ROSEAU, Dominica (CMC) — Leader of the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP), Lennox Linton said the police are in “combat mode” with the Dominican population after the party was denied permission to stage a march on Thursday.

But Linton said the party and other “patriots” will be staging two meeting on Thursday “for which we do not need permission”.

He said the first meeting will take place in Pottersville on the outskirts of the capital starting at 5:00 pm (local time) and when we are finished with that there will be another meeting in Lagon at 7:30 in the evening.

“We are going to do it peacefully, we are going to do it very orderly, we are not in any confrontation mode, we are simply saying in a loud voice with the sons and daughters from all across Dominica that Skerrit must go,” Linton added.

Police Commissioner Daniel Carbon in a letter to the UWP public relations officer, Nicholas George, said that the denial was due to “public safety and national security reasons”.

But in a post on his Facebook page, Linton said he was “surprised at the tone of the letter” from the police commissioner regarding the march, which is part of the Opposition efforts to get Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and his government out of office.

”We are seeking to have a peaceful, law abiding activity, an activity in dissent, an activity in protest of the prime minister’s continuance in office. We are standing on a democratic right for a right to have him removed from office so our country can move on.

“The letter from the commissioner of police suggests that the police (are) in combat mode with the people of Dominica who are protesting for their rights in a democracy. This comes after weeks of persecution of members of the leadership of the United Workers Party and the Dominica Freedom Party.

“We have been denied permission, our rights to march have been denied by the police,” Linton said.

In the letter, Carbon also quoted Section 5(4) of the Public Order Act that states “any person who (a) takes part in or organises any public procession without the written permission of the commission to do so or (b) who aids, abets, counsels or procures any other person to take part in any public procession in respect of which no written permission as required under this section has been obtained from the commission is guilty of an offence”.

The UWP had written to the police on March 15 seeking permission to stage the march as it part of its efforts to get the Roosevelt Skerrit government to resign or call fresh general elections.

Linton said that the response from the police commissioner was directed by National Security Minister, Rayburn Blackmoore “obviously on the instructions of Roosevelt Skerrit directing the Commissioner of Police to put the people in Dominica…under heavy manners”.