The VIP’s secret weapon in the last election
Despite accusations of corruption and mismanagement of the territory’s affairs, the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) still managed to snatch five districts and one At-Large seat in the April 24 election.
And while some maintain that the party didn’t get the popular vote, they still walked away from the election with the most spoils and outwitted their opponents when it was time to form the government.
What accounted for this success? BVI News asked this question of public commentators Dickson Igwe and Benito Wheatley. Both said the VIP’s success in this year’s election was rooted in the party’s ability to connect with the “grassroots”, something they did much better than their opponents.
“The success of the VIP at the polls is a testament to the grassroots appeal of the party as a political organisation. The VIP has the single largest electoral base that is maintained through their highly democratic district committees and congress,” Benito Wheatley explained. Despite the party’s mishaps and very public failures, Wheatley believes the VIP was still able to present themselves as the best option for the BVI at this time.
“The VIP leadership was able to successfully persuade its base that the party remains the best option to govern the territory, which delivered five district seats and one At-Large seat,” said Wheatley.
Commentator Dickson Igwe shared Wheatley’s sentiments. He said the VIP appeared to be more united and connected to the “grassroots” than the other parties that contested the elections.
“The VIP is a unified, organized, and grassroot party with strength on the ground. However, the country now has a strong opposition: it will be interesting to watch the coming months,” Igwe stated.
Although the VIP got the most elected candidates and ultimately formed the government, the party didn’t get the popular vote — meaning that overall, fewer individuals voted for the VIP when compared to the combined number of votes that all the opposing elected representatives received.
Many residents believe this was a clear indication that the Virgin Islands voted against the VIP. Newly elected Sixth District Representative Myron Walwyn shares this view and argues that the absence of an outright majority was a clear indication that the people wanted to get rid of the VIP.
But he has urged the public to move on from the election bruises as he believes there is now a formidable Opposition in the House of Assembly (HOA) that can hold the government accountable and ensure they deliver favourable results for the community.
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It would be interesting to see what the result would have been if, say, legal residents, uptodate with their taxes and NHI who had been in BVI for 5 years, had the vote.
As it is the electorate is very heavily weighed to the interests of the 6 ruling families and those in the public service.
The Territory had a budget of about $400m I believe, last year. It is ironic that most of the actual tax payers (as opposed to those who don’t pay what is due) and the private sector wealth generators have no vote.
I wonder if this set up has contributed to lack of accountability for the billions of government revenue paid in since the 1980s? What exactly did we get for that?
The VIP has no shame at all. They got the government back because of a self serving , power hungry woman who deceived the voters.
THE PRIMER AND THE BEHIND THE SCENES NON ELECTED OFFICIALS HAS ONCE AGAIN USED THE PEOPLE. WHY TALK ABOUT PROMOTING THE YOUTHS AND SIDE LINING TO BRING BACT OLD RETIRED VIP FOLLOWERS TO REPLACE THE SITTING YOUNG SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE?!THERE IS A OLD SAYING IN THE BVI ” BEAT THE IRON WHILE IT’S HOT”, MEANING WHILE YOUR YOUNG SET YOUR FUTURE IN MOTION. THE PEOPLE’S PURSE IS NOT HERE TO CONTINUE FINANCIALLY BAIL PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR DEBT. THE BANKS ARE THERE FOR THAT!
The VIP is only in government today because of the fractured opposition, individualism and narcissism of those on the other side. The NDP and PVIM share the same voters and end up splitting the votes in seats where they are competing against each other. As long as this continues neither NDP or PVIM will have enough seats to ever form a government.
We see it in the way Mrs Lorna Smith turned to the VIP the very next day after been elected on an NDP slate. If it wasn’t about self, she could have carried her party along and form a coalition government, though I suspect that she would be a backbencher in such a government.
We also see it in the way Mr Fraser and Mr Skeleton both vying to be premier in a coalition government with 3 parties, not realizing you can only have one premier at a time.
The VIP are the beneficiaries of all of that and that is why they won. No other reason.
However they got it, after four years of tyranny they will never, ever get mine again.
It is obvious that a lot of people still favour party politics and think self over country.
