Fresh moves are afoot among some key members of the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) to oust party leader Charles Savarin, who various executive members accuse of failing in his duty to lead the party.

    Party members say the DFP, which dominated politics in Dominica from 1980 to 1995, is in critical condition and the only hope for a recovery is for Savarin to step aside and allow the party to reorganize.

    "Savarin can be a good leader but he isn't doing enough (to keep the party alive)," one distraught member told the Sun. "We are not comfortable where we are now and we need to get out of there. People think the party is dead."

    To emphasize the point, the source indicated that the party executive has not met this year and the last delegates' conference was last November.

    The Sun attempted to place a call to the DFP headquarters but the phone lines had been cut, and we understand that the party's secretary of seven years has quit because of the situation of hopelessness facing the party.

    The party is broke and it has lost the ability to raise funds, one longstanding member admitted.

    "We need a new chairman and a new leader," one member of the executive told the Sun. "A lot of people think Savarin cannot lead us into the next general election."

    This is not the first time that Savarin's position is being challenged. But he has been able to withstand challenges in the past.

    But this time seems different since even some of his staunchest and most loyal allies in the north of the country are the ones at the forefront of the latest move to axe him.

    "The process will begin any time soon," one member of the northern zone, who admitted to be an avid Savarin supporter, told the Sun, "and even I will vote to replace him."

    According to the member, representatives of seven branches in the north met recently and drafted several recommendations to take to the DFP hierarchy. Among those are a recommendation to replace Savarin and one calling for the DFP to quit the coalition cabinet one year before a general election and concentrate exclusively on forming the next government.

    A letter will be sent in to the DFP by today, the source said, demanding a party council meeting by the third Saturday in October to consider the recommendations, failing which the branches in the north will consider their options.

    Savarin would not speak with the Sun for this article, but an influential member of the party's executive, who spoke on the customary condition of anonymity, admitted that Savarin was posing a problem for the party, which he insisted was not dead but in limbo.

    "Savarin has good qualities in terms of leadership of the party but more needs to be done in terms of being up front motivating people and getting them interested in the party," the member said.

    "At the moment, as a minister, the whole question of improving the country is his," he added.

    But controversial Soufriere MP Frederick Baron, who, in the past has clashed with Savarin over everything from the leadership of the party to the DFP's position in the coalition, was not so subtle.

    "We really don't have a party. The party is dead. Charles Savarin is so eager to earn his salary that this is what is driving him now," said Baron, who has not attended a party meeting since last April 14 after he suggested that the party withdraws from the coalition cabinet.

    Despite the latest moves by the northern zone, Baron said he expected that when it was all over, it would be business as usual, with Savarin perched at the top of the DFP.