Saying he wishes to give whoever wants to run to represent the Ninth District time to prepare, Opposition Leader Ralph O’Neal announced Tuesday that he doesn’t intend to run in the territory’s next elections.
Mr. O’Neal has been representing Virgin Gorda since 1975, making the 80-year-old the Virgin Islands’ longest serving representative, with 12 years as leader of the territory.
“If there is not a snap election, I will have completed 40 years by the end of this present term if I am living at that time,” Mr. O’Neal said Tuesday evening in a live broadcast on ZBVI. The territory’s next general election is due byFebruary 2016, but is likely to come near the end of next year.
Mr. O’Neal said that in his time in office, he has “made many friends” and “a few enemies,” and that he’s seen “many changes for the betterment of our people and our country.”
He credited much of the territory’s development in that time to his Virgin Islands Party, which is slated to hold internal elections Wednesday evening.
Mr. O’Neal didn’t endorse a political successor or a candidate to take over his VIP chairmanship, but he cautioned that it’s important for the party to remain unified.
See the May 29, 2014 edition for full coverage.
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