The United Workers' Party is a centrist

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

. As of the 2022 general election, the party is not represented in the

House of Assembly of Dominica The House of Assembly is the legislature of Dominica. It is established by Chapter III of the Constitution of Dominica, and together with the President of Dominica constitutes Dominica's Parliament. The House is unicameral, and consists of twen ...

, after boycotting the general election. The past

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

in the Assembly is

Lennox Linton Lennox Irving Linton (born 25 November 1956) is a Dominican politician in the United Workers' Party (UWP). He was first elected as the Representative for the Marigot constituency in the House of Assembly of Dominica on 8 December 2014. He served a ...

. The United Workers' Party with less than 34% of the votes was the majority party in Dominica's parliament from 1995 until 2000, led by party co-founder

Edison James Edison Chenfil James (born October 18, 1943, in Marigot) is a Dominican politician who was the prime minister of Dominica from June 14, 1995, to February 3, 2000, as well as the member of parliament for the Marigot constituency from 1990. He gra ...

Prime Minister of Dominica The prime minister of Dominica is the head of government in the Commonwealth of Dominica. Nominally, the position was created on November 3, 1978 when Dominica gained independence from the United Kingdom. Hitherto, the position existed de facto ...

. The party now has a new leader, Thomson Fontaine who is the current Leader of the Opposition. In the 2014 general elections, the party won 6 seats out of the 21. This was reduced to 3 in 2019, and 0 in 2022 following a boycott of the 2022 general elections.

History

The party was founded in 1988 by

, Julius Timothy, Vernice Bellony, Norris Prevost, Dennis La Bassiere and others. In the 1990 elections, the UWP won 6 of the 21 seats and became the official opposition. In 1995, the UWP won 11 seats at the general elections forming the first UWP government headed by Edison James as prime minister. At the 31 January 2000

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

, the party won 43.3% of the popular vote and 9 out of 21 elected members of parliament. Though it captured the most popular votes, it got fewer seats than the

Dominica Labour Party The Dominica Labour Party is a centre-left social-democratic political party in Dominica. History Founded in 1955 by Phyllis Shand Allfrey and Emmanuel Christopher Loblack, the Dominica Labour Party is the oldest political party in Dominica. N ...

. The party was therefore once again in opposition. James continued to lead the party, which set up a tough campaign for the 5 May 2005 elections, but lost 1 seat. After the election, this time receiving fewer votes than the

, the party held 8 seats in Parliament and remained in opposition. In December 2005, James stood down as political leader and was replaced by Attorney Earl Williams, Minister of Communications and Works in the last UWP administration. Williams defeated founding member and then Deputy Leader Julius Timothy who also sought the leadership of the party. As a result Timothy, the Minister of Finance under the UWP government, left the party and

crossed the floor Crossed may refer to: * ''Crossed'' (comics), a 2008 comic book series by Garth Ennis * ''Crossed'' (novel), a 2010 young adult novel by Ally Condie * "Crossed" (''The Walking Dead''), an episode of the television series ''The Walking Dead'' S ...

to join the

government. This resulted in the UWP being reduced to seven seats in Parliament.

2009-2010: general election, boycott, and by-election

In the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

held in December 2009, the UWP lost four of its seven seats, including the seat of party leader Ronald Green. The UWP subsequently filed litigation in the Roseau High Court challenging the results of five constituencies, including that of

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Roosevelt Skerrit Roosevelt Skerrit (born 8 June 1972) is a Dominican politician who has been Prime Minister of Dominica since 2004; he has also been the Member of Parliament for the Vieille Case constituency since 2000. Regionally, he has served as the chairman o ...

, and demanding a new general election; pending the results, the three UWP members boycotted parliament. After two UWP members did not attend three consecutive sessions,

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

Alix Boyd Knights Alix Boyd Knights is a Dominican politician and attorney who was the Speaker of the House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnation ...

declared their seats vacant in April, and a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

was scheduled for 9 July 2010. Both UWP members ran and won their seats again in the by-election, against the same candidates they faced in the 2009 general election. UWP member

Hector John Hector John (born 22 October 1970) is a Dominican politician in the United Workers' Party (Dominica), United Workers' Party (UWP). He was the Leader of the Opposition (Dominica), Leader of the Opposition, from 2010 to 2014 and was the youngest ...

was sworn in as

on 19 July 2010. Four of the six UWP legal petitions were dismissed in August 2010. The UWP members are expected to end their boycott, citing as a reason the President's announcement that funds would be made available for election reform. Edison James was reelected political leader of the UWP at its January 2012 convention, and Ezekiel Bazil was elected the party's president..

Electoral history

House of Assembly elections

References

External links

Workers Voice Online: the United Workers' Party official website
{{Authority control Political parties in Dominica Centrist parties in North America Political parties established in 1988