2011 British Virgin Islands general election

General elections were held in the British Virgin Islands on 7 November 2011. 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. 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 7 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.

Party		District			At-large			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	National Democratic Party	4,271	48.18	5	18,447	52.91	4	9	+7
	Virgin Islands Party	3,864	43.59	4	13,367	38.34	0	4	–6
	People's Patriotic Alliance				2,266	6.50	0	0	New
	Party of the People	72	0.81	0				0	New
	Independents	657	7.41	0	782	2.24	0	0	–1
Speaker and Attorney General								2	0
Total		8,864	100.00	9	34,862	100.00	4	15	0
Valid votes		8,864	99.23		8,843	99.05
Invalid/blank votes		69	0.77		85	0.95
Total votes		8,933	100.00		8,928	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		12,609	70.85		12,609	70.81
Source: Election Centre

District seats

One of the bigger surprises was the defeat of Government minister and veteran politician, Omar Hodge, in the 6th district by political newcomer, Alvera Maduro-Caines. Early counts showed incumbent Premier, Ralph O'Neal, trailing his challenger, Hubert O'Neal, in the 9th district, but he eventually overhauled the challenger to retain the seat which he has held since 1975.

In the Territorial seats, the highest percentage of votes and greatest margin of victory (nearly 50 points) was Kedrick Pickering in the 7th district. The largest number of individual votes however was Delores Christopher in the 5th district. The lowest percentage of votes by a winning candidate was Marlon Penn (48.1%) in the four way race in the 9th district. The lowest total number of votes by a victorious candidate was Alvin Christopher (423) in the 2nd district.

1st District

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Andrew Fahie	Virgin Islands Party	611	65.84
	Preston Stoutt	Independent	317	34.16
Total			928	100.00
Valid votes			928	99.36
Invalid/blank votes			6	0.64
Total votes			934	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,384	67.49

2nd District

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Alvin Christopher	Virgin Islands Party	423	52.42
	Claude Skelton-Cline	National Democratic Party	324	40.15
	Leall Rymer	Independent	53	6.57
	Allewine Smith	Independent	7	0.87
Total			807	100.00
Valid votes			807	98.66
Invalid/blank votes			11	1.34
Total votes			818	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,248	65.54

3rd District

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Julian Fraser	Virgin Islands Party	613	52.39
	Kevin Smith	National Democratic Party	557	47.61
Total			1,170	100.00
Valid votes			1,170	99.49
Invalid/blank votes			6	0.51
Total votes			1,176	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,530	76.86

4th District

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Mark Vanterpool	National Democratic Party	661	68.50
	Vincent Scatliffe	Virgin Islands Party	209	21.66
	Collin Scatliffe	Independent	95	9.84
Total			965	100.00
Valid votes			965	99.18
Invalid/blank votes			8	0.82
Total votes			973	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,346	72.29

5th District

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Delores Christopher	National Democratic Party	520	52.10
	Elvis Harrigan	Virgin Islands Party	478	47.90
Total			998	100.00
Valid votes			998	99.20
Invalid/blank votes			8	0.80
Total votes			1,006	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,521	66.14

6th District

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Alvera Maduro-Caines	National Democratic Party	612	61.38
	Omar Hodge	Virgin Islands Party	385	38.62
Total			997	100.00
Valid votes			997	99.11
Invalid/blank votes			9	0.89
Total votes			1,006	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,520	66.18

7th District

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Kedrick Pickering	National Democratic Party	536	70.07
	Ronnie Lettsome	Virgin Islands Party	157	20.52
	Allen Wheatley	Party of the People	72	9.41
Total			765	100.00
Valid votes			765	98.84
Invalid/blank votes			9	1.16
Total votes			774	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,158	66.84

8th District

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Marlon Penn	National Democratic Party	524	48.12
	Dancia Penn	Virgin Islands Party	423	38.84
	Bevis Sylvester	Independent	112	10.28
	Nolan Davis	Independent	30	2.75
Total			1,089	100.00
Valid votes			1,089	99.27
Invalid/blank votes			8	0.73
Total votes			1,097	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,404	78.13

9th District

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Ralph T. O'Neal	Virgin Islands Party	565	49.34
	Hubert O'Neal	National Democratic Party	537	46.90
	Lorie Rymer	Independent	20	1.75
	Rheudel Samuel O'Neal	Independent	12	1.05
	Devon Osborne	Independent	11	0.96
Total			1,145	100.00
Valid votes			1,145	99.65
Invalid/blank votes			4	0.35
Total votes			1,149	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,498	76.70

Territorial At-Large Seats

The results for the at-large seats were as following. The top four vote receiving candidates are elected to the at-large seats.

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Orlando Smith	National Democratic Party	5,117	14.68
	Myron Walwyn	National Democratic Party	4,619	13.25
	Ronnie W. Skelton	National Democratic Party	4,489	12.88
	Archibald Christian	National Democratic Party	4,222	12.11
	Irene Penn-O'Neal	Virgin Islands Party	3,870	11.10
	Zoë Walcott-McMillan	Virgin Islands Party	3,417	9.80
	Vernon Elroy Malone	Virgin Islands Party	3,041	8.72
	Keith L. Flax	Virgin Islands Party	3,039	8.72
	Shaina Smith	People's Patriotic Alliance	906	2.60
	Natalio Wheatley	People's Patriotic Alliance	798	2.29
	Bertrand Lettsome	Independent	478	1.37
	Elton Callwood	People's Patriotic Alliance	354	1.02
	Khoy Smith	People's Patriotic Alliance	208	0.60
	Edmund Gregory Maduro	Independent	123	0.35
	Lionel Penn	Independent	100	0.29
	Eileene Baronville	Independent	81	0.23
Total			34,862	100.00
Valid votes			8,843	99.05
Invalid/blank votes			85	0.95
Total votes			8,928	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			12,609	70.81

Orlando Smith, being the leader of the victorious National Democratic Party, was invited by the Governor to form a new Government as the Premier.

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

• Virgin Islands News Online - 2011 General Election
• Platinum News BVI - 2011 General Election Archived 12 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine