分类： politics

The Bahamas’ general election delivered a devastating blow to the Free National Movement (FNM) on polling day, leaving the long-established political party grappling with significant internal upheaval and growing calls for party leader Michael Pintard to step down from his post.

In the final seat count, the FNM secured only eight parliamentary seats. While the party managed to flip the Freetown and MICAL constituencies from the ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), it suffered high-profile losses that amplified the scale of its defeat. Notably, the FNM lost the St Barnabas seat; deputy party leader Shanendon Cartwright failed to win re-election in his St James constituency, and party chairman Dr. Duane Sands was defeated in his Bamboo Town race.

Pintard, who successfully retained his own Marco City seat, offered no clear confirmation that he would stay on as party leader when questioned about his political future shortly after the results were finalized. He stated that he would first hold internal consultations with the party’s senior team in the coming days before any announcement is made.

“I believe in party conventions,” Pintard told reporters. “I have always respected that process. Over my four and a half years as leader, we have held three conventions, two of which included leadership contests. I am fully committed to following the party’s constitutional process. First and foremost, though, I am committed to talking through our next steps with the party team, and in the next few days we will reach a decision and share it publicly.”

Pintard’s ambiguous remarks set the stage for what could become a competitive open leadership contest as the FNM begins the slow work of rebuilding after a second consecutive election failure where its policy platform failed to connect with Bahamian voters. The FNM’s winning candidates include J. Leo Ferguson in MICAL, Lincoln Deal in Freetown, Frazette Gibson in Central Grand Bahama, Kwasi Thompson in East Grand Bahama, Dr. Andre Rollins in Long Island, Adrian White in St Anne’s, and Michela Barnett-Ellis in Killarney, alongside Pintard in Marco City.

Shortly after the results became clear, Pintard called incumbent Prime Minister Philip Davis to congratulate him and the PLP on their election victory, formally conceding defeat. In his public concession address, Pintard paid tribute to the defeated Cartwright, calling him a close friend and brother in the party and praising his years of service to the FNM and Bahamian public.

The FNM leader emphasized that the Bahamian people had exercised their democratic right to choose their government, and the party fully accepted the outcome of the vote. “The people of the Bahamas have spoken, and we accept their decision,” he said. “That is how democracy works. We put forward our platform, we ask voters for their trust, we count every ballot, and we honor the final result. That has always been the Bahamian way, and tonight we honor that tradition once again.”

He thanked voters who cast their ballots for FNM candidates, noting that the party had grown its caucus size in Parliament compared to the previous term, adding that official final results would be confirmed the following day. Pintard framed the election loss as a temporary setback, not a rejection of the core values the FNM campaigned on.

“You believe in a different kind of government,” he said, addressing supporters. “You believed in honest, accountable government that acts fairly in all its dealings, fairly in awarding government contracts. You believed in a Bahamas that works for every one of our people. That belief did not lose tonight. That belief endures, and it will outlast every election that comes.”

Throughout the campaign, the FNM positioned itself as the standard-bearer for clean, transparent governance, but the 2024 defeat leaves the party grappling with urgent questions about its electoral strategy, leadership direction, and ability to build broad voter support following its 2021 general election loss. Even constituencies political observers had tipped as potential PLP losses, including seats in Abaco, were retained by the incumbent government. The Abaco race drew controversy before voting day, after revelations emerged that the PLP government had distributed more than $200,000 in gift cards funded by the Ministry of Finance to residents under the names of PLP candidates and officials, framed as Hurricane Dorian disaster relief – a move the opposition decried as blatant vote-buying.

In his address to supporters, Pintard urged all FNM backers not to lose heart, speaking directly to young party members, long-time loyalists, and unsuccessful candidates. He invoked the legacy of former FNM Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, reminding the crowd that the party’s founding mission to advance government accountability and transparency did not end with Ingraham’s retirement, nor would it end with this election defeat. He confirmed that the FNM would now step into its constitutional role as His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, where it would hold the new PLP government accountable and carefully scrutinize its legislative and policy agenda.

When asked whether the Coalition of Independents (COI) and unaffiliated independent candidates split the opposition vote and aided the PLP’s victory, Pintard confirmed that his pre-election warning had been borne out. “It was clear that not just the COI, but independents as well, helped the PLP,” he said. “We made this point repeatedly during the campaign: a vote for COI or a vote for an independent is a vote that ultimately helps the PLP. We see that very clearly now.”

That comment signals a likely line of internal debate that will emerge as FNM officials conduct their post-election review, with some expected to argue that third-party candidates contributed to the party’s poor performance.

