the 4 at large seats are a comparatively recent innovation in british virgin islands politics. they were introduced under some pressure from the british foreign and commonwealth office in the mid-1990s. the rationale behind their introduction was that there was a risk that constituency seats can become too closely tied to a particular local figure, and that if a certain number of local figures join the same political party, then the voters have no real choice in selection of their government. under the proposals any person in the territory could stand as an at large candidate, and each voter would have four at large votes in addition to their constituency vote. the four at large candidates who received the highest total number of votes would be elected to the legislative council.