You make some very good points, if we had no taxation without representation the BVI would be a very different country. In terms of the VIP success, much of that was down to the disorganized and self serving attitude of the opposition, they could not even agree who would be the leader, never mind running the territory.
Your secret weapon was allegedly using the public purse to buy votes with assistance grants, false farmer and fisherman grants, breaking the law to provide belongers. Then you had the endorsement of your mismanagement by Lorna Smith. That was your secret weapon.
Say thanks to that traitor Delilah
And the opposition were to selfish and power hungry to form the govt. Must she have waited for them to grow up and decide what to do? She did the right thing. Leave the woman alone. Elections have concluded. Your team lost.
Actually I think most ‘people’ voted for VIP in district but most ‘votes’ went to non-VIP. Which shows how certain parties choose to view the results. Each voter had 5 votes and VIP won the districts clearly, that was the primary vote. Then the other 4 votes went to those people who were wanted in the HoA. This means that the government represents what the people want although the 2 losing factions will argue otherwise against the data.
A lot of good points were stated, if you were to check history the VIp has always had only two seats assured the first which is 100% theirs and the ninth which is about 65% theirs right now the fifth belongs to them because of the present candidate, the other district’s they have to fight like hell even the Premier was not assured of his district if he was opposed by a strong candidate he could have lost. But end of the lament they won, if they are truly interested in doing good for the country they will have a bright future. My only concern is the minister from the ninth as I do not believe he is playing with a full deck, but only time will tell.
There was a lot of vote buying. VIP districts 1, 4, 7 and 9 let us hear you refuting. We are waiting.
Pray tell, who are the “six ruling families”?
@ fire hydrant……
BVI people love corruption and the what you can do for me mentality.
With all that was revealed and still to be revealed they got 5 district seats hands down easily.
To the persons who leak information stop wasting your time. All this freedom of information is the same waste of time. People don’t care about the information as long as their palms are getting greased.
The real problem was largely NDP and their idiotic voters. Dr. Pickering who was removed from his district by his people that loved him dearly because they knew he did a terrible job in over 20 years was almost rewarded by at large voters who were more concerned about party over country. He received almost 3,000 votes while more worthy candidates fell short.
PVIM and NDP have the same philosophy just different names. All the members were once members of NDP. They just have a different vision of who the leader of the party should be. The same power struggle that prevented both parties from rejoining before the elections also prevented the forming of a new government.
NDP had one at large candidate, Lorna that truly deserved our votes based on things voters should care about but the voters sticked with the party over common sense logic and wasted their votes on people like Renard, Allen and Dr. Pickering. This allowed Shari to sneak in the back door while votes were split.
A lot of people were preaching about a change of the usual way of voting and focusing on the best candidates, but this election proved nothing changed with the voters. No independent candidates got elected which proves that we are still heavily focused on party politics despite NDP, PVIM and VIP failing us in the past.
No body wants ndp under Marlon, and the vip is for we, plus Ronnie lazy and can’t speak properly
VIP also lost the “popular vote” last election when compared to the combination of NDP and PVIM votes.
The margin this election was indeed wider as the enthusiasm of many VIP supporters waned due to the challenges faced by the Fahie Administration and some spillover to Wheatley’s fractional term.
It seems like we need to have a class for or people they can’t count at all there were four 4 political parties NDP got 3. PVIM got 3. PU got 1 and VIP got 6. And yet people is saying that the population voted to get rid of the VIP party can we now count which party the people voted for the Government
If the opposition were power hungry they would’ve crossed the floor
These analyses are incorrect. The VIP clearly won six seats with five being in the districts and one At-Large, so the people did vote for VIP overwhelmingly. What happened was all districts no matter what political party or person they voted for split up their At-Large votes, so voters were fully conscious of what they were doing. Hence VIP won the elections. They won it because most people were silent but were tired of all the rhetoric, gossip and mischief done against the VIP just for power. They appreciated how VIP govern the country in the midst of the worse pandemic in the last 100yrs where all governments worldwide did not know what to do as they have never experienced a pandemic like COVID before where the economy and the social fabric of each country was challenged and, in most cases, seriously damaged until now, with some beyond repair. All governments make mistakes so that is not the issue but the VIP’s good far outweighed their bad especially in the times of crisis where they had to govern coupled with dealing with all the damages left unattended to from Hurricanes Irma & Maria. VIP’s actions saved lives and the economy and that is a FACT! The election showed that loud noise of hate and confusion mixed with lies and mischief just to put down others so they can be favored to get the power does not result in plenty votes. Numbers do not lie but interpretation of them do.
