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan.

On the death of Pierre Charles on January 6, 2004 he was nominated to be the country's prime minister and was sworn in the next day, aged 31. After becoming prime minister, he was elected as the Leader of the Domininca Labour Party. Skerrit is currently the youngest head of government in the world. In April 2004 Skerrit established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, severing relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan). As part of the move Beijing agreed to give the country an aid package of over US$100,000,000. In the 2005 General Elections he retained his seat by an even wider margin and his party gained one seat in the Parliament. His party won 12 seats in the parliament and 52% of the popular vote. They defeated the opposition United Workers Party who won 8 seats and 44% of the popular vote. The opposition sought to criticize his age and relative inexperience, as well as pointing to the country's generally poor economic performance since the 2000 elections. The DLP response was that the poor economic performance was due to irresponsible borrowing during the UWP administation. Further, he noted the country's aid package from China and used his young age to mobilize youth voters.

Skerrit has forged a close relationship with leftist leaders Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, which has resulted in Dominica receiving substancial aid from Cuba and Venezuela. Dominica is set to play a major part in the Petrocaribe initiative; crude from oil will be stored on the island for distribution to other islands. Further, the Venezuelan government has given Dominica a US$10.1 million grant for the expansion of the Melville Hall Airport and forgiven the island nation's US$1.5 million debt to Venezuela.

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