On Monday, September 7, 2026, registered voters across Dominica’s Roseau North Constituency will cast their ballots to select a new Parliamentary Representative, more than three months after former representative Hon. Miriam Blanchard stepped down from her post on June 12. The vacancy triggered a by-election that has drawn three competing candidates to the race, each bringing distinct policy priorities and campaign platforms to win over local constituents.
Nomination Day for the contest was held on August 21, formalizing the three candidates on the ballot: Daniel Lugay running under the banner of the United Workers Party (UWP), Ashma McDougall of the incumbent Dominica Labour Party (DLP), and Sherman Boston, who is contesting as an independent. Lugay has secured cross-opposition backing, with endorsements from both the Dominica Freedom Party and the United Progressive Party, while Boston brings longstanding local political experience to his independent bid, having served 10 years on the Roseau City Council and represented Ward 4, including leading community response efforts after Hurricane Maria and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, Boston confirmed he turned down an invitation to rejoin the ruling Labour Party ahead of the election, framing his campaign as an independent alternative to partisan tribalism.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, leader of the DLP, has publicly encouraged all eligible Roseau North voters to participate in the by-election, calling on all campaigns and supporters to keep the race peaceful, orderly, and focused on tangible local issues. He emphasized that the constitutional by-election process grants constituents the critical opportunity to elect a representative who will advance their interests in national parliament and contribute to ongoing island-wide development work.
Each candidate has centered their campaign on unique local priorities tailored to the needs of Roseau North residents. Lugay’s platform is anchored on broad-based economic development, environmental protection, healthcare improvement, and systemic waste management reform. His flagship economic proposal is the creation of a new commercial corridor that would span from the Public Works property to the Dominica Banana Marketing Corporation building, integrating the existing DEXIA warehouse and local home industry sites into the new hub. On environmental and public health grounds, he has identified the long-troubled Fond Cole landfill as an urgent priority, citing decades of resident complaints about toxic smoke and fumes, and pledged to relocate the facility to a safer, less populated site. Additional priorities for Lugay include expanded and more reliable residential garbage collection, upgraded hospital services, improved working conditions for local healthcare workers, and more consistent access to critical medical supplies and equipment.
McDougall, the DLP candidate, has focused her campaign on granular community-level improvements, with a particular emphasis on upgrades for the village of Gutter. Her core policy goals include resurfacing and upgrading footpaths and community access routes, improving stormwater drainage and runoff management to reduce flood risk, boosting local sanitation and waste collection services, and expanding the community facility to better serve children, young people, and residents seeking vocational training. She noted that her team has already begun collaborative work with the Gutter Improvement Committee to advance these goals, saying “We have to examine the steps and handrails so that our elderly residents and children can move more safely throughout the community.” McDougall has also highlighted affordable housing as a key priority and pledged to maintain transparent, responsive communication with all constituents if elected.
Boston’s independent campaign is built around a core message of cross-community unity, expanded employment opportunities, and practical, grassroots development. His broader policy platform includes strengthening Dominica’s middle class, reaching a target of 70% local employment in key economic sectors, expanding accessible skills and trades training programs, supporting small local businesses, and using targeted education and remedial programs to reverse the island’s ongoing brain drain. For Roseau North specifically, he has named unemployment, road repairs and connectivity, expanded public recreational spaces, improved land access, and reform of the Stock Farm landfill as top priorities. He has also called for improved infrastructure to expand access to residential communities including Stock Farm, Yampiece, Gutter, Tarish Pit and Fond Cole. On the national level, Boston has made ending divisive political tribalism a central talking point, arguing that all of Dominica’s most pressing challenges can only be solved when residents and political leaders set partisan interests aside to work together.
In the final lead-up to voting day, Dominica’s Electoral Office has adjusted polling arrangements for District N09, which covers Gutter Village, Tarish Pit and parts of the Goodwill neighborhood, to accommodate voter numbers. After a routine review of elector allocation, officials have added an extra polling station in the district, increasing the total from four to five to reduce crowding and speed up voting processes for residents. All five polling stations for the district will be housed at Goodwill Primary School, with voters assigned to stations alphabetically by surname: A–C, D–G, H–L, M–R and S–Z.
Electoral officials have been distributing Voter Identification Cards to all eligible registered voters ahead of polling day, but the office has confirmed that voters who have not received their new card will still be permitted to cast a ballot if they present an alternate approved form of photo identification. Acceptable alternate documents include a valid Dominican passport, a valid Dominican driver’s license, a Social Security card paired with an original valid birth certificate, or a certified passport-sized photograph (endorsed by a Justice of the Peace, Commissioner of Oaths, or Notary Public) paired with a valid Dominican birth certificate. Officials have also reminded all voters that they are required to cast their ballot at their pre-assigned polling station on election day.
