Virgin Islands Party

Virgin Islands Party
Leader	Andrew Fahie
Founded	1971
Ideology	Socialism of the 21st Century Republicanism
UK affiliation	none
House of Assembly	2 / 13
Politics of the British Virgin Islands Political parties Elections

The Virgin Islands Party (VIP) is a political party in the British Virgin Islands.^[1] It is presently led by former Minister Andrew Fahie.^[2] It is the oldest active political party in the British Virgin Islands,^[3] and it has won more general elections (six) than any other political party in the British Virgin Islands.^[4]

The party was founded by Lavity Stoutt in 1971 when Stoutt left the United Party in order to contest 1971 election after a dispute with Conrad Maduro as to who should be leader of the United Party.^[5] The Virgin Islands Party led by Stoutt lost to coalitions led by Willard Wheatley in the 1971 and 1975 general elections, but triumphed in the 1979 general election. Stoutt continued to lead the party until his death in 1995. After Stoutt's death, leadership of the party fell to Ralph T. O'Neal who led it until he stepped down on 28 May 2014.^[6]

Prior to the 2011 general election the Virgin Islands Party had held power in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) for all except for 15 years since the adoption of the modern Legislative Council in 1967. From its inception until 2014, the party had only been led by two men: Lavity Stoutt and Ralph O'Neal; the two party leaders are also the two longest serving elected politicians in BVI history and the first two leaders of the territory to have served more than two terms as either Chief Minister or Premier.^[7] In 28 May 2014 Julian Fraser took over from Ralph O'Neal,^[8] and led the party to defeat in the 2015 general election. On 30 November 2016 Andrew Fahie replaced Julian Fraser as party leader,^[2] making Fraser the first leader of the Virgin Islands Party not to ascend to either the Chief Minister or Premiership.

The party most recently held power after the 2007 general election held on 20 August 2007 winning 10 seats out of 13 (one further seat was won by an independent candidate endorsed by the Virgin Islands Party, and who later joined the party). However it lost the 2011 general election and is in opposition.

Prior to that, the party had most recently lost power at the 2003 general election, held on 16 June 2003, when the party won only 42.2% of the popular votes and five out of thirteen elected seats.

Virgin Islands Party had held power continuously from 1986 until 2003, winning four consecutive general elections, which is the longest unbroken streak in government for a political party in the British Virgin Islands.

Electoral history

Footnotes