Today, the United Workers Party under the leadership of Allen Chastanet is facing one of the most dramatic political unravelings in its history, a steady, undeniable hemorrhaging of long-serving, once-loyal party stalwarts. It is a political exodus so large and so symbolic that it has forced the nation to confront an uncomfortable truth: something is fundamentally wrong within the UWP.
The latest and most striking departure came this week, as three-term MP Edmund Estephane, a man who once anchored the party’s base in Dennery South, not only left the UWP, but did the unthinkable, he put on a red shirt, openly aligning himself with the Saint Lucia Labour Party.
But Estephane is not alone. His departure is part of a widening pattern a political stampede that exposes deep fractures in Chastanet’s leadership and the culture he has created within the UWP.
Over the last several years, one by one, respected UWP figures have walked away.
Many former MPs who once sat in cabinet with Chastanet, chairpersons, constituency group leaders, and supporters who have simply stopped showing up, stopped defending the party, or moved their support elsewhere.
The list grows longer by the month, a movement of former believers who once gave their time, energy, and reputations to the UWP, only to reach the same conclusion: the problem is Allen Chastanet.
The testimony is consistent. The reason for the mass departure is not ideological differences. It is not generational change. It is not electoral fatigue.
It is leadership.
Under Allen Chastanet’s stewardship, the UWP has transformed from a political institution into a cult of personality, where loyalty to the leader matters more than loyalty to the people of Saint Lucia.
Former insiders describe:
- A top-down leadership style that shuts out experienced voices.
- Disrespect for tradition, party elders, and grassroots organizers.
- A toxic culture where disagreement is punished, and blind loyalty is rewarded.
- A party machinery focused on attack, propaganda, and theatrics, rather than programmes, policy, or nation-building.
The result is predictable: thoughtful, serious people are leaving. Those who remain are the ones content to repeat rehearsed talking points, circulate misinformation, and serve as foot soldiers in Chastanet’s endless political wars.
The UWP has become a place where propaganda thrives, but policy dies.
As credible figures flee, the UWP’s internal structure has thinned dramatically.
What remains is:
- A shrinking circle of influencers disconnected from the realities of governance.
- Social media operatives obsessed with scandal but silent on solutions.
- A leadership team more interested in political stunts than national development.
- Individuals who see politics not as service, but as survival.
The party that once produced leaders like Sir John Compton has been reduced to noise without substance.
Saint Lucians have noticed.
Meanwhile, Philip J. Pierre Is Teaching a Masterclass in Politics
While the UWP collapses inward, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre continues to deliver steady, people-centered leadership.
This moment, the great exodus from the UWP, did not happen by accident. It is the direct contrast between:
- Pierre’s humility
- Pierre’s competence
- Pierre’s stability
- Pierre’s respect for institutions
- Pierre’s clean, honest politics
… and Chastanet’s combative, unstable, misinformation-driven style.
The writing is on the wall.
Philip J. Pierre has spent the last four years teaching Saint Lucia and the region how real politics is done: through delivery, stability, and respect for the people.
And the UWP? It is learning a painful lesson: you cannot build a political movement on ego, anger, and propaganda.
The great exodus continues and there no sign it will slow down.
By: Caribbean Writers