Did residents really ‘vote for change’?
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has questioned the narrative that residents voted for change when they went to the polls earlier this year.
During a recent sitting of the House of Assembly, members of the Opposition called for the government to address many infrastructural challenges in the community so that ‘residents who voted for change’ could see results.
But in his response, the Premier questioned whether residents really voted for change as the Opposition indicated, especially since most members of the House are not new.
“My good friend, Honourable Fraser said the people voted for change but I’m still here, the ministers for health and communication are still there. The people were so pleased they even added a few new members to our (VIP) number,” Premier Wheatley pointed out.
“On the Opposition side, you have some persons who are still there. So we can’t just say the people voted for change and they put back the same people. I would say perhaps the majority of members are the same members who were here before with a few exceptions. And even the ones who’ve come back were here before,” the Premier added.
Though the April 2023 elections sent a number of new faces to the House of Assembly, the VIP won the single most seats of all the parties that contested the elections. However, analysts and residents have posited that residents voted for individuals and not along party lines as they have lost hope in the ability of one party to implement the changes they need to see.
At the same time, some residents have challenged the view that people voted for change saying only a subset of the population was eligible to vote and voter turnout was lower than previous elections.
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He is exactly right. We vote based on personalities and not on performance. We complain about all sort of things going wrong but we still big up the same people who are responsible for the things that are going wrong. We love Kye Rymer and praise him but do we notice that everything under him is a failure? We complain about our Premier being incompetent but it ain’t now that he has been incompetent but yet we put him back. When he was minister for education it was a disaster! Sl**ande is very right we didn’t vote for change. Even though that power hungry w**ch betrayed her party to help Sl**ande to remain Premier the VIP should have not gotten 6 seats if people really cared about the BVI.
Do you realize what this man just said? He is saying with all the corruption. With all the mismanagement. With Andrew Fahie getting arrested for drugs. With the reckless spending of the Covid money, social security money, the farmers and fisherman money. With all their incompetence. With the bad roads. With no water. With decreased tourism. With all the mess they made the people of the BVI loved it and voted them back in.
Let that sink in for a minute.
The spirit of assinninity, narcissism and sheer ignorance by the accidental leader of this territory is rebuked. Power through deception and fraud of a snake is no power at all. It is not the change that people voted for. This manchild have a lying spirit and believes he has power to make people accept lies as truth. It is important to humble yourself.
We voted for change. Delilah encouraged us to Vote for change, But because of selfish greed, Delilah deceived us with her FRIG.
You experience change from the same people. Simply change the system in which things are done in the VI.
This man is an i**ot!!
BUT POWER HUNGRY GELILAH MADE A FR1%
the accidental premier has put his foot in his mouth again
ONLY 400 PLUS VOTED FOR THIS F**L
WELL AS FAR AS I CAN SEE MOST PEOPLE ONLY READ THE HEADLINE AND NOT THE ARTICLE. HON. 3RD DISTRICT IS CORRECT ITS THE SAMEEEEEE DAMN PEOPLE IN THE HOUS E WITH A FEW ENW FACES ON OPPOSTION WAY TO GO MY BVI AND THEN WE BAWLING FOR A CHANGE!
This guy is not even worth commenting about any more.
Natalio Wheatley – THE PEOPLE OF THE BVI VOTED FOR CHANGE. Do not look at the farce that followed the voting. Look at the individual votes and where they lay. If you add ALL the votes together the opposition got more votes than the sitting ministers – it is just the way they lay that means you are sat where you are at. You would do very well to humble yourself every once in a while. If you were so sure you are what the people wanted you would not have flown people in to vote for you…. if you were so sure you were what the people wanted you would have run at large….. GET A GRIP.
He should be thanking Granny Smith for his position. She need licks her power hungry self.
The opposition parties are the ones who let us down.
Instead of fielding one strong candidate in each district they compete against each other by putting a number of weaklings to compete against each other and so lost the election. The lady from VG should not have ran and the no man should not have ran in Road Town. They would not even have needed the 3rd district.
It didn’t matter who you voted for last election all of them is the same thing; that’s why a lot of people just didn’t vote. Some people in this place would vote for a donkey once it have on their party color.
@ Think About It
BVI people love corruption. They love all the free things they can get. They do not care about this country as long as they are getting what they want.
They relished in it. Between covid grants, business and personal grants some persons collected a second (untaxed) salary on top of the one they already collecting. Yet the premier “saw nothing wrong”.
I want V eYe P k!ll all ayo, because that’s what you all voted for.
Didn’t the government not give a statement earlier in the year that INCREMENTS would be paid in July?
Well, July has come and and gone, and the people have received NO INCREMENTS. Their hopes are again scuttled, their iabilityto buy a bread continues and their depression becomes more chronic.
We live in a country paying civil servants, active and retired, appear to be illegal, and, the people charged with issuing the payments appear to be of no heart or conscience…
This guy is turning out to be a psycho.
Thats what happens when power is given to a child.
Mr. Wheatley you stop complaining because people talk and talk to you. I want to lol but it’s not good to lol at people if you have only listen now the people who vote for seeing the real you if you can’t handle it move on and let the professionals deal with it the people cry out to you now look how the table turn you crying takling about change to the people wow!!!!!
What insult to the people of this country you all want s**t you get s**t do eat s**t.This piece of thurd tongue is to big for his head.Of the jacka**es in district 7 eat that
Very hard to create change in the voting system we have.
How many votes did Sl** Wonder actually get, even with the rumored envelopes?
The total of all votes cast for VIP candidates in all districts plus at large was 14,107 in the last election.
The total of all votes cast for-non VIP candidates was 27,303
Clearly people wanted change.
Except that the VIP got 39% of the vote, and the other parties and candidates got 61% of the vote. That definitely sounds to me like a clear majority of voters wanted a change.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_British_Virgin_Islands_general_election
Only 400 plus. It was certainly enough! We love free money thats why we voted them back in.
Voting don’t make a difference if hand out from politicians influence elections over the years, now there are more BOLD with it!!
This is exactly the tone i got from his response, he jus basically insulted the voting population of the BVI and say “yal saw wa we was doin wrong, yal claim yal wan change but guess wa, we still here, ha ha, tek wa yal get”.
Wow my eyes are bulged and my jaw is on the floor at what i just read.
As a long residing expat with no voting rights, it really breaks my heart that this is the attitude of our leaders. i pray, i pray i pray the ppl of these Virgin Islands are paying attention, and taking notes. OMG Im in utter disbelief at this man!