THE 1967 ELECTION FACTOR

It was the April 14, 1967 general elections that residents for the first time elected seven district representatives to the British Virgin Islands Legislative Council.

Earlier in the year, a new Constitution introduced a Ministerial Government to the territory, seventeen years after the first recorded modern elections.

Elections under the prior Constitution were introduced in 1950 to restore the Legislative Council after colonial legislatures in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and then a political hiatus.

The 1950 constitution facilitated four elected legislative members, two ex-official members and two nominated members.

Requirements for standing for election included income, property, and a deposit (forfeited with failure to garner a certain percentage of votes). The four members were elected in 1950 on a Territory-wide basis.

Four years later, the existing constitutional provisions were replaced with the Constitution and Elections Ordinance, 1954, which expanded the elected membership to six, divided amongst five district seats with Road Town – the present capital – having two representatives.

Historians agree that it was the 1967 general election that introduced true direct democratic rule in the BVI. The 1967 Constitution expanded the elected membership to seven, with each district having a single representative.

That year, general elections were contested by three newly formed political parties – The British Virgin Islands United Party led by Conrad Maduro; The Virgin Islands Democratic Party, led by Qwominer William Osborne and The People’s Own Party, led by Isaac Fonseca.

Only the BVI United Party contested all seven available seats, while the other two parties only fielded candidates in five districts. A total of 3,500 residents were registered voters.

Voter turnout was 73.2% or 2,557 that year, giving the BVI United Party an overall majority of four seats. But the party’s leader Conrad Maduro was disqualified from becoming Chief Minister because he did not win a seat.

Instead, H. Lavity Stoutt became the territory’s first Chief Minister and first Education Minister.

The VI Democratic Party won two seats and Q.W. Osborne was appointed the territory’s first opposition leader.

The third and final party, the People’s Own Party, won only one seat in the Legislative Council.

Ivan Dawson, despite not being a member of the BVI United Party, was appointed the territory’s first Minister for National Resources and Public Health. Cyril Romney became the first Native BVIslander to act as Financial Secretary of the BVI.

The 1967 Legislative Council is still referred to as the 6th Legislative Council, taking into consideration the five prior Councils elected under the 1950 Constitution.

In 1977, the Elections Ordinance expanded the number of district seats to nine and in 1994, four Territorial At-Large seats were introduced, creating a total of 13 elected members to sit alongside the two ex-officio members – the Speaker and the Attorney General.