Pintard closed his remarks by thanking the FNM’s extensive network of campaign workers, volunteers, financial donors, national headquarters staff, all candidates, and their families for their dedication and sacrifice throughout the election cycle. “To my wife and daughter, I want to say a special thank you, but the truth is, every one of our candidates has spouses and loved ones who stood with them,” he said. “To all of you who have stood beside and behind these candidates and workers, we extend a special thank you for the sacrifices you made, the price you paid right alongside them.”

He also offered a final note of gratitude to the voters of Marco City, who re-elected him to Parliament. “To the people of Marco City who have honored me with the privilege of representing you again, I want to say thank you,” he said. “I will continue to serve you with everything that I have. To every one of you in this room tonight, I recognize every day that I stand on your shoulders, that you have given me the rarest of opportunities to serve our community, and I will do so vigilantly.”

In yesterday’s Bahamian general election, the upstart Coalition of Independents (COI) left a lasting mark on the country’s political landscape even though it failed to secure a single parliamentary seat. The minor third party proved it can no longer be ignored by the nation’s two dominant political forces — the ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and opposition Free National Movement (FNM) — after siphoning off thousands of protest votes that would likely have bolstered the FNM’s bid to unseat incumbents, most notably across the key island of New Providence.

COI’s strongest showing of the cycle came in the Pinewood constituency, where party leader Lincoln Bain came astonishingly close to ousting sitting PLP representative Myles Laroda. Early vote projections that placed Bain in the lead sent social media platforms into a frenzy, as observers watched a minor party candidate mount a historic challenge to a major party incumbent. When all ballots were finally counted, Laroda retained his seat by a narrow margin of 314 votes, earning 1,446 ballots to Bain’s 1,132. FNM candidate Denarii Rolle finished a distant third behind Bain — marking the first time in history that a COI candidate outpolled a major party nominee in a constituency race.

For Bain personally, the 2024 result represents a dramatic improvement over his 2021 general election performance in Pinewood, where he earned just 579 votes, or roughly 17% of the total vote share. The party’s growing traction was visible across other constituencies as well. In Englerston, COI candidate Faith Percentie also outperformed FNM nominee Heather McDonald, even as long-serving PLP incumbent Glenys Hanna-Martin held onto the seat for a sixth consecutive term. Across multiple races, COI candidates crossed the 10% vote threshold required to retain their candidate deposits — a key metric that proves the party built a tangible, sustained base of support rather than just appearing on the ballot. That bloc is overwhelmingly made up of Bahamian voters who hold deep frustration with the country’s two established major parties.

Long before polls opened, FNM Leader and Opposition Leader Michael Pintard warned that COI and independent candidates would split the anti-incumbent opposition vote, handing an advantage to the ruling PLP. After conceding his party’s poor election showing, Pintard reaffirmed that assessment, noting “a vote for the COI or a vote for an independent, it’s a vote for the PLP. So, we understand that clearly.”

COI’s rapid rise in Bahamian politics has been fueled by a hardline platform focused on immigration reform and widespread public distrust of the traditional political establishment. Over the past five years, the party has consistently captured more public attention and momentum than the official opposition FNM, a shift that upended the country’s traditional two-party dynamic.

Following the release of final election results, Bain pushed back against former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham’s longstanding claim that election results in The Bahamas cannot be stolen. Bain alleged that Laroda’s final vote total “jumped” unexpectedly during the vote tabulation process, contradicting earlier on-the-ground trends that pointed to a Bain victory in Pinewood. He specifically raised questions about the handling of advanced poll ballots, claiming election officials failed to maintain proper chain of accountability while counting votes.

Despite challenging the legitimacy of the Pinewood outcome, Bain urged his supporters to remain optimistic, framing political change as a long-term project that requires sustained organizing and sacrifice. “Nothing worth having is easy,” he told supporters. “The fight has just begun.” He called on COI backers to deepen their involvement in future electoral cycles, urging them to serve as poll observers and participate in recounts to strengthen the party’s electoral oversight. “You cannot go to war without enough soldiers,” he said. “We shouldn’t have one poll that doesn’t have three people watching.”

Bain framed his current dispute over electoral procedures as part of a broader, generations-long push for electoral reform in The Bahamas, drawing parallels to past landmark changes won by the two major parties. “The PLP didn’t win until they lobbied for one man, one vote,” he noted. “The FNM had to get the purple finger system going on to stop people from voting several times.” He argued that the current flaws in the country’s electoral process demand the same level of organizing and advocacy to address.

On general election day across the country, voting operations in most electoral districts unfolded far more smoothly than pre-election forecasts had warned, though persistent issues with voter roll inaccuracies have validated longstanding opposition concerns about the integrity of the electoral registry ahead of the vote. A field survey conducted by The Tribune across polling stations nationwide found that most voters waited less than an hour to cast their ballots, with many completing the process in just a handful of minutes.

