In a Press Conference held yesterday Tuesday May 2nd, Premier Natalio Wheatley confirmed that the First sitting of the 5th House of Assembly will convene on Thursday May 18th. No information was given on who would hold the seat of Speaker. The Premier is presently out of the Territory on official travel.   

Honourable Lorna Smith OBE has been appointed Acting Premier while the Premier, Dr. The Honourable Natalio is out of the Territory. The Premier left on official travel today, Wednesday May 3rd, for the Coronation of the King, King Charles lll. He will also attend high level meetings with the UK, of which, Honourable Lorna Smith is also expected to be a part of that delegation. She will leave the Territory over the coming weekend.  In both of their absence, Honourable Vincent Wheatley, ...

His Excellency Governor John J. Rankin CMG will be out of the Territory until May 14, 2023. Deputy Governor David Archer has been appointed Acting Governor in accordance with section 37 (1) (a) of the Virgin Islands Constitution Order 2007 which states, “During any period when the office of Governor is vacant, or the Governor is absent from the Virgin Islands or is for any other reason unable to perform the functions of his or her office, the Deputy Governor shall during Her Majesty&r...

In a press conference held yesterday April 27th, it was confirmed that Honourable Julian Fraser played a major role in the delay of, and ultimately causing a coalition government not to be formed between the NDP, the PVIM and himself. Honourable Fraser confirmed during the press conference that his position to the VIP was head or no deal. While Honourable Skelton fell short of confirming whether Honourable Fraser or anyone on Fraser’s team made the same demands to the PVIM, At Large e...

Yesterday April 20th was Advance Polling Day across the Territory, which saw some 1400 plus persons turning out to cast their votes. Based on results provided by the Supervisor of Elections, Scherrie Griffin, at the end of the day yesterday, numbers across districts were up compared to the 2019 elections. Some Districts experienced as much as a 58% increase in voter turnout. Numbers indicate that yesterday saw 1436 valid ballots counted compared to just 1121 in 2019, an increase of 25%. While a...

Information reaching our newsroom indicates that the Honourable Melvin Mitch Turnbull has racked up an $8k phone bill while out of the Territory on official business. We understand the expense occurred while on travel to Portugal and Israel for the UNC COP 2022 Conference. The Minister was out of Territory for two weeks. Initially, there was much conversation around the Minister’s ticket cost to attend the event. However, the Minister did suggest on a few occasions that the benefits to ...

Section 86 of the Constitution was invoked by the Governor, calling the 4th House of Assembly back into session on Monday, April 17th, 2023. The unprecedented and history-making move saw all Members back in the House to ‘fix’ an error made during the Fast Tracking and Regularisation, Andrew Fahie-led initiative of 2019.

I have now had the opportunity to review the Immigration and Passport (Amendment Act, No. 5 of 2019, and Immigration and Passport (Amendment (No. 2) Act of 2019 (thanks again to the source). NB: These Amendment Acts are no longer in force. They contained sunset clauses and ceased to apply on 1st February 2020 once the fast-track process concluded. The pertinent section of the Immigration and Passport Act (the principal Act is section 16). Section 16 (2) provides three ways for a person to qualif...

Under a “fast-track” programme launched in July 2019, the BVI Government processed 1,321 new applications for belongership and 320 backlogged applications. Of those applications, 1,273 persons were approved. The public has recently been informed that of the 1,273, 688 of these approvals were invalid, as they did not meet at least one criterion of the application criteria. Many of these 688 persons have been registered to vote and if not fixed, may taint the upcoming elections and open the el...