As the highly anticipated Roseau North by-election approaches on September 7, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has launched a targeted campaign push to win over voters for the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP) candidate Ashma McDougall, while leveling sharp criticism against the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) for failing its long-time supporters. Speaking at a community gathering in Gutter Village, Skerrit focused heavily on mobilizing young voters, emphasizing that their electoral choices will directly shape their own future prospects in the country.
Skerrit told attendees that meaningful progress for young Dominicans begins with intentional, informed decisions at the ballot box on September 7. “You cannot want to sit out in the campaign or vote the wrong choice and expect things to get better for you tomorrow,” he noted, urging all eligible residents to show up to vote and back the candidate he frames as the best option for the constituency. The prime minister extended his appeal even to voters who have never backed the DLP in previous elections, saying their past political allegiances should not stop them from supporting McDougall this time around. “As far as we are concerned, that doesn’t matter anymore,” Skerrit said of non-traditional DLP supporters, adding that the by-election presents a unique chance for voters to reassess their political choices and prioritize the nation’s long-term prosperity and public welfare.
In his sharp rebuke of the opposition UWP, Skerrit claimed that the party has abandoned the very supporters who poured their time, limited financial resources, and energy into building the organization over decades. “Because the reality is the Workers’ Party has let you down. They have disappointed you. You invested all your years in them. You spent the money that you never had in them. You followed them. You fought for them, you cursed for them, and they have always abandoned you,” he told the crowd. Pointing to the UWP’s current standing in the constituency, Skerrit argued that the choice facing Roseau North voters is the clearest it has ever been in the constituency’s modern political history. “The choice couldn’t be so clear and so easy to make on September 7, that is to vote for Ashma McDougall and the Dominica Labour Party,” he added.
Three candidates are vying for the open Roseau North seat in the upcoming by-election: McDougall representing the DLP, Daniel “Danny” Lugay running for the UWP, and Sherman Boston contesting as an independent candidate. With just days remaining before polling opens, all three candidates are making their final direct appeals to undecided voters across the constituency to secure their support on election day.