THE VALLEY, Anguilla (AP) - The governing party has won general elections in Anguilla, keeping its four-seat majority in the tiny British Caribbean territory, officials said yesterday.

The Anguilla United Front Party garnered 39 per cent of the vote in Monday's election, campaigning on recent infrastructure projects, including a US$25-million expansion of the airport.

The two main opposition parties also kept the same of numbers of seats in the legislature. The Anguilla National Strategic Alliance led by opposition leader Edison Baird held onto two seats while the Anguilla United Movement of former Chief Minister Hubert Hughes kept one seat. Both parties won 20 per cent each.

A third opposition party won nine per cent of the vote while the remaining 12 per cent was split between seven independent candidates.

Seven seats in the House of Assembly were up for grabs, with a record 25 candidates running on the island of 13,000 residents and 7,560 eligible voters. Elections take place every five years.

Elections officials reported a 74.6 per cent turnout with 5,638 residents voting. The number represented a four per cent increase compared to the 2000 elections with authorities attributing the higher turnout to more residents on voter rolls this year.

Anguilla was first colonised by English settlers from nearby St Kitts in 1650 and governed directly by Britain until the early 1800s. Anguilla was then lumped together with St Kitts and Nevis as a single dependency, but it chose to pull away and be directly governed again by Britain in 1980.

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