The voters have spoken loud and clear.
Monday’s election, which saw a strong turnout and drew praise from independent observers, gave the incumbent National Democratic Party an overwhelming mandate to lead the territory for another term.
The landslide 11-to-two victory suggests that voters are largely pleased with the NDP administration’s record over the past three and a half years, though it may also reflect disillusionment with a young Virgin Islands Party that has struggled to find its footing under new leadership.
Whatever voters’ motivations, the result has broken a 12-year span of one-term administrations under which the territory has suffered from frequent policy reversals. Whenever a new government took power during that time, too many projects stalled, too many contracts were broken, and too many plans were scrapped unnecessarily.
The NDP now has an opportunity that no government has had since the VIP’s 17-year reign was broken in 2003. The party must make the most of it.
To a large extent, this means continuing on the path that seems to have earned voters’ approval. Certainly, the party has presided over some important successes recently, including completing the new hospital, tightening fiscal accountability measures, completing the cruise ship pier, and commissioning a long-term plan for diversifying financial services.
Other initiatives are scheduled to be finished soon, though they are certain to bring new challenges: Sewage treatment plants, national health insurance, and the landside cruise pier development are all among the projects that the NDP asked voters to be allowed to continue.
But the party’s recent record is not without blemish, and we caution its members against interpreting the strong victory as a mandate to proceed unilaterally without wide public support.
On the contrary, the party should double down on a promise that it stressed much more often in the 2011 campaign than this year: to transparently involve the community in its decision-making.
In this respect, the NDP still has work to do.
For instance, a now-scuttled cruise pier deal drew scathing criticism from the auditor general for a lack of transparency, a failure to properly involve the public, and potential conflict of interest — and the current deal only partially rectified the auditor’s concerns.
Another example is the administration’s most expensive proposal: an airport expansion that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. In spite of a few early public meetings on the project, at which few details were provided, the discussion thus far has been carried out mostly behind closed doors, and the government has not made public a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis evaluating the wisdom of the plan.
Meanwhile, though the premier has made himself available to the media through regular press conferences, promised freedom-of-information legislation and other transparency measures have not come about.
Accordingly, we call on the government to use the next four years not only to proceed with planned initiatives, but to increase transparency, improve governance at all levels, and include the public in its plans as much as possible.
Such efforts will be particularly important because of the small size of the opposition, both of whose members will need to bring their extensive experience to bear while working overtime to hold the government accountable. They will face many challenges — including an inability to command a majority in the Public Accounts Committee — but they have another opportunity to shine while strengthening their party.
The candidates who lost on Monday should also lend their support. Though they didn’t succeed at the polls, there is no reason why they have to be in the HOA to make the territory a better place. They might start by setting up non-profit organisations designed to advocate for particular causes.
Meanwhile, the VIP has some serious questions to ask itself, including whether its new leader, Julian Fraser, should step aside after the landslide loss. The next election may seem to be a long way off, but if the veteran party hopes to rebuild and make a strong showing, it will need to start now.
The same goes for independents and the fledgling People’s Empowerment Party, which seemed to struggle in part because of its scramble to pull together in a short time. For the health of VI politics, a strong second party is urgently needed at the very least.
In the coming term, all citizens should diligently hold their elected leaders accountable to the many promises they made during the campaign season.
Most of these pledges seem sound: If they are carried out transparently with the public’s support, the territory stands to benefit greatly over the next four years.
Now that a divisive campaign season is over, it is time to reconcile and move forward together for the common good.
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