But her claims seemed to have landed on infertile ground with the VIP who clapped back at the Junior Minister a few short hours after she issued a press release announcing her departure from the party yesterday, February 12.

The first-term lawmaker said the VIP’s constitution made it abundantly clear that any incumbent party member in the House of Assembly (HOA) desirous of re-election under the banner of the party is entitled to do so once they have informed the executive by the deadline prescribed.

And according to Flax-Charles, she fulfilled the basic requirements outlined in Section 4 of the VIP’s constitution and made her intention known to the party’s secretary. “I could not [meet] the deadline which Section 1 makes mention of as to date none has been communicated, at least not to me,” Flax-Charles asserted.

However, the VIP maintained that, as was stated previously by Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley, the paperwork submitted by Flax-Charles never satisfied the party’s requirements.

“Flax-Charles received written correspondence of what needed to be rectified, and to date has made no attempts to do so,” the VIP said in a response to her resignation.

Not resigning from government

In the meantime, the lawmaker responded with an emphatic ‘no’ when asked by BVI News whether her departure meant she would also be resigning as Junior Minister and from the government as well.

It is unclear what steps if any, the VIP may now take in the remaining weeks ahead of general elections given that there may still be several HOA sittings remaining.

However, the party was keen to express its gratitude for the lawmaker’s service during her time in office and said it wished her the best in her future endeavours.

The VIP is expected to hold a ‘special convention’ in the coming weeks to ratify candidates for Districts Two and Three and now, an additional Territorial At-Large candidate.