Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands

History

While the Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands was formed after the granting of universal suffrage in 1936, it wasn't until 1952 that the party started officially sponsoring candidates for local elections. After the passage of the Election Code of 1962, the party was officially recognized by the territory, and became formally affiliated with the national Democratic party.

Unity takeover

After the Revised Organic Act of 1954 allowed the Virgin Islands to elect its own legislature, the party quickly gained a monopoly over legislative power. Since 1954, a separate, unorganized faction of the party called the Unity Party, (also called the Mortar and Pestle Democrats) had existed and won seats in elections, winning a majority in 1962.

In 1963, according to district judge Walter A. Gordon, "the Unity Party, through a fraudulent, collusive and conspiratorial scheme attempted and was successful in taking over the Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands." The Unity Party voted to change their names to the Virgin Islands Unity-Democratic Party, to imply an affiliation with the national Democratic Party, and circulated a petition among its members to register as the Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands, and then voted itself out of existence and started using the name of the Democratic Party.

Unity Party members then successfully gained a majority of seats on the original Democratic Party's territorial committee, and consolidated power by expelling existing Democratic Party members (or Donkey Democrats) and consolidating Unity Party control.

In Alexander V. Todman in 1964, the District Court of the United States Virgin Islands declared the takeover null and void and affirmed the validity of the original leadership of the Democratic Party.{{cite court |litigants-force-plain= Alexander v. Todman |opinion=158-1963. |court=United States District Court, Virgin Islands, D. St. Thomas and St. John. |date=17 July 1964 |url= https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10526794318595968000&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr

Other ideological splinters

In 1968, Cyril King and other liberals unhappy with the takeover of Democratic Party formed a third party, the Independent Citizens Movement. It elected King governor in 1974. While most of the party's leaders eventually came back to the Democrats, the ICM still remains an important third party to this day.

Electoral performance (2010-present)

References

References

1. Arnold, N. Scott. (2009). "Imposing values: an essay on liberalism and regulation". Oxford University Press.
2. "Active-Voter-Statistics-March-2024".
3. Sekou, Malik. (2020-01-28). "A Look at the 2020 Primary Elections in the US Virgin Islands -".
4. (1982). "POLITICAL PARTIES OF THE AMERICAS". Greenwood Press.
5. (5 March 1965). "Paiewonsky Calls For Harmony After Ruling". Virgin Islands Daily News.