Carib Scope

分类： politics

  • PM says economic reform to be homegrown, people-focused

    PM says economic reform to be homegrown, people-focused

    Five months after taking office as St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ (SVG) fifth prime minister, Godwin Friday — who also serves as minister of finance — has announced a deliberate, rules-based strategy to address the Caribbean nation’s worsening debt crisis and fragile fiscal position. The plan was unveiled Tuesday during a joint press conference in Kingstown held at the conclusion of an Article IV consultation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Washington-based global financial institution.

    Friday emphasized that SVG cannot rely on passive waiting for economic challenges to resolve on their own, a sharp break from the fiscal trajectory of the previous Unity Labour Party administration, which held power from 2001 until November 2024. Current projections paint a stark picture of the nation’s finances: SVG’s debt-to-GDP ratio already sits at 113% for 2025, and if no policy changes are made, that figure is expected to climb to 145% by 2031. The country has been classified at high risk of debt distress since 2016, and ongoing external shocks including soaring global oil prices and persistent inflation, paired with lingering recovery costs from recent natural disasters, have pushed the already precarious fiscal situation to a breaking point.

    While Friday confirmed the IMF is providing critical technical support to the reform effort, he stressed that the stabilisation programme will be fully homegrown, with national ownership at its core. “We will implement, we will develop, devise, of course with your technical assistance, our homegrown economic stabilisation programme that will ensure that we have national ownership of the recovery journey on which we are embarking,” the prime minister said. “We are on that journey.”

    A core principle guiding the government’s approach is social fairness, Friday added, noting that any fiscal adjustment must prioritize protecting SVG’s most vulnerable communities, who bear the brunt of rising prices and economic instability first. “It is not just a balance sheet matter… it involves people’s lives,” Friday said of the government’s framework. “The costs of these higher oil prices and higher costs of inflation and so forth… will not be borne disproportionately by those persons who are most vulnerable, because they’re the ones who feel it first. Protection of the most vulnerable are central to any reform efforts.”

    To deliver accountability and transparency, the government will establish a legally backed rules-based fiscal framework with clear, measurable targets. Key milestones include reaching a 3% primary surplus as a share of GDP by 2029, and aligning the nation’s fiscal practices with the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU)’s 60% debt-to-GDP benchmark. Friday acknowledged the 3% surplus target is ambitious, requiring an 11 percentage point turnaround in the coming years, but noted similar shifts have been achieved in other nations, and the ambitious timeline is necessary to put SVG on a sustainable path.

    The prime minister welcomed the IMF’s balanced, collaborative approach to the partnership, saying it aligned with the government’s focus on balancing fiscal responsibility with inclusive economic growth. “We’re prepared to do what is necessary here in a way that is going to set our country on a path towards fiscal responsibility, but also one that generates growth… and that we do so in a way that is both responsible and sustainable,” Friday said.

  • Ambulance Delivered to Glanvilles Polyclinic

    Ambulance Delivered to Glanvilles Polyclinic

    As campaign activity ramps up ahead of the upcoming April 30 general election, a critical improvement to local emergency medical care has been rolled out for the St. Philip’s North community. Randy Baltimore, the candidate running for the constituency on the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) ticket, has confirmed that a new fully operational ambulance has been delivered to Glanvilles Polyclinic, a move designed to strengthen the area’s emergency response infrastructure.

    Baltimore emphasized that the arrival of this new vehicle addresses a longstanding gap in local healthcare access, directly cutting down response times for medical crises. When every minute counts for patients experiencing life-threatening emergencies, faster on-scene assistance can mean the difference between life and death, he noted. For Baltimore and the ABLP, this deployment is more than just an infrastructure upgrade: it represents tangible progress in delivering on promises to constituents. “This is what progress looks like, building systems that protect lives and support our people when it matters most,” Baltimore stated in remarks confirming the new service.

