On a Thursday marked by high political energy, Dominica’s main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) took a decisive step forward in its bid to unseat the long-governing Dominica Labour Party, introducing two fresh candidates and formally locking in former parliamentarian Danny Lugay as its nominee for the widely anticipated Roseau North by-election. Party leaders framed the event as proof of building momentum ahead of what could be the end of nearly three decades of continuous Labour Party control.
Dubbed the launch of “Team Dominica”, the event brought forward Juliet Schillingford, a seasoned urban planner, as the UWP’s candidate for the Roseau Central constituency, alongside local businessman Delbert Paris, who will stand for the party in Marigot. Lugay, who has previously held the Roseau North parliamentary seat, was confirmed as the opposition’s official representative for the upcoming by-election, which political observers widely expect to be called within the next 90 days.
Already, this single-seat contest has emerged as a critical early barometer of national sentiment: it will be the first chance for Dominican voters to deliver a formal public judgment on the Labour administration’s performance, and a test of widespread appetite for systemic political change after 27 years in power.
UWP leader Dr. Thompson Fontaine positioned the upcoming Roseau North vote as the opening salvo of a national campaign to replace the sitting government, urging local constituents to rally behind Lugay’s candidacy. “As we face a potential by-election in the Roseau North constituency, I call upon the constituents to send a strong message to this government,” Fontaine declared to a crowd of cheering supporters. He added, “Twenty-seven years is a long time for this generation of youth to be in the valley of economic depression”—a comment that drew resounding applause from party backers.
The candidate launch was intentionally structured to showcase the UWP’s vision for a new generation of governance, blending the experience of veteran political hands with fresh perspectives from young professionals and established community leaders. Schillingford, a Roseau native and widely respected urban planning expert, delivered one of the event’s sharpest rejections of the incumbent government’s track record in the capital. “Roseau Central has been neglected. Roseau Central has not been a priority, and the people of Roseau Central deserve better,” she said.
She outlined a litany of unaddressed issues facing the constituency: crumbling public infrastructure, chronic traffic congestion that has crippled movement, small businesses struggling to stay afloat, and a string of long-promised development projects that have never broken ground. After decades of unfulfilled pledges from the ruling party, she argued, Roseau Central residents have been forced to accept steadily declining quality of life.
For his part, Paris earned unanimous backing from local UWP supporters in Marigot, framing himself as part of a new wave of leaders committed to upholding the constituency’s long-standing tradition of independent political thought. He called on all Dominicans to reject complacency in the nation’s political life and step up as active participants in building the country’s future.
The event also put on display a newly consolidated unity within opposition ranks. Fontaine confirmed that veteran Dominican political figures, including former Prime Minister Edison James and former Opposition Leader Lennox Linton, will take on active, prominent roles in upcoming campaign efforts, as opposition factions align to challenge the governing Labour Party.
Throughout the launch event, speakers repeatedly drew a clear line between the UWP’s policy vision and what they described as a culture of political dependency fostered by the Labour Party. The UWP, by contrast, pledged to deliver sustainable jobs, broad economic opportunity, and national self-reliance.
Fontaine specifically criticized the incumbent government’s reliance on political patronage and one-off handouts, arguing that Dominicans deserve long-term, stable employment rather than periodic, temporary assistance. “We’ll work to dismantle this red clinic so that the people of Dominica will not expect handouts from us, but they will expect jobs,” he said.
The party also used the launch to pull back the curtain on its formal policy platform, the “10 Pillars to Shared Prosperity”. The agenda includes commitments to raise national wages, overhaul the country’s tax code, expand support for the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, boost youth entrepreneurship, strengthen government accountability, and gradually reduce Dominica’s heavy economic reliance on its controversial Citizenship by Investment programme.
The Roseau North by-election is set to pit Lugay against Labour Party candidate Ashma McDougall, and has grown far beyond a race for a single parliamentary seat. For a UWP that has rebuilt its strength after years of internal divides and electoral losses, the contest is a critical opportunity to prove that Dominica’s political landscape is shifting, and that the Labour Party’s decades-long grip on power is no longer unassailable.
After years on the back foot following internal rifts and poor election results, Thursday’s candidate launch was crafted to deliver one unambiguous message: the United Workers Party is back as a competitive political force, and it intends to contest every parliamentary seat in upcoming elections with the explicit goal of forming the next national government.
