As the 2026 general election campaign unfolds in Antigua and Barbuda, a newly surfaced internal document has exposed a major rift within the main opposition United Progressive Party (UPP), with a group of sitting UPP MPs formally pushing to replace long-serving opposition leader Jamale Pringle with St John’s Rural West MP Richard Lewis. The leaked letter, addressed directly to Governor General Sir Rodney Williams, bears the signatures of six self-identified UPP-aligned members of parliament – a majority of the party’s lower house caucus – all backing Lewis’s bid to take over the official Leader of the Opposition post. In the document, the signatories argue that Lewis already commands the confidence of the majority of UPP parliamentarians in the Lower House, and call on the Governor General to appoint him to the role with immediate effect. The request draws explicitly on Section 79(5) of Antigua and Barbuda’s Constitution, which grants the Governor General authority to remove an incumbent Leader of the Opposition if that person is found to no longer hold the backing of a majority of non-government legislators. The correspondence is linked to former St Mary’s South MP Kelvin “Shugy” Simon, whose name and constituency information appear at the top of the document, per the original leak obtained by Antigua News Room. Under Antigua and Barbuda’s constitutional framework, the Governor General holds the formal power to appoint the Leader of the Opposition, selecting the candidate who can demonstrate majority support among the country’s non-government parliamentary members. Pringle, who has led the UPP and held the opposition leader post since 2018, has faced repeated internal challenges over the course of his tenure, with periodic open discussions among party ranks about the UPP’s ideological direction and electoral viability ahead of national polls. The leak of the ouster letter, coming in the middle of an active election campaign, has dramatically escalated public concerns over unity within the opposition bloc, just as voters prepare to cast their ballots. Political analysts note that public exposure of deep internal leadership divisions could erode voter confidence in the UPP’s ability to challenge the incumbent government, opening the party up to increased scrutiny from both opponents and undecided voters in the final stretch of the campaign.
UPP MPs Sought to Replace Pringle With Lewis as Opposition Leader, Letter Apparently Signed By Simon Shows
