Earl Williams

Earl Michael Williams was the Opposition Leader and political leader of the United Workers Party (UWP) for several years. Born in February 1964 in Salisbury village, Williams attended Salisbury Government School and Community High School before capping it with a law degree from the University of the West Indies.

Williams taught for many years in various schools in Dominica and also functioned as a sports coach and player. He joined the Credit Union movement and served on the Supervisory Committee and the Salisbury Cooperative Credit Union. He became the treasurer of the Dominica Credit Union League Movement and was among delegates that often attended the Caribbean Conference of Credit Unions in the region.

He later joined the Young Freedom Movement which is the youth wing of the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP). He crossed to the United Workers Party and contested for the Salisbury constituency in the 1990 general elections. He won at the polls and was elected to parliament. When the UWP won the 1995 elections, Williams won his seat again and ultimately got appointed as the Minister of Communications, Works, and Housing – for making Salisbury a UWP stronghold.

During the general elections of 2000, Earl Williams won his Salisbury constituency seat again in the House of Assembly. But the UWP lost a lot of seats and became the main opposition, a development that made Williams forgo his victory in favour of further education at the University of the West Indies where he had decided to study Law.

At the 2005 elections, Williams won his position again but considering the hard fall of his party, the UWP decided it was time to change its political leadership. The two main contenders for the position were Earl Williams and Julius Timothy, UWP deputy leader. And when Williams was called to the bar in 2005, it further improved his chances of clinching the position. When UWP political leader Edison James stepped down, Williams occupied his position at once and Timothy felt alienated.

Timothy left the UWP in anger and crossed to the DLP, giving Williams the full chance to become UWP political leader when Edison James resigned in 2007. When Williams became an attorney in 2008, he became entangled in a land deal which became so controversial that he was forced to resign as Opposition Leader and political leader even though he remained a Member of Parliament for the party.