Roosevelt Skerrit (born 8 June 1972) is a Dominican politician who has been

Prime Minister of Dominica The prime minister of Dominica is the head of government in the Commonwealth of Dominica. Nominally, the position was created on November 3, 1978, when Dominica gained independence from the United Kingdom. Hitherto, the position existed de facto ...

since 2004; he has also been the Member of Parliament for the Vieille Case constituency since 2000. Regionally, he has served as the chairman of the

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS; French: ''Organisation des États de la Caraïbe orientale'', OECO) is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal ...

(OECS) and most recently as chairman of the

Caribbean Community The Caribbean Community (abbreviated as CARICOM or CC) is an intergovernmental organisation that is a Political association, political and economic union of 15 member states (14 nation-states and one dependency) and five associated members thro ...

(CARICOM) in 2010. Skerrit is currently the longest-serving prime minister of Dominica.

Career

Roosevelt Skerrit, also known as "Roozey" by some of his closest family and friends, became prime minister after the death of Pierre Charles in January 2004. At the time of Pierre Charles’ death, Skerrit was Member of Parliament for the Vieille Case constituency, a position he had held since his election in February 2000. In addition to being the Prime Minister, he has also served as Minister for Finance since 2004, Minister of Education, Sports and Youth Affairs, and Minister for Foreign Affairs and is the political leader of the Dominica Labor Party. RooseveltSkerrit

Upon taking office Skerrit became the world's youngest head of government at age 33, surpassing

Joseph Kabila Joseph Kabila Kabange ( , ; born 4 June 1971) is a Congolese politician and former military officer who served as the fourth President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2001 to 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination o ...

of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

. With his party's May 2005 election victory, Skerrit became the world's first democratically elected national leader born in the 1970s. As of December 2010 Skerrit remained the youngest head of government in the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the 180th meridian.- The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Geopolitically, ...

and the third youngest in the world, surpassed only by Madagascar's Andry Rajoelina and Montenegro's Igor Lukšić. In 2015, the Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng was arrested by the FBI. This was due to an ongoing UN bribery investigation. Skerrit was photographed with Ng shortly before the arrest. The ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' stated that Ng told associates that he helped persuade Dominica to switch diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan. The opposition party scrutinized Skerrit on the matter. Skerrit informed them that the FBI was not interested in him. A 2019, an Al Jazeera investigation alleged that Skerrit had been receiving money in exchange for diplomatic passports and ambassadorships. In December 2019, Skerrit won his fourth consecutive general

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

eighteen seats to three, becoming the first Dominica Prime Minister ever to do so. On 1 July 2023. Prime Minister Dr Roosevelt Skerrit assumed the chairmanship of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). He also chaired the meeting of the countries under the CARICOM and asked for the innovative ways to strengthen the region. After the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, Skerrit called for a ceasefire in the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skerrit, Roosevelt 1972 births Living people People from Roseau Prime ministers of Dominica Ministers of foreign affairs of Dominica Ministers of finance of Dominica Dominica Labour Party politicians Members of the House of Assembly of Dominica New Mexico State University alumni University of Mississippi alumni 21st-century Dominica politicians