分类： politics

Following the Dominica Labour Party’s (DLP) victory in the September 7 Roseau North by-election, a sharp political debate has emerged over how to frame the results, with opposition leader Joshua Francis challenging Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s attempt to cast the win as a nationwide endorsement of the incumbent government.

Joshua Francis, head of the United Progressive Party (UPP), launched his rebuttal in an official statement released days after the vote, centering his argument on the unusually low voter turnout recorded in the constituency. Official electoral data shows the constituency has roughly 7,489 registered voters, but only 2,595 electors cast ballots in the by-election, translating to a turnout rate of just 34.6%. Preliminary vote counts put DLP candidate Ashma McDougall’s total at 1,506 votes — a figure that equals only one-fifth of all registered voters in the seat, Francis pointed out.

Contrary to Skerrit’s framing of the outcome as a broad vote of confidence, Francis argued that the low participation rate is far more indicative of widespread voter disengagement and dissatisfaction with the current administration than it is an endorsement of government policy. While Francis explicitly extended congratulations to McDougall and confirmed the UPP respects the formal outcome of the by-election, he rejected the prime minister’s efforts to inflate a single constituency win into a national mandate for the DLP.

Francis tied his criticism to a slate of ongoing, unresolved issues that he says continue to harm Dominican communities and households. These include skyrocketing cost of living, stagnant employment opportunities, underinvestment in neighborhood infrastructure and services, accelerating youth outmigration, and a lack of government transparency and accountability. He emphasized that these unaddressed concerns far outweigh the symbolic weight of one by-election victory.

The UPP leader’s pushback came directly in response to post-election comments from Skerrit, who claimed that the Roseau North constituency had “spoken for the whole country” and that the result proved the Dominican government was “on the right track.” Francis pushed back against that narrative, arguing the by-election result should not be treated as a blank cheque that lets the administration avoid accountability or ignore pressing public needs. Instead, he called on the DLP government to prioritize raising worker salaries and wages, expanding accessible job opportunities, and refocusing governance on tangible improvements to ordinary Dominicans’ quality of life.

Ahead of the September 7 contest, the UPP joined other opposition forces in a coordinated opposition cooperation effort, throwing its official endorsement behind United Workers Party candidate Daniel “Danny” Lugay. In his full public statement, Francis doubled down on framing Skerrit’s claims as political spin, noting that nearly two out of three registered voters chose to stay home on election day — what he called a clear signal of growing public apathy, frustration, and eroding trust in the country’s political establishment.

“That is not a resounding endorsement. It is a warning,” Francis wrote in the statement, adding: “Prime Minister, you won a by-election — not a blank cheque, not a national mandate and certainly not proof that Dominicans are satisfied. The UPP rejects this political spin. Dominica deserves improvement in salaries & wages, jobs and leadership that improves people’s lives. United in purpose. Committed to change. Putting Dominica first.”

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.

As the United Workers Party (UWP) contender for the Roseau North Constituency, former parliamentary representative Daniel Lugay has emerged as a prominent critic of Dominica’s ongoing voter confirmation process, leveling serious claims of procedural mismanagement, unnecessary barriers for eligible voters, and potentially inequitable treatment of supporters across political lines.

Lugay first flagged the issue to investigative journalist Richie Ferrol during an interview this Wednesday, outlining how his team’s preliminary review uncovered a glaring gap: roughly 500 constituents from Roseau North who had formally submitted voter confirmation applications were entirely missing from the first official list of confirmed voters published on the Electoral Office’s public website. Following this discovery, Lugay says he reached out to the Electoral Commission on multiple occasions to flag the discrepancy, but has yet to receive a resolution that addresses his concerns.

Beyond the missing names, Lugay detailed widespread accounts of confusing, poorly communicated procedural hurdles that have left eligible applicants stranded mid-process. He pointed to his own wife’s experience as a clear example: she submitted her confirmation application at the exact same time as Lugay, only to be notified later that she was required to produce a marriage certificate to move forward. Lugay questioned why electoral officials, who already had his wife’s contact information on file, failed to reach out immediately to request the missing documentation when she first submitted her materials. While the certificate was ultimately provided and her ID card was issued, the delay and lack of proactive communication underscores deeper systemic issues, he argued.

Another unnecessary barrier Lugay highlighted involves requirements for travel documentation. He says eligible voters who hold valid, unexpired traditional passports are still being ordered to upgrade to machine-readable electronic passports before their confirmation can be finalized, a step he calls completely unjustified.

