Nov. 21, 2006 — "This is the best thing that could have happened to the Virgin Islands," Sen.-elect Carlton Dowe said Tuesday evening, following an announcement that the gubernatorial team of John deJongh and Gregory Francis had swept to victory during Tuesday's runoff election, beating out opponent Kenneth Mapp by more than 4,200 votes.
Unofficial numbers released by the V.I. Elections System at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday showed that deJongh had garnered 16,664 votes, or 57.3 percent of the 29,109 votes cast throughout the territory. Mapp and running mate Almando "Rocky" Liburd pulled in 12,402 votes, or 42.7 percent of the votes cast.
While Mapp and Liburd took an early lead Tuesday after the first set of cartridges were counted from St. Croix, the trend changed around 8 p.m. when deJongh pulled ahead, leading Mapp 6,112 votes to 4,493. DeJongh kept up the pace for the rest of the evening, stretching the lead by at least 2,000 votes.
When the final six cartridges, brought in via police escort from St. John, were counted, deJongh had pushed ahead by 4,115 votes. The additional support from St. John sealed the deal for deJongh, who clenched the win with 16,644 votes.
While approximately 800 absentee ballots, along with an unspecified number of provisional ballots, still have to be counted, Elections officials said those votes will not be enough to sway the election.
"We're probably going to begin counting them on Monday," said Lorna Thomas, a St. Thomas-St. John District Board of Elections member.
Once the numbers were announced over the radio and public television broadcasts, deJongh supporters took to the streets in celebration, cheering loudly and waving signs with pictures of the candidate. Many convened at the deJongh/Francis campaign headquarters on St. Thomas, where a live band sung, "deJongh/ Francis, they fo' we, deJongh/Francis, we irie."
Dancing to the music, supporters talked excitedly and were anxious to speak about the win to reporters.
"John played it safe, he played it clean, and that's how he got the seat," said Gladys Isles, owner of Gladys' Caf
