2003 British Virgin Islands general election explained

Election Name:2003 British Virgin Islands general election
Country:British Virgin Islands
Type:parliamentary
Previous Election:1999 British Virgin Islands general election
Previous Year:1999
Next Election:2007 British Virgin Islands general election
Next Year:2007
Seats For Election:13 of the 15 seats in the House of Assembly
Majority Seats:7
Turnout:72%
Leader1:Orlando Smith
Party1:National Democratic Party (British Virgin Islands)
Leader Since1:1999
Leaders Seat1:At-large
Last Election1:38.14%, 5 seats
Seats1:8
Seat Change1: 3
Percentage1:52.39%
Leader2:Ralph T. O'Neal
Party2:Virgin Islands Party
Leader Since2:1995
Leaders Seat2:9th District
Last Election2:36.74%, 7 seats
Seats2:5
Seat Change2: 2
Percentage2:42.22%
Chief Minister
Before Election:Ralph T. O'Neal
Before Party:Virgin Islands Party
After Election:Orlando Smith
After Party:National Democratic Party (British Virgin Islands)

General elections were held in the British Virgin Islands on 16 June 2003. It was won by the opposition National Democratic Party (NDP), which took 54.4% of the vote and 8 of the 13 available seats on the Legislative Council. After the election the NDP formed a Government for the first time in its history. Both major parties - the NDP and the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) actually increased their share of the overall vote at the expense of minority parties and independents. No independents or any minority parties won any seats. The NDP won all four of the territorial-at-large seats.

Results

The NDP's victory was largely as a result of sweeping all four of the At-large seats. However, with each voter being able to cast four votes per ballot, the margin between the bottom NDP candidate (Paul Wattley) and the top VIP candidate (Reeial George) was a mere 41 votes, out of a total of 7,351 ballots cast (a margin of 0.5%). The other key win for the NDP was in the Fifth District where Delores Christopher carried the seat for the NDP by a wafer thin margin of just 3 votes in a constituency where a total of 20 ballots were rejected by elections officers.

Voters exercised a largely binary choice between the two main parties. No third party candidate or independent polled well in any area. In the Territorial seats, Alred Frett in the Fifth District was the highest vote-getter, with a mere 7.1% of the votes. In the At-large seats, the top eight spots went to the four candidates for each of the two main parties, with a massive drop off in numbers of votes for the ninth place candidate (Conrad Maduro, a former elected representative on the United Party ticket).

At-large seats

References