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The Anguillan general election was held on 15 February 2010. Seven seats in the Anguilla House of Assembly were contested in the election.
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The incumbent Chief Minister of Anguilla Osbourne Fleming chose to retire and not stand for election. Fleming is a member of the Anguilla National Alliance, which is part of the ruling Anguilla United Front (AUF), a conservative coalition which won 4 of the 7 seats in the Assembly during the 2005 general election.
The incumbent AUF was defeated, and former Chief Minister Hubert Hughes was sworn in to succeed Fleming as Chief Minister.
Election background
In 2009, the year before the election, Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming, who was also the leader of the Anguilla United Front (AUF), announced that he would not stand for re-election in the 2010 race. Two other members of the ruling AUF also announced their intent to retire as well - Parliamentary Secretary Albert Hughes and Communications and Works Minister Kenneth Harrigan. Collectively, Fleming, Hughes and Harrigan had been active in Anguillan politics for more than 80 years. It was announced that Finance Minister Victor Banks would succeed Fleming as the party leader of the AUF coalition.
According to the Constitution of Anguilla, the general election was due to be held by March 2010. However, the election could have been postponed until as late as May or June 2010.
On Monday, January 4, 2010, the last day of the current Assembly, the leader of government business held talks with the Governor of Anguilla, Alistair Harrison, concerning the dissolution of the legislative body to pave the way for new elections. That same day, Chief Minister Fleming told the Assembly that he felt that the previous five years of AUF in Anguilla had been a success, "The people elected us for five years and five years it would be, that was my commitment that was my pledge."
Retiring Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming officially set February 15, 2010, as the date for the election during a public meeting of the ruling Anguilla United Front (AUF) in Blowing Point held on January 5, 2010. In his announcement, Fleming told supporters, "Tonight, I take great pleasure in advising you that by the help of God, because we don't know what could happen, elections in Anguilla will be on the 15th of February 2010."
Colville Petty, the supervisor of elections, reported that 8,652 voters were registered to vote in the seven electoral districts on the island. That marked an increase in voter registration from the 2005 general election, when 7,558 people registered to vote. Electoral District Four, which includes parts of The Valley, the capital of Anguilla, had the largest number of registered voters in the 2010 election, with a total of 1,789.
Candidates
Twenty candidates registered to contest the seven Assembly seats in the election. The nomination papers for all candidates were due on Thursday, January 21, 2010.