Following the Dominica Labour Party’s (DLP) decisive victory in the September 7 Roseau North by-election, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has publicly broken down the shifting electoral tides in the constituency, pointing to a dramatic collapse in support for the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) between the 2019 general election and the 2026 special vote.
In a media briefing held September 9 at the Roseau Financial Centre’s conference room, Skerrit presented vote breakdowns showing the UWP has lost more than half of its electoral backing in the constituency in just seven years. Official figures from the 2019 general election put the UWP’s vote total at 2,134 in Roseau North. By the 2026 by-election, that number plummeted to just 998 — a drop of roughly 53% overall.
By comparison, the ruling DLP saw a far more modest decline in its vote share over the same period. The party secured 1,638 votes in 2019, and dropped only to 1,473 in the September 2026 contest, marking a far smaller erosion of its local support base.
The by-election was called to fill a vacant parliamentary seat for Roseau North. DLP candidate Ashma McDougall claimed victory in the contest, beating both UWP challenger Daniel Lugay and independent candidate Sherman Boston to take the position as the constituency’s new Parliamentary Representative. Skerrit’s analysis of the vote shifts underscores the growing traction of the DLP in the constituency, even as the opposition struggles to retain its traditional voter base.