Suspended National Youth Council of Dominica (NYCD) president, Paul Baron, has refused to step down as the council’s president. Baron said the executives that suspended him did so in error and that they have no legal basis for relieving him of his duties. He said he will continue to perform his duties as NYCD president until the next general assembly in April 2020 when another election might hold.
Executives of the NYCD published a press release stating that Baron had been suspended as president. They warned him not to constitute himself as an executive of the association and warned members of the public to not relate with him on behalf of NYCD anymore. The group officers said they suspended their president for involving himself in politics contrary to relevant sections of their constitution.
The executives relied on Section 3, Article VIII (Code of Conduct) of the NYC constitution which stipulated that no executive member of the council shall publicly endorse any political figure or demonstrate affiliation to any political group.
The relevant section reads that: “No member of the National Executive shall demonstrate openly in public forum, media appearance, political platform, or at such public events, show his partnership to any political party as this may have the potential to undermine the integrity and independence of the NYC.”
Baron was accused of publicly endorsing the candidacy of Cozier Frederick for the Salybia constituency on the DLP platform, an act which prompted his executives to suspend him after allegedly issuing him with a couple warnings without change.
The embattled president said the committee cannot intimidate him for speaking in favour of a political candidate “whom I deeply admire and look up to as a role model.” Baron said he spoke on DBS Radio to condemn the protests carried out by people sympathetic to the UWP because such public protests and the associated violence affected Dominican youths in particular.
He said he exercised the powers of his office to speak against violence so as to protect youths everywhere – an exercise which his distractors seized upon to recommend his suspension.
“They had no grounds on which to do so, as the constitution gives me the inalienable right to affiliation,” Baron stated. “I must remind the general public that I am the legitimate and legally elected president until such time that a general assembly is held, which is constitutionally due in April of 2020.”
Jefferson Bellot of the Freedom Party, a former NYCD executive, allegedly first called for Baron’s removal when he endorsed a political figure publicly, a call taken up by the council’s Chief Youth Development Officer. Baron said there had been efforts by the opposition within the NYCD to incriminate and get rid of him without success, so they seized upon the opportunity of speaking out on radio. He said he even apologized to members of the council but they chose to look the other way.
Jeff Bellot who started the campaign against Baron commended the executives for removing him, but asked the council to accept his apology and move on. “We can put this behind our back and the National Youth Council can go on [with] its business,” Bellot said.
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