General elections were held in the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

on 17 May 1999. The result was a victory for the incumbent

Virgin Islands Party The Virgin Islands Party (VIP) is a List of political parties in the British Virgin Islands, political party in the British Virgin Islands. It is presently led by Natalio Wheatley. It is the oldest active political party in the British Virgin I ...

(VIP) led by

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

Ralph T. O'Neal over the newly formed National Democratic Party (NDP) led by

Orlando Smith Daniel Orlando Smith, OBE (born 28 August 1944) is a British Virgin Islands politician and the former Premier of the British Virgin Islands from 2011 to 2019 and from 2003 to 2007. He also formerly served as Chief Minister of the British V ...

. The elections marked the emergence of the NDP, the first serious opposition to the VIP since the collapse of the United Party in the aftermath of Cyril Romney's resignation as Chief Minister in 1986. They were also the first elections in the territory since 1954 in which

Lavity Stoutt Hamilton Lavity Stoutt (7 March 1929 – 14 May 1995) was a British Virgin Islander politician and the first and longest serving Chief Minister of the British Virgin Islands. He won five general elections (1967, 1979, 1986, 1990 and 1995) ...

, a dominant political force in the British Virgin Islands did not participate and the first in which no independent candidates were elected.

Results

The election was largely decided in three key seats: the Third District (which Julian Fraser carried for the VIP by 26 votes), the Sixth District (which Omar Hodge carried for the VIP by 12 votes) and the Eighth District (which Lloyd Black carried for the NDP by 11 votes, with the crucial Penn family votes being split between Andre (running as an independent) and David (running for the VIP) – most years a member of the Penn family wins the Eighth District). The At-large seats were split equally between the two main parties. Ethlyn Smith won the Fifth District for the minority party, the Concerned Citizens Movement, where the second placed candidate was former Chief Minister running as an independent, Cyril Romney. Although the overall vote count was flattering to the NDP this was because they polled well in the At-large seats (where each voter casts four votes). But most of the Territorial seats were not that competitive, with the VIP winning some seats with huge majorities, the largest being

Alvin Christopher J. Alvin Christopher, is a politician who presently serves as leader of the People's Empowerment Party in the British Virgin Islands. He is not currently a member of the House of Assembly, but was the longstanding elected member for the second d ...

's thumping 80.2% of the vote in the Second District. Conversely, Julian Fraser won his seat in the Third District with the smallest mandate of any candidate – just 228 votes in a three-way contest with a low voter turnout. Notable candidates who were elected to the Legislature for the first time included future Chief Minister and Premier,

; future Deputy Premier and Minister

Kedrick Pickering Dr. Kedrick Pickering (born 8 April 1958) is the former Deputy Premier of the Virgin Islands, also known as the British Virgin Islands. He also served as the territory's Minister of Natural Resources and Labour. He is a member of the National D ...

; future Minister Andrew Fahie; and future Minister and

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

Julian Fraser Julian Fraser (born 5 July 1950) is a British Virgin Islander politician who formerly belonged to the opposition Virgin Islands Party in the British Virgin Islands, and in August 2018 formed a new party, Progressives United. He is currently t ...

. Conversely, Walwyn Brewley suffered the first electoral defeat of his career, and would thereafter choose to end his political career at this point.

District seats

At-large seats

References

{{British Virgin Islands elections Elections in the British Virgin Islands

General election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

British Virgin