The Third March, Part A
The Virgin Islands General Election is to take place before the end of 2018 or early 2019. It will be an epic affair. The General Election will be a hard fought battle. In politics, the stakes are always high.
It will be seeing a national movement of voters marching to the ballot box. And the 2018/2019 General Election is a continuation of two preceding marches.
Now, the first march was a very large protest march. It was a movement against the United Kingdom’s overreach in the Public Register of Beneficial Ownership matter.
The second march was tiny. It was a group of vocal activists demanding greater accountability, transparency, and integrity, from their government.
However, there is another much more critical march. It is the THIRD MARCH.
The Third March in actuality started long before the two marches of June 2018. It began as with most general election movements at mid-term in the present government's tenure.
The Third March to the ballot box is a two year odyssey. At mid-term, a General Election- two years away- begins to generate a gravity all of its own. It is always at the back of the mind of the politician that his time in power may be limited.
Ok. The third march that officially began at a political meeting in June 2018: the victory of Virgin Islands Politician, the Honorable Myron V. Walwyn, at the National Democratic Party Conference in June 2018, cast a die.
So, the end of the third march will see one of two men take that greatly desired seat of political power that is the Office of the Premier of the British Virgin Islands: the leaders of the Virgin Islands Party, or National Democratic Party.
There is the very remote possibility of a third option of governance: Coalition Government.
Politician, and Former Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition, Julian Fraser, is forming a third party.
Based on precedence, third parties and independent candidates have not been successful in changing the political narrative from a two party system since the mid 1990s.
There are indications that matters may be different in 2018-2019. Post Irma, the Virgin Islands voters may want coalition government, as two-party governance has left the country worse off today than it was in the late 1980s and early 90s. This has been the result of non-transparent, non-accountable, and non-audited governance by both political parties.
The Virgin Islands voters appear to be demanding a new culture of transparent and accountable governance, from the new government, post the next General Election.
Time will tell whether that desire gets fulfilled.
To be continued
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