Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle has declared that the upcoming St. Philip’s North by-election will signal the beginning of what he described as “national change,” as voters prepare to choose between the United Progressive Party’s Alex Browne and the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party’s Randy Baltimore.

The March 16 contest follows the resignation this week of long-serving Member of Parliament Sir Robin Yearwood, setting the stage for a closely watched political battle in the constituency.

Addressing supporters at Wilkes on Tuesday night, Pringle said the UPP had mobilized its candidates and caretakers to launch what he called a focused but determined campaign.

“As we organize and mobilize to get Alex Brown elected as the next MP for the area, we have a short campaign. But we come with a long vision that will reclaim the future,” Pringle said .

He told supporters that “the road to national change begins in St. Philip’s North,” adding that voters on March 16 would “help put the final set of nails in the coffin of the Gaston Brown cabal and his self-enrichment policy” .

Pringle accused the governing United Progressive Party’s rival, the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party, of presiding over what he described as cronyism and underperformance, saying the current administration had “long run out of ideas in regard to the development of Antigua and Barbuda” and was “now, indeed, running out of time” .

Framing the by-election as a choice between competing visions, Pringle said Browne “understands and subscribes to the politics of empowerment and decency,” adding that he lives his faith and believes in doing “unto the least of these” .

He urged supporters to view the vote as “the people’s time to draw a line in the sand” and called on them to organize and turn out on election day .

The by-election pits Browne of the UPP against Randy Baltimore of the ruling ABLP in what both parties have framed as a pivotal test of political momentum ahead of the next general election.