-
by pltm
(PLTM) - Recently re-elected Fourth District Representative, Mr. Mark Vanterpool has retired from politics.
This comes days after he successfully contested the 2019 General Elections with the National Democratic Party (NDP)—which lost the election.
Mr. Vanterpool was among the three NDP candidates that managed to be re-elected into the House of Assembly (HoA) as the Opposition.
In a statement today, March 5, Mr. Vanterpool announced, “Today, I have advised the Clerk of the House of Assembly that I wish to be excused from sitting in the next House of Assembly, due to be convened on 12th March 2019. I am aware that this would be very surprising to the residents of District 4 and the Territory, having been duly elected in the February 25th, 2019 General Elections.”
As he apologised to his constituents and supporters, Mr. Vanterpool said that his retirement is as a result of “personal reasons.”
The Former Minister of Communications and Works, who was first elected to the House in 1999, and has served four terms, went on to say, “I sincerely regret the disappointment and inconvenience that this will cause. I wish to thank all the constituents of District Four and the citizens of the Territory for allowing me to serve you for four terms in the House of Assembly. The privilege was given to me to serve two of those terms as a Minister of Government.”
Thanking his family, committee members and supporters, he stated, “I know that I have served you the people in an honest and dedicated way. I consider it an honour and privilege to have been given the opportunity to serve this great country. It was my pleasure to give back to this country which has given so much to my family and I over most of my life, from a toddler until today, having migrated with my mother and most of my siblings from the island of Anguilla.”
He added that he will be seeking to serve his country in a private capacity from this point onward.
“The people of this Territory have always been gracious and good to us. I pledge to serve my country in other ways outside of politics, God spare my life."
"I wish Premier Hon. Andrew Fahie and his team well. His Government and or any future Governments can feel free to call on me for any advice that I can share from the experience that I have gained,” he stated.
He also wished his former colleague, Hon. Marlon Penn, Leader of the Opposition well in his new role.
"I am confident that Hon. Penn will do well in this role along with the other Opposition Members."
During a recent press conference, Mr. Vanterpool had gone on record as saying, “I strongly support now our new Government and want to give them our encouragement to do their very best and we will do all that we can, both in a public and private capacity, as the Chairman said, to see that the Government is successful because the country then will be successful.”
He had further stated, “We want to ensure that we look to create more unity. I want to encourage us to work together closely and look back at the things we could do differently, the things that we could have looked at better from a transparency point of view and so on.”
-----
Copyright 2023 by Virgin Islands Platinum News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