In Lugay’s view, the drawn-out, overly complex process – which has stretched on for more than a year, far longer than voter registration drives in larger Caribbean nations that complete the work in mere months – is directly responsible for the low number of confirmed voters on the latest electoral roll. He added that widespread voter frustration with the cumbersome process has likely driven down turnout enthusiasm, noting that roughly 40,000 Dominicans cast ballots in the 2019 General Election. Many eligible voters, he claimed, have essentially “revolted” against the unnecessarily convoluted confirmation exercise by opting out of the process entirely.

The most serious allegation Lugay put forward centers on unequal access to assistance for voters with expired documentation. He claims that supporters of the ruling Dominica Labour Party are receiving targeted help to secure new passports when their old documents expire, and has raised questions about where the funding for this assistance comes from. Without presenting concrete public evidence, Lugay suggested that public state resources may be improperly diverted to fund this partisan support.

He stressed that any taxpayer-funded assistance for passport acquisition should be extended equally to all Dominican citizens, regardless of which political party they support. “If you’re paying for passports, you’re paying for passports, and you make passports available to every citizen of the Commonwealth of Dominica,” Lugay said. He added that universal, equal access to this support would create a fair, level playing field for all candidates and ensure no eligible voter is disenfranchised simply because they face barriers to obtaining required documentation.

In the wake of the recently concluded September 7 Roseau North by-election, independent contender Sherman Boston has raised sharp criticisms over widespread organizational failures in the electoral process, claiming that systemic missteps led to voter confusion and disenfranchisement across the constituency.

Speaking exclusively to investigative journalist Richie Ferrol on September 8, one day after polls closed, Boston argued that the Electoral Office had ample time to prepare for the by-election and failed to deliver a smoothly coordinated voting process. He emphasized that procedural inconsistencies and poor planning eroded public trust in the island’s electoral system, going as far as to note that some registered voters were ultimately blocked from casting their ballots entirely due to the disarray.

Boston singled out the Goodwill Primary School polling station as a primary example of these failures, where large numbers of voters struggled to locate their assigned voting areas. He recalled that the chaotic situation only prompted emergency intervention late in the day: “Actually at three o’clock on polling day, Mr. Duncan Stowe, the chairman of the electoral commission, and three young ladies came in and took two photos of the middle with signs to the Goodwill Primary School grounds, providing proper signage, as people appeared confused as to where to find the polling stations. This was done to reduce the chaos that was developing.”

The independent candidate stressed that issues with election organization were not limited to his own on-the-ground observations, noting that multiple other stakeholders and voters had also submitted reports of similar problems across other polling locations.

Beyond logistical failures, Boston outlined the broader structural challenges independent candidates face when competing against nominees from established political parties. He explained that a large share of voters still rely on major political parties for information and political guidance, creating a high barrier to entry for non-partisan candidates looking to build support. Boston also accused major parties of treating voters as tools to advance their own ideological goals and consolidate power, rather than prioritizing the long-term well-being of the general public.

Boston went on to detail the inherent structural advantages he claims his two opponents held in the race. He alleged that the winning candidate, from the governing Dominica Labour Party (DLP), gained an unfair edge through the ruling party’s access to state infrastructure and public financing, which the party used to build and maintain its popularity among voters. “I mean, out of the three candidates, one had the backing of a political party that literally bought its popularity through government structures. The current government has access to the country’s financing; you cannot shy away from that,” Boston alleged.

As for his other opponent, Boston noted that the United Workers Party (UWP) nominee benefited from decades of built-up support and a long-established political base in Roseau North, where the UWP has historically been considered the dominant political force. “The other opponent had an inherited popularity in the UWP and was supposed to be a stronghold in the Roseau North Constituency. It ended badly for them because, I mean, certain times you have to look outside yourself,” he asserted.

These existing partisan power structures, Boston argued, created a fundamentally uneven electoral landscape that put an independent candidate like him at an unavoidable disadvantage from the start of the campaign.

Despite the final outcome that saw DLP candidate Ashma McDougall win the seat and retain the party’s majority in parliament, Boston says the results should push major political parties to engage in serious introspection. He specifically pointed to the UWP, noting that the party had what could have been a clear path to victory but made strategic choices that undermined its chances.

McDougall’s win closes the latest chapter in Roseau North’s political history, cementing the DLP’s continued parliamentary control in the constituency.