General elections were held on the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

on the 21 November 1991 to elect members to the island's

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

: the

House of Keys The House of Keys () is the directly elected lower house of Tynwald, the parliament of the Isle of Man, the other branch being the Legislative Council. History The oldest known reference to the name is in a document of 1417, written in Lat ...

. Independents dominated and won 21 of the 24 seats, whilst the

Manx Labour Party The Manx Labour Party is a political party on the Isle of Man that was founded in 1918. Policies The Manx Labour Party published a manifesto of policies in 2021. It proposed increasing government spending on education to a minimum of 4% of GD ...

once again won three seats.

Electoral system

The electoral system was changed in 1982 to

single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

with the Representation of the People (Preferential Voting) Act.

Campaign

A total of 73 candidates contested the elections, of which 68 ran as independents and five as party candidates. The

nominated three candidates,

David Cretney David Clifford Cretney (born 15 January 1954) is a Manx people, Manx politician. Biography Before going into politics, Cretney was a shop manager (1977–85) and he was also a businessman in the period 1985–2012. He was, until March 2014, D ...

, Peter Karran and Bernie May, all of whom were incumbents. The Green Party nominated two, John Rimington and Graham Joughin.

Results

Five of the elected members were newcomers to the House of Keys. In Douglas West, Basil Cowin and Jim Mitchell were tied in last place at the second count, resulting in them having to draw lots to determine who progressed to the third count, with Callow progressing. Two independent candidates ( Edgar Quine in

Ayre Ayre ( ; ) is one of the six sheadings of the Isle of Man. It is located in the north of the island (part of the traditional ''North Side'' division) and consists of the three historic parishes of Andreas, Bride and (Kirk Christ) Lezayre. T ...

and Tony Brown in Castletown) were elected unopposed.

By constituency

Afternath

Following the general election a vote was held in

Tynwald Tynwald (), or more formally, the High Court of Tynwald () or Tynwald Court, is the legislature of the Isle of Man. It consists of two chambers, known as the branches of Tynwald: the directly elected House of Keys and the indirectly chosen Leg ...

to elect the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

, with 23 members voting for the continuation of Miles Walker's government, and 10 voting for

Edgar Mann Lieutenant Colonel Edgar John Mann MB (24 June 1926 – 21 June 2013) was a British politician, and Chairman of the Executive Council of the Isle of Man, the then head of the island's Government. Early life and career Born on 24 June 192 ...

. Five of those opposed to the Walker administration agreed to form the Alternative Policy Group with Mann as their leader, this was intended to function as an official opposition to the government, promoting greater autonomy for the island and more government accountability.

References

{{Manx elections

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Elections in the Isle of Man