    Healthcare access and quality have emerged as one of the defining issues in this election cycle, with nearly all major candidates prioritizing improvements to public health services on their campaign platforms. Voters across the country have increasingly ranked reliable emergency care and functional primary health facilities among their top concerns heading into the poll, making announcements like this a key part of candidates’ efforts to demonstrate their commitment to addressing community needs.

  • IMF urges SVG not to cut VAT rate

    IMF urges SVG not to cut VAT rate

    Five months after the New Democratic Party (NDP) took power in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) on a platform of tackling a nationwide cost-of-living crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has thrown a major wrench into one of the administration’s signature campaign pledges: a planned cut to the country’s standard value-added tax (VAT) rate.

    Appearing at a joint press conference with SVG Prime Minister and Finance Minister Godwin Friday in Kingstown Tuesday, at the close of the IMF’s 2026 Article IV consultation, mission chief Sergei Antoshin made clear that the nation’s dire fiscal position leaves no room for the proposed reduction, which the NDP promised would cut VAT from 16% to 13% within 60 days of taking office. Instead, Antoshin argued, the country should align its discounted preferential VAT rate for the tourism sector with the full standard rate to boost much-needed revenue.

    Antoshin emphasized that safeguarding existing tax revenues and strengthening tax administration are non-negotiable priorities for SVG, which has faced a steady cascade of economic shocks over the past six years that have sent public debt soaring and left persistent large fiscal deficits. He commended the NDP administration’s ongoing efforts to expand VAT coverage to digital and remote services, as well as its planned reform of real property taxation, noting that these reforms would lay the groundwork for a fairer, more growth-oriented tax system.

    The IMF’s assessment lays bare the severity of SVG’s long-building fiscal crisis. Since 2019, the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio has jumped 45 percentage points, with half of that increase coming in just the last two years, pushing debt to 113% of GDP in 2025. SVG has been classified at high risk of debt distress since 2016, and its persistent exposure to catastrophic natural disasters has compounded its fragility. After the COVID-19 pandemic, two major hurricanes, and now the global oil price shock stemming from the Middle East conflict, the fiscal position has deteriorated steadily, hitting low-income and vulnerable households the hardest, Antoshin explained.

    “SVG has shown remarkable economic resilience in the face of repeated blows, but significant fiscal vulnerabilities remain deeply entrenched,” Antoshin said. “Large ongoing deficits and a continuously rising debt load leave no question that decisive policy action is urgently required to reverse this trajectory.”

    For 2026, the SVG government’s February budget projects a deficit equal to 19% of GDP. IMF analysts project a smaller but still unsustainable 12% deficit this year, based on historical trends of under-execution of capital spending. If current policies remain unchanged, Antoshin warned, the debt-to-GDP ratio will surge to 145% by 2031, with annual gross financing needs reaching 26% of GDP – a trajectory that would ultimately lead to a disorderly fiscal collapse without intervention.

    To avoid that outcome, the IMF has put forward an “active policy scenario” designed to reverse the growth of debt within three years and bring it down to a sustainable 60% of GDP over the long term. The plan calls for ambitious urgent fiscal consolidation, requiring an 11 percentage point improvement in the primary balance (the fiscal balance excluding interest payments) between 2027 and 2029. That adjustment would put the country on track to reach a 3% primary surplus by 2029 – a level that is high by SVG’s historical standards, but one that has been achieved by peer nations in the Caribbean region, Antoshin noted.

    Antoshin confirmed that the NDP administration and the IMF agree on the urgent need for consolidation, and that the government has already drafted a comprehensive strategic framework to put debt on a downward path. The next critical step, he said, is to identify and detail specific, concrete policy measures to hit the targets. To that end, the government has requested IMF technical support to conduct a full review of public spending, designed to identify opportunities to streamline outlays while protecting support for vulnerable households.

    Key areas for spending adjustment include the public wage bill, which Antoshin said is high relative to both SVG’s own history and international benchmarks. He proposed gradual adjustments through natural attrition and wage moderation to bring the wage bill into line without sudden disruptions to public services. Antoshin added that while social protection for vulnerable populations must be preserved, the government can improve outcomes by digitizing assistance programs to better target beneficiaries and reduce wasteful leakage of funds.

