Members of the House of Assembly have expressly supported the addition of two at-large seats, to be effected by direct amendment to the Constitution. Photo: VINO/File

Elected Members considered that the current size of the House places significant pressure on Ministers and constrains effective executive oversight. Photo: GIS/File

The Committee of Elected Members of the whole House agreed, but with an amended approach. Elected Members supported increasing the number of Ministers and agreed this should be achieved by first increasing the number of elected Members of the House of Assembly (HoA).

Rationale for elected members’ decision

Members further expressly supported the addition of two at-large seats, to be effected by direct amendment to the Constitution (rather than through an electoral boundary review), and agreed that commencement arrangements should allow the additional seats to be contested at the next general election, subject to enactment and commencement of the amendment in time.

Elected Members considered that the current size of the House places significant pressure on Ministers and constrains effective executive oversight. Members also considered that adding at-large seats provides a modest expansion of representation without necessarily triggering district boundary changes, while recognising that wider electoral reform considerations may still benefit from independent review.

Why not a district seat?

The addition of two at-large seats would raise the total number of elected Members of the HoA from thirteen to fifteen.

Many residents during the Penn-Lettsome review believed that one of the two seats should have been a district seat, giving Anegada its own district. For over 30 years, the small population on Anegada has felt neglected and removed from the other residents of the Virgin Islands.