General elections were held in the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

on 2 June 1971. The result was a victory for a

coalition A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

of the VI Democratic Party (DP) together with independent candidate Willard Wheatley over the newly formed Virgin Islands Party (VIP) led by former Chief Minister Lavity Stoutt, and incumbent BVI United Party (UP) led by Conrad Maduro. Prior to the election Stoutt had was serving as Chief Minister and leader of the UP, but due to internal divisions Stoutt left and formed his new party to contest the election against the UP and the DP, but ended up losing and being replaced by Wheatley as Chief Minister. The election was also notable for the first female candidate in a British Virgin Islands election: Millicent Mercer contested the 5th District on behalf of the VIP, but lost to Conrad Maduro. In the 7th District the former representative, Robinson O'Neal, had died in a car crash the prior year.

Results

By constituency

Appointments

Following the election: *Willard Wheatley was appointed Chief Minister and Minister for Education *Oliver Cills was appointed Minister for Communications, Works and Industry *Q.W. Osborne was appointed Minister for Natural Resources and Public Health *Lavity Stoutt became the Leader of the Opposition

References

Elections in the British Virgin Islands British Virgin

General election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

June 1971 in North America British Virgin Election and referendum articles with incomplete results {{caribbean-election-stub