    The IMF also backed the government’s plans to review national investment policy and strengthen public investment management, urging SVG to prioritize spending on critical infrastructure and natural disaster resilience, while avoiding inefficient investments in marketable assets that can create harmful economic distortions.

    For its part, the NDP government has already signaled it is stepping back from its original VAT campaign promise. When presenting the 2026 budget in February, Prime Minister Friday announced the administration would delay any decision on a VAT cut until later this year, leaving the campaign pledge in limbo amid the IMF’s stark warnings about fiscal sustainability.

  • Call for regional push towards renewable energy

    Call for regional push towards renewable energy

    Against a backdrop of skyrocketing global oil prices fueled by ongoing conflict in the Middle East, a top Cayman Islands official has issued a urgent call for Caribbean countries to abandon their long-standing reliance on expensive imported fossil fuels and pivot toward the region’s abundant untapped renewable energy resources.

    Cayman Islands Finance and Economic Development Minister Rolston Anglin, who also holds the education and training portfolio, delivered the call Tuesday during the opening ceremony of the Organization of Caribbean Utility Regulators (OOCUR) 2026 Conference, which is being hosted this year at Jamaica’s Ocean Coral Spring Resort in Trelawny. The conference, running through May 1 under the theme “Navigating Caribbean Regulatory Challenges: Opportunities, Innovations and Collaborations,” brings together regional policymakers and energy regulators to address pressing sectoral challenges.

    Anglin pointed out that Caribbean nations have depended on imported fossil fuels for generations, leaving household budgets and national economies extremely vulnerable to every swing in global commodity prices. “This dependence is a vulnerability we have accepted as permanent. It is not,” he told attendees, highlighting that the region is naturally endowed with high-potential renewable resources—from abundant sunlight and steady winds to geothermal energy—that have yet to be developed at a large scale.

    Beyond environmental benefits, Anglin framed the shift to renewables as a critical economic and national security priority for the region. “The raw materials for transformation are here. What is required now is the regulatory architecture to unlock investment, protect consumers, ensure grid stability, and attract the partnerships needed to move from ambition to reality,” he said, adding that regional energy regulators hold consequential leverage to drive this transition.

    Speaking on behalf of Jamaican Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, Minister without Portfolio Andrew Wheatley, who oversees science, technology and special projects, outlined Jamaica’s ongoing progress in building out alternative energy capacity. To accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels, Jamaica has cut import taxes on electric vehicles to boost adoption of clean mobility, and is scaling up solar photovoltaic systems paired with battery storage as a core renewable energy strategy.

    Wheatley noted that private investment in residential and commercial solar systems has grown in Jamaica, driven by both cost-saving incentives and rising public awareness of climate change risks. He echoed Anglin’s assessment that persistent heavy dependence on imported fossil fuels has left Caribbean nations with some of the world’s highest electricity prices, squeezing both household finances and business competitiveness. He also reiterated a longstanding regional point: while Caribbean countries contribute a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions, they bear the brunt of climate change impacts, most notably through increasingly powerful and destructive hurricane seasons.

    Anglin emphasized that cross-border and cross-stakeholder collaboration is the foundation of successful regional energy transition. He called on fellow regional government leaders across all jurisdictions represented at the conference to strengthen partnerships with independent energy regulatory bodies, incorporate their on-the-ground expertise into policy design, and provide these institutions with the funding, clear mandates, and political backing they need to operate effectively.

    Organizations such as OOCUR, he added, offer an invaluable platform for cross-border knowledge sharing that regional policymakers should actively leverage to accelerate progress. Anglin also highlighted a critical gap holding back the transition: many regional governments, including his own in the Cayman Islands, have not yet recognized the full economic value of well-resourced, technically skilled independent energy regulators. Underfunding or sidelining these institutions, he warned, slows broad national development and prevents the region from unlocking the full economic and environmental potential of its renewable energy endowments.

