British Virgin Islands general election, 2011

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November 7, 2011 (2011-11-07)

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All seats in the British Virgin Islands House of Assembly
7 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

68.8% (est.)

	First party	Second party

Leader	Orlando Smith	Ralph T. O'Neal
Party	National Democratic Party	Virgin Islands Party
Leader since	1999	1995
Leader's seat	At-large	9th District
Last election	2 seats, 39.6%	10 seats, 45.2%
Seats before	2	10
Seats won	9	4
Seat change	+7	-6
Percentage	52.5%	39.0%
Swing	+11.9%	-6.2%

Premier before election

Ralph T. O'Neal
Virgin Islands Party

Elected Premier

Orlando Smith
National Democratic Party

Ralph T. O'Neal
Virgin Islands Party

Orlando Smith
National Democratic Party

The British Virgin Islands general election, 2011 was 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.

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.

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.

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