Dominica opposition leader Thomson Fontaine barely held onto his job after beating Pastor Randy Rodney by eight votes in the United Workers Party leadership race, and he told everyone to stop tearing the party apart from the inside if they actually want to win elections. The economist pulled 83 votes against Rodney's 75, then immediately called out members for sitting around hoping he fails, while the party has stayed locked out of power since 2000.
Fontaine said his methods look different from old-school UWP tactics because the political landscape has changed since the 1990s, and people need patience while he tries rebuilding the organization against Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit's Dominica Labour Party juggernaut. He complained that the annual leadership contests let random people challenge him after just washing their feet and walking through the door, which former president Lennox Linton defended as a core democratic practice even though it clearly bugs the current boss.
The tight margin shows the opposition party has serious internal beef heading toward the 2027 general elections, with Rodney declining the deputy role after losing the top spot.
Fontaine said his methods look different from old-school UWP tactics because the political landscape has changed since the 1990s, and people need patience while he tries rebuilding the organization against Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit's Dominica Labour Party juggernaut. He complained that the annual leadership contests let random people challenge him after just washing their feet and walking through the door, which former president Lennox Linton defended as a core democratic practice even though it clearly bugs the current boss.
The tight margin shows the opposition party has serious internal beef heading toward the 2027 general elections, with Rodney declining the deputy role after losing the top spot.
