And the winner is...

So, it's election time in Dominica. Interesting to say the least. The political system here is modeled after the British parliamentary system (since Dominica used to be owned by England~ and the Queen is still on all of the money). Dominica has only been independent since 1978, so she's still in her independence infancy. As best as I have it figured out, which is not very well I might add, there are two main parties. And since it's the Caribbean, they are fittingly usually referred to by their colors. The red party (the Labour party) and the blue party (the Workers party) seem to be the main ones (akin to Democrats and Republicans back in the US). How the two parties differ, I have no clue. I do know that the current party in power is the red party and the current prime minister is the youngest elected in the world (yes, you read that correctly. He's only 37~ now whether that's how old he is now, or how old he was when he was elected, I dont' know). There are also some smaller parties (think Independent party back in the states), the green party (Freedom party) and the yellow/orange party (the Para party, that one i really haven't figured out yet. I think it broke off from the Labour party) and probably another small one that I haven't heard of yet. So campaigning is pretty harmless (see picture). Mostly flags hanging on telephone posts, trees, cars, houses...basically anything you can tie that color fabric to, as well as some posters and signs (the large blue signs with the question marks in them are for the Workers party. It took some digging but we finally found out that supposedly for each sign they have around the county~ and they're EVERYWHERE~ it represents a question that hasn't been answered by the current government).

So, anyway, elections are every 5 years (which should make the election next year), but this year it was called early (it can be anytime within the last year, and is called by the current party in power). I think one of the reasons it was called early is because the prime minister's speech got stolen and read on the radio before he gave it. So, it will be December 18th (and I will be glad when it is over). Riding around are pickup trucks decked out with speakers and bullhorns blaring music and covered in their parties colors (at ALL hours of the day... and night~ I was rudely awakened by one at 2am that decided to essentially sit outside my door for 5 min with music so loud you couldn't sleep or drown it out with pillows!). So since an election has been called, the president of Dominica is now in power. He's more like a figure-head really (like the Queen of England), doesn't do the work, just signs the documents and goes to parties or what not (I actually have seen him and his wife on occasion~ they were at the White Coat Ceremony this past semester).

Election is done the old fashion way, paper ballots and hand counting. Luckily, since the population of Dominica is around 78,000 people, the results will be in by 8 or 9pm the night of the election. And I've heard that there will be partying all night long. So, stay tuned, we'll see who the next ruling party of Dominica turns out to be.