The People's Empowerment Party (or PEP) is a defunct

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

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 ...

, led by former

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible g ...

member for the second district Alvin Christopher. Mr Christopher has previously been elected as a representative of the Virgin Islands Party, the National Democratic Party and as an independent. It has no elected representatives and may now be defunct. The party was launched on 29 March 2014. The inaugural executive committee of the party included former People's Patriotic Alliance (PPA) member,

Natalio Wheatley Natalio Dixon Wheatley (born 2 June 1980) is a British Virgin Islands politician currently serving as Premier of the Virgin Islands, Premier of the British Virgin Islands. He is the grandson of former Chief Minister, Willard Wheatley. He has at t ...

(also known as Sowande Uhuru) as president; Elford Parsons, vice-president; Claudette Rymer, secretary; Julia Christopher, assistant secretary; Dennis Rhymer, treasurer; Lorie Rymer, public relations officer; Sunny Prince, sergeant-at-arms; and Glanville Penn, chaplain. Mr Christopher is the chairman and leader of the new party. The introduction of the party to the public included a blistering attack during on the former administration of the Virgin Islands Party, which is the party that a number of the PEP members formerly had ties to. Plans for the new political party were announced in the press in August 2013, although private discussions may have occurred much earlier. Apart from Mr Christopher, only Mr Wheatley and Mr Rymer had previously stood for political office (both unsuccessfully). In the press it was speculated that proposed candidates may include former elected VIP politicians Dancia Penn and Vernon Malone, but in the event that did not transpire. The party had announced that it intended to contest all 13 seats in the 2015 general election. Eventually the party only put 5 candidates forward, all of whom were handily defeated (including Mr Christopher, who had previously held his seat in the legislature for 20 years). In November 2016 Natalio Wheatley left the PEP to join the Virgin Islands Party, and the party fielded no candidates in the

2019 British Virgin Islands general election Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * 19 (film), ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * Nineteen (1987 film), ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * ''19-Nineteen'', a 20 ...

Footnotes

External links

Official website
{{British Virgin Islands political parties Political parties in the British Virgin Islands Political parties established in 2014 2014 establishments in the British Virgin Islands Conservative parties in dependent territories of the United Kingdom