so tell me how was the opposition going to get it. They couldn’t even select a voter from some district to represent them.
so if pu joined with pvim then that shoule be traitor too. if pvim joined ndp then that’s should be called traitor too.
if the opposition was not power hungry how come there is three of them?? if the opposition was not power hungry how come they couldn’t decide who would be the powerful premier. if the opposition wasn’t power hungry how come they are not in power. if some of the opposition wasn’t power hungry then they all should have adhere to Mr. Fraser request to be premier.
I cannot vote but if I could I was not going to vote for any at large party who didn’t had anyone running in my district. All the districts should have had representative for the major parties, even if they just get one vote it would showed that you tried and was trying to be a good party by having candidate in every district.
I mean one of their voter to be their district candidate.
well how so? if they were not power hungry they would have been in power today? If they were not power hungry Mr. Frazer would have been the premier.
it was two new comers that walked away with the highest popular vote. Mr. Mather is a very public figure he is known all around the BVI due to this work with yep. Mrs. Lorna was a very active first lady so she was popular. unlike Ms. Castro when she first came but she had gotten the most votes in 2019.
There is no strategy. The 7th district had a lvery weak candidate popularly seen as a non performing public mamager. The first district is a tradition VIP stronghold for 40 years. 5th district had a very visible minister. In the 4th and the 9th district the opposing parties defeated themselves by fielding two competing candidates and splittong their votes against very ordinary VIP candidates who ended up winning. By getting behind Levons and Sandy they would have gotten 8 and possibly nine seats and leave the VIP with 4 seats. Therefore none of the parties analyze or had a strategy to win or govern the country. Therefor we ended up where we are.
District 6. A pathetic bunch who voted for a man that is before the court” My gosh, talk about a bunch of…..
Four years of brain washing to go. Why vip do not stop playing people for a fool, i do not know. Most of the votes were against the VIP in most of the districts. The problem is, the votes were split. The majority DID NOT WANT a VIP government. They really think people are dumb and it is an amazing thing to behold. The people who are loyal to them have either been paid at some point or had to pay their way to receive some kind of status, that is what their loyalty is based on. The school yard tactics and childish mentality from grown folk leaves much to be desired and is not inspiring at all. It only takes one man to go to the other side to form a new government and cabinet. May that one man not cease to do so for one more day. May this be the sign he has been waiting for. It is in the country’s best interest.
Like really if one was to add all the votes vip candidates get against all the votes the major parties have the VIP still had more. The VIP found candidates for all district. Some other parties couldn’t find a candidate to represent their party in some of the districts this had me wondering if people in those district are not qualified enough? How come pvim didn’t had anyone representing them in district 8?? And in NDP in district 7?? Is everyone in district 7 only voting VIP or district 8 NDP. If you want to be a party for the people then it should be island wide not just some at large and a few district. VIP send candidates up even though they know it’s hard to win some districts but they have confidence in their supporters and their candidates.
Districts 4, 7 and 9 were allegedly bought. $700,$750 envelopes. they will keep boosting that they won. Sometimes we get permissive blessings.
Interesting choice of words
With gun violence spiking here, the use of the word weapon is tossed around so freely.
Sad
We saw them bussing seniors to the polls. The reality is that a splintered group of opposition parties that could not agree from long before the election was the main reason.
You sound vex you like you ain’t get any.
You for real they did that and yet in the early election the seniors in district 7 didn’t vote for him the other candidates had more votes.
I think people are missing the fact. Lorna intended to join the VIP once she won. Because of the Town talk, she did not want to be associated with the VIP going into the election, and she realized that she could not win as an independent, as she initially declared, so she pretended to be with the NDP so they could carry her. Once she won, she moved to where her heart was because only her head was with NDP.