2007 British Virgin Islands general election

2007 British Virgin Islands general election

← 2003 20 August 2007 (2007-08-20) 2011 →
13 of the 15 seats in the House of Assembly 7 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Ralph T. O'Neal Orlando Smith Party VIP NDP Last election 42.22%, 5 seats 52.39%, 8 seats Seats won 10 2 Seat change 5 6 Percentage 50.31% 46.74%
Premier before election Orlando Smith NDP Premier after election Ralph T. O'Neal VIP

General elections were held in the British Virgin Islands on 20 August 2007. The result was a landslide victory for the opposition Virgin Islands Party (VIP) over the incumbent National Democratic Party (NDP).^[1]

The VIP took 7 of the 9 district seats (of the remaining district seats, only 1 was taking by the NDP; the other was taken by Alvin Christopher, an independent candidate endorsed by the VIP). The VIP also took 3 out of the 4 territorial at-large seats. The only two NDP candidates to retain their seats were former Chief Minister Orlando Smith and seventh district representative Kedrick Pickering. VIP at-large candidate Zoë McMillan-Walcott had initially asked for a recount of her vote against Orlando Smith for the fourth at-large seat (the initial count indicated her to have received only 18 fewer votes), but she subsequently withdrew the request.[1]

The victory gave the VIP an unprecedented 10 elected seats out of the 13 available in the House of Assembly of the British Virgin Islands, despite receiving only a mere 5.6% greater share of the votes than the NDP (45.2% to 39.6%).

Voter turnout was relatively high, with approximately 62.3% of registered voters casting votes; although this was some way lower than the 72.2% voter turnout for the 2003 election.^[2] The lowest turnout was in the fifth district, where only 49.3% of voters cast votes; the highest was the eighth district, where 76.2% turnout was recorded.

The Supervisor of elections reported that the elections passed off "without incident".[2]