Senior Roy Harrigan Remembers His First Time Voting Like It Was Yesterday

Roy Harrigan recalled that the first time he voted in the British Virgin Islands he felt excitement and apprehension at the same time.

The North Sound, Virgin Gorda resident was 21-years-old.

“It was a new thing for me…was a bit exciting, now a bit apprehensive too,” he laughed, during a recent interview with jahphixtelevision.com host Cathy Richards.

An easy-going conversationalist, Harrigan is a public and loyal supporter of the Virgin Islands Party because he believes they are more focused on addressing the needs of the people.

With a grin he shared the details of the first time he entered a polling station in Virgin Gorda and was told of the voting process.

“We all gathered, it was  a little crowd of people there and I was one among the crowd and waiting to know and to see what’s going to happen inside. When my turn came, I went in, I stood up and he gave me this little piece of paper and he told me, okay, you have to put a X within a box.”

He further recalled: “You didn’t have the kind of explanation like what they gave now. They tell you how to put the X within the box…don’t let the lines come outside the box. It was in the school down here…it wasn’t up there at that time. The school was down in the Methodist Church. So we went there, I went in and (it) had this screen behind…(they) tell you to go behind this little screen. It was a little cloth screen and I looked over the paper. I always voted for the VIP, always. Always a VIP from the time the whole…party system started, I was a VIP. So I followed what I was hearing, looked for VIP and I made sure I put my little X. I take my time, put my little  X just behind the candidate’s name. And doing that my hand was shaking a little bit. I so wanted to get it done well that my hand was shaking a little bit, but I made sure I did it right. And at that time, too, we didn’t have this at-large people system so once you voted for the candidate that was it. “

Now a retired teacher – he studied in the United Kingdom and taught in the territory and on other islands – the Virgin Gorda resident is closely following the campaigning leading up to the April 24 voting day.

“Up to this morning, I was thinking about (how) I have always voted for the VIP, and I tell you because I know they’re sincere people,” he said.

“They will do what they tell you they’re going to do and the other thing is that they always look out for the people. They always look out for people, they put people first. There may be other little things that come in between, but in the end, they try to help people. So whenever they had an election, if I was here, because I wasn’t here for every election, because (I was out ) on training. I think one time I was in England, training as a teacher to be a professional. So I missed that one, but other than that, I voted in all the others.”

The VIP was founded by Hamilton Lavity Stoutt in 1971 after he resigned from the United Party following a leadership dispute. The United Party was chaired by Conrad Maduro. Stoutt was elected the territory’s first chief minister in 1969.

It is the oldest active party in the territory with a total of seven terms in office under five leaders – Stoutt (1979 -1995), Ralph O’Neal (1995 – 2014), Julian Fraser (2014 – 2016), Andrew Fahie (2016 – 2022) and now Natalio Wheatley.

According to Harrigan, he is watching and listening to see which politicians are sincere. A total of 42 independent and party candidates are contesting this year.

The Virgin Islands Party is the only party fielding a full slate – four territorial-at-large and nine electoral district candidates.

Virgin Gorda is the second largest island in the territory with a population of around 4,000 people. Together with Anegada it is the Ninth Electoral District.

“I gotta sift through all the rhetoric and know when someone is being sincere,” Harrigan stressed.

“The whole thing to me, if you’re sincere with what you’re telling me, I will support you, right. And that’s what I believe that the VIP candidates are sincere people. As I said before, they are sincere people, they will do, or they will try to do what they tell you they are going to do. They may not be successful, but they try, okay. You listen, and you hear all sorts of things that coming  from different parties. This person, oh, when I get in, or they stop saying if. When I get (in), I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do that. But after the election, and some of those same people when they get in, you don’t see these things what they say they’re going to do come to fruition. You know, they don’t see it come to fruition. So, you wonder how sincere they were.”

He added: “That’s why my thing is insincerity. If you’re sincere, and I could feel that you’re sincere, you have me. But If I get that feeling that you’re saying it because you just want to get a vote, then you may not have me.”

When asked what were his views on young people refusing to vote, Harrigan responded:

“That’s not a good thing. That’s not a good thing. I mean, young people should take more interest, we’ll put it that way, in learning about how the government works. You know, how  people go about trying to solve the needs of the government, or the needs of the country and want to be involved as much as possible. It’s not a matter as if you don’t care what happens, I going to live. That’s not the idea. You should have an interest in your country and want to see a country do well, right. And do whatever you can do to try to help. That’s how I feel.”

But he is seeing a change of attitude amongst the youth regarding the affairs of government.

“…this time around it seems to me, like a lot more of the younger people are waking up to the reality.  They want to get involved. Because before it was only the adult people, way back it was just the adult people, but you find a lot of younger people, even if they’re not coming forward to be a representative, they’re getting involved.  They’re talking more about it and that’s a good thing. Because when you talk, you learn something, and you listen and you learn. We find our young people, our little group here, one or two of their… and they’re talking about the election and that’s good

He wants the government to pay more attention to seniors’ care – such as the need for an ambulance service in North Sound.

“We  need a bit more care for the seniors’ health. That’s one thing, a bit more care for seniors, when they get sick, or when you got to move around to go to doctors, as you go to clinics. Right now we don’t have a functioning clinic, and also, sometimes the person might not have transport…there is…still a working ambulance base located in The Valley. Okay, so that might take a while, if it could make it at all. So a bit more care for the seniors’ health.”

One of his fondest memories of election season over the years is the energy he felt during the motorcades.

“When is election time one of the big things used to be… not parade…what was that again?  the motorcade. We used to jump in…vehicles it had at the time to go…from here straight to The Valley making noise.  And if our man wins the election, oh man, (it) used to be partying down there. That was big fun. That was a big thing,” Harrigan laughed.