Social Commentator Cindy Rosan believes that as it currently stands the uncertainties surrounding whether or not the territory will host a General Election, as is constitutionally due, is a major factor affecting the number of candidacies and the general level of campaign activity currently being seen.
Rosan told CARIBUPDATE that the current environment is uneasy, particularly as Virgin Islanders await the Governor’s next quarterly report.
“I would consider the environment a little unstable at the moment… The sitting premier has said that there will be an election. The governor has said that there is no reason for there not to be an election, however part of the recommendations of the COI or the agreement that the Unity Government, which is our sitting government right now, the agreement that they’ve gone into with the UK is that the governor would give a report, a quarterly report, on the progress of the implementations of the Commission of Inquiry recommendations. However, the report that the governor put out… that was the first quarterly report, it was a very negative report on the territory and how the recommendations are going”, she said.
“We really don’t know what a second report from the governor is going to look like… the environment is unstable… based on all the developments, I think there’s no faith to say yes we will have an election and if you do have an election”, she added.
Rosan went on to explain that recent political instability in the United Kingdom has also been a factor, given the frequent change in hands of the Overseas Territory portfolio as well as the looming possibility that the UK could still suspend the BVI’s constitution before an election can be held.
Notwithstanding this, she believes that the people of the Virgin Islands are certainly ready to work the political muscle of the territory, evident from a growing show of support for independent candidates.
“Well, our two major parties are still very active, they’re very much still in place…the House of Assembly will be adjourned, suspended and dissolved and all persons will go in their directions… Everybody would fall into whatever space they have to contest the General Elections…. Now we don’t know for sure how that would look based on the temperature and how people are feeling… at the moment people are really driving towards more independent candidates and the type of leadership that can bring”, she said.