2011 British Virgin Islands general election

General elections were held in the British Virgin Islands on 7 November 2011.[1] The result was a decisive victory for the opposition National Democratic Party (NDP) led by Orlando Smith over the incumbent Virgin Islands Party (VIP), led by Premier Ralph T. O'Neal.[2] No minor parties or independent candidates won any seats.

2011 British Virgin Islands general election
7 November 2011 (2011-11-07)
13 of the 15 seats in the House of Assembly
7 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Orlando Smith Ralph T. O'Neal
Party NDP VIP
Last election 46.74%, 2 seats 50.31%, 10 seats
Seats won 9 4
Seat change Increase 7 Decrease 6
Percentage 52.91% 38.34%
Premier before election

Ralph T. O'Neal
VIP

 Premier after election

Orlando Smith
NDP

Background

The House of Assembly was dissolved on 13 September 2011, by the Governor, Mr William Boyd McCleary, on advice from the Premier. However, the date of the election was not announced until 23 September 2011.

Premier Ralph O'Neal confirmed that he would lead his party at the 2011 general election, even though he would turn 78 shortly after the election, and would be 82 at the end of the term of office (if re-elected).

Second district representative, Alvin Christopher (who received the highest percentage of votes for a territorial candidate (75.9%) in the 2007 election) announced that he would run for the Virgin Islands Party. Mr Christopher has formerly run for the VIP, the NDP and as an independent candidate.

Although the ruling Virgin Islands Party had a huge majority following the 2007 election the intervening years had been characterised by difficult economic times, and a series of natural disasters had hit the Territory damaging its infrastructure. Both of these events led to criticism being directed towards the ruling Government.

Results

The 2011 general election was largely a complete reversal of the 2007 election. Whereas in 2007 everything seemed to go the way of the VIP, in 2011 every closely contested seat seemed to end up falling to the NDP. The VIP characteristically dominated their safe seats in the First, Second and Third Districts, and the NDP characteristically dominated the At-large seats, sweeping all four. But surprise defeats for the VIP in Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Districts handed victory to the NDP. Former Premier Ralph O'Neal managed to cling on to his seat in the Ninth District, which he had held for 40 years, by just 28 votes.

PartyDistrictAt-largeTotal
seats		+/–
Votes%SeatsVotes%Seats
National Democratic Party4,27148.18518,44752.9149+7
Virgin Islands Party3,86443.59413,36738.3404–6
People's Patriotic Alliance2,2666.5000New
Party of the People720.8100New
Independents6577.4107822.2400–1
Speaker and Attorney General20
Total8,864100.00934,862100.004150
Valid votes8,86499.238,84399.05
Invalid/blank votes690.77850.95
Total votes8,933100.008,928100.00
Registered voters/turnout12,60970.8512,60970.81
Source: Election Centre

Aftermath

On 9 November 2011 Governor Boyd McCleary officially appointed Orlando Smith as the Premier under section 52(1) the constitution. He became the third person in BVI political history to serve two non-consecutive terms of office as Chief Minister/Premier, and the fourth to win more than one general election as party leader

On the same day the first cabinet was sworn in under Orlando Smith. In addition to serving as Premier, Smith was appointed Minister of Finance and Tourism. Kedrick Pickering was appointed Deputy Premier and Minister of Natural Resources and Labour, Myron Walwyn was appointed Minister of Education and Culture, Mark Vanterpool was appointed Minister of Communications and Works and Ronnie Skelton was appointed Minister of Health and Social Development.

Sources

References
  1. "Premier Announces November 7 As General Elections Day". Platinum News BVI. 23 September 2011.
  2. "Loud celebration begins in Road Town!". Virgin Islands News Online. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.