The Dominica Air and Sea Ports Authority (DASPA) has given figures of the total number of people that came into Dominica via sea and air transports between December 1-6. The government agency revealed that the news making rounds that 8,000 passengers came into the country to influence the elections in favour of the DLP is false and mischevious.
CEO of DASPA, Benoit Bardouille, rebuked those disseminating fake news to check their facts before heating up the polity. Opposition leader Lennox Linton in the aftermath of losing the December 6 general elections to DLP’s Roosevelt Skerrit alleged that the government-chartered ships and planes to bring 8,000 from overseas to vote in Dominica.
Several other UWP’s supporters such as political scientist Alex Bruno and Kingdom Connection radio host, Pastor Randy Rodney, alleged that the DLP gave out plane tickets and ferry passes to sponsor diasporans to vote in the elections. Bruno even said many people already in the country were bribed with $500 to vote for the DLP. But the DLP government which won the elections said there is no iota of truth in the allegations.
DASPA revealed that a total of 1,026 passengers came in 57 scheduled flights at the Douglas Charles airport between December 1 to 6; and that a total of 507 passengers came on 17 unscheduled flights between the same period at the airport. The agency said a total of six passengers came through 11 flights at the Canfield airport within the same period.
According to DASPA, a total of 1,545 passengers entered into Dominica on 89 flights within the period for the period under scrutiny. The agency went on to reveal that a total of 1,172 passengers came by ferries to Dominica between December 1 to 6. This figure brings the total number of people who entered the country either by sea or air within this period to 2,717.
In comparison, a total of 1,152 passengers came into the country between December 1-6 of 2018 on 72 flights, and 417 came by ferry on 11 ship calls for the same period.
Based on these figures, DASPA said a total of 2,717 passengers came by sea and air between December 1-6 and that this does not correlate with the inflated 8,000 figure cited by the UWP as having fuelled election results for the DLP.
“If one were to assign all the passengers that arrive on the island during that period including children, visitors, business persons, it is impossible that figure represents the 8,000 persons referred to by the fake news agents,” DASPA’s CEO Benoit Bardouille said. “It can be clearly seen based on the information gathered that the statements of some 8,000 passengers arriving in Dominica to participate in the general elections of December 6, 2019 is erroneous, exaggerated, misleading and mischievous.”
Bardouille said the UWP leadership and their supporters ought to know better before making unsubstantiated statements without first seeking to get their facts right.
This article is copyright © 2019 DOM767
