16 June 2003 (2003-06-16) 2007 → 1999 1995 5 seats, 37.3% 7 seats, 37.8% | Turnout 72% At-large 9th District 5 7 | |
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The 2003 general election was held in the British Virgin Islands on 16 June 2003. It was won by the opposition National Democratic Party (NDP), which took 54.4% of the vote and 8 of the 13 available seats on the Legislative Council. After the election the NDP formed a Government for the first time in its history. Both major parties - the NDP and the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) actually increased their share of the overall vote at the expense of minority parties and independents. No independents or any minority parties won any seats. The NDP won all four of the territorial-at-large seats.
Contents
The 2003 general election was also the first election in the British Virgin Islands where the United Party failed to field a candidate.
Results
The NDP's victory was largely as a result of sweeping all four of the At-large seats. However, with each voter being able to cast four votes per ballot, the margin between the bottom NDP candidate (Paul Wattley) and the top VIP candidate (Reeial George) was a mere 41 votes, out of a total of 7,351 ballots cast (a margin of 0.5%). The other key win for the NDP was in the Fifth District where Delores Christopher carried the seat for the NDP by a wafer thin margin of just 3 votes in a constituency where a total of 20 ballots were rejected by elections officers.
Voters exercised a largely binary choice between the two main parties. No third party candidate or independent polled well in any area. In the Territorial seats, Alred Frett in the Fifth District was the highest vote-getter, with a mere 7.1% of the votes. In the At-large seats, the top eight spots went to the four candidates for each of the two main parties, with a massive drop off in numbers of votes for the ninth place candidate (Conrad Maduro, a former elected representative on the United Party ticket, but running in 2003 as an independent).
Individual territorial seats
First Electoral District
Total number of registered voters: 1,154 Total number of votes cast: 787 Percentage of voters who voted: 68.2%Second Electoral District
Total number of registered voters: 1,105 Total number of votes cast: 742 Percentage of voters who voted: 67.0%Third Electoral District
Total number of registered voters: 1,058 Total number of votes cast: 805 Percentage of voters who voted: 76.1%Fourth Electoral District
Total number of registered voters: 1,172 Total number of votes cast: 860 Percentage of voters who voted: 73.4%Fifth Electoral District
Total number of registered voters: 1,222 Total number of votes cast: 798 Percentage of voters who voted: 65.3%Sixth Electoral District
Total number of registered voters: 1,289 Total number of votes cast: 889 Percentage of voters who voted: 69%Seventh Electoral District
Total number of registered voters: 941 Total number of votes cast: 720 Percentage of voters who voted: 76.5%Eighth Electoral District
Total number of registered voters: 1,010 Total number of votes cast: 787 Percentage of voters who voted: 77.9%Ninth Electoral District
Total number of registered voters: 1,233 Total number of votes cast: 980 Percentage of voters who voted: 79.5%At-large seats
Territorial At-Large Electoral District
Total ballots cast: 7,351 Total rejected ballots: 15 Total votes rejected: 14 Total valid votes: 29,194 Total votes counted: 29,208 Total registered voters: 10,180 Percentage turnout: 72.21%