The majority of polling locations opened on schedule, voting lines moved at a consistent pace, and numerous voters commended the overall administrative organization of the election. That said, scattered issues including mismatches in the voter register, insufficient ballot supplies, unexpected delays, and accessibility challenges were reported throughout voting day.

The most common grievance centered on voters whose names were missing from their local voting register, voters incorrectly assigned to constituencies they did not reside in, and approved voter transfers that were never updated in the official registry.

At Yellow Elder Primary School, a polling location serving the St Barnabas constituency, Michael Halkitis, candidate for the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), noted that multiple voters who had applied for transfers found their changes had never been finalized. “Some of them just voted in the constituency where they appeared because the transfer was not finalised, so you had some of them, but by and large, a very smooth process,” Halkitis told The Tribune. He added that voter turnout was consistent through the morning, with the earlier advanced polling likely reducing election day turnout numbers. When asked why affected voters rarely opted to file protest ballots, he explained that most avoid the option out of a belief that protest ballots are never officially counted.

Parallel issues emerged in the Golden Isles constituency, where Free National Movement (FNM) candidate Brian Brown documented cases of voters who held valid voter ID cards but could not find their names on the register at the Anatol Rodgers High School polling station. Brown confirmed that several of these impacted voters were ultimately forced to cast protest ballots.

Complaints about the flawed voter register also spread rapidly across social media platforms. Local voter Shadai Toote shared a live video detailing her experience: she had submitted a transfer request from St Barnabas to Fort Charlotte back in March, but was ultimately incorrectly assigned to Bains and Grants Town — a constituency where she has never lived. “It’s like appalling to me,” Toote said. “I can’t begin to fathom that we’ve had four plus years to get prepared for something like this, and they still dropped the ball, so I’m being advised that I can’t vote in the constituency I’m in because I’m not on any of their registries.”

Similar reports came from Abaco, where multiple voters opted to forgo voting entirely after discovering they had been assigned to the wrong constituency. Jobeth Coleby-Davis, PLP candidate for the Elizabeth constituency, confirmed her campaign team had received multiple complaints about incorrect constituency assignments. “They’ve been noticing it. And I think when those incidents come up, they speak with the returning officer, the presiding officer, to see how they would allow it to move ahead,” she said.

Heather Hunt, FNM candidate for Elizabeth, shared one voter’s experience: the voter’s card correctly listed Elizabeth as their constituency, but their name appeared on the register for a different district. “They were sent to another constituency because that’s where the name appears on the register, and they had already tow the line and everything for almost half an hour,” Hunt said. “So that frustration we’re hearing, but you know, that person just is determined to, you know, exercise their right to vote, and so they just decided that they’re going to take that drive and go to the other constituency where their name is.”

One of the most significant disruptions arose in Long Island, where FNM candidate Andre Rollins reported that Polling Division Nine, the island’s largest voting district, received 60 fewer ballots than the number of registered voters assigned to the location. “The fact that it’s the largest polling division means that it is curious that the Parliamentary Registration Department would send much fewer number of ballots than the number of people who are on the register,” Rollins said. “We have 360 plus persons on the register here on polling division number nine. However, they included only 300 white paper ballots in polling division nine ballot box when they send it from New Providence here to Long Island.”

Rollins noted that legal guidance provided to the FNM suggested the polling station should not have opened at all, as the shortage put eligible voters at risk of being disenfranchised. The issue was ultimately resolved by reallocating surplus ballots from three smaller nearby polling divisions — 25 extra ballots were pulled from each of Divisions Three, Four and Eight, bringing Division Nine’s total ballot count up to 375.

Ballot shortages were also reported on New Providence. In Fort Charlotte’s Polling Division One, voting was delayed for nearly 45 minutes after the station exhausted its initial ballot supply and had to wait for additional stock to be delivered.

Not all voting experiences were marred by issues, however. At Jordan Prince-Williams Baptist School, Bamboo Town resident Darren Sinclaire described his voting experience as efficient and well-organized, noting that he and his elderly mother completed the entire process in roughly eight minutes. When asked if he felt anxious after hearing widespread warnings about voter register errors ahead of election day, Sinclaire said: “Yeah, I was, because I heard a lot of errors on the register and stuff like that, so I wondered if there would be any error on our parts, but everything went pretty smooth.”

In Fort Charlotte, voter Nadia Benaby arrived at the CC Sweeting Senior High School polling station at 8:45 a.m. and finished voting by 9:15 a.m. She called the experience the smoothest voting process she had participated in across six general elections. At the same polling location, though, FNM candidate Travis Robinson highlighted concerns including late delivery of ballots.

Voters across multiple other constituencies, including Freetown, Centerville, Garden Hills and Carmichael, reported average wait times of 20 minutes or less, reflecting that the majority of voting operations ran according to plan.