  • JLP condemns Brown Burke for touching Parliament’s mace

    JLP condemns Brown Burke for touching Parliament’s mace

    KINGSTON, Jamaica — A fiery parliamentary dispute has erupted in Jamaica following an extraordinary incident during a debate on critical hurricane recovery legislation, with the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) issuing a harsh rebuke of opposition Member of Parliament Angela Brown Burke. The controversy stems from Brown Burke’s physical contact with the ceremonial mace during a Committee of the Whole House sitting convened to review clauses of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Bill.

    In an official press statement released Wednesday, the JLP emphasized that interfering with the mace during parliamentary proceedings constitutes a flagrant violation of the legislature’s Standing Orders, qualifying as overt disorderly conduct. Across all Commonwealth parliamentary systems, the JLP noted, the act of touching or tampering with the ceremonial mace during an official committee sitting is recognized as a severe breach of parliamentary privilege and long-standing procedural etiquette. Standard protocol for such a violation, the party added, typically warrants immediate suspension, expulsion from the parliamentary chamber, and potential further disciplinary action.

    The ceremonial mace, the JLP explained, stands as a tangible symbol of the inherent authority of the Speaker of the House and the Jamaican Parliament as a whole. Any deliberate interference with the object is therefore legally and procedurally classified as contempt of Parliament, a serious charge against any sitting legislator.

    The controversy does not end with the mace incident, according to the ruling party. After Speaker Juliet Holness named Brown Burke for her conduct and issued an order suspending her for the remainder of the sitting, the MP initially refused to comply with the directive to leave the chamber. This act of defiance, the JLP confirmed, represents a second distinct breach of parliamentary Standing Orders.

    Senator Abka Fitz-Henley, JLP Communication Chairman, framed the incident as an unacceptable attack on the integrity of parliamentary business. “MP Brown Burke’s conduct in disrupting the sitting of the House of Representatives is unacceptable and a disgrace,” Fitz-Henley said in the statement. “Her action was a clear attempt to disrupt the business of the Parliament, which was in the process of treating with a Bill, which is crucial to assist Jamaicans to recover from the devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa.”

    Fitz-Henley also extended criticism to Brown Burke’s colleagues in the opposition People’s National Party (PNP), accusing the party of enabling the disorder. When the order to expel Brown Burke was issued, PNP MPs stood between the opposition legislator and parliamentary officials to block her departure from the chamber. The ruling party spokesman called this collective action proof that the PNP cannot be trusted to conduct the nation’s public business in a responsible, appropriate manner. He also took aim at PNP leader and opposition chief Mark Golding, arguing that Golding’s failure to immediately intervene to force Brown Burke to comply with procedural rules was entirely consistent with the party’s pattern of poor conduct.

    The incident capped off a chaotic late-night session at Jamaica’s Gordon House, the seat of the country’s parliament, deepening partisan tensions ahead of further consideration of the NaRRA Bill.

  • Grand Cay BPL bills wiped ahead of vote

    Grand Cay BPL bills wiped ahead of vote

    Weeks before the Bahamas’ upcoming general election, hundreds of residents on Grand Cay in Abaco have woken up to a life-changing change: their long-accumulated electricity debt balances have been cleared entirely to zero. The sweeping debt relief comes days after Prime Minister Philip Davis made a campaign-focused visit to the hurricane-ravaged island, where he promised residents he would address their crippling billing crisis that has lingered for years.

    For long-time resident Jeremy Albury, the relief wiped out $13,500 in accumulated debt that had hung over his head since Hurricane Dorian hit the region in 2019. Fellow resident Barry Albury summed up the overwhelming joy of many in the community, saying “I felt like it was Christmas in April.” Screenshots of local community group chats shared across the island show widespread celebration, with dozens of residents joking that the holiday season had arrived months early alongside the unexpected debt cancellation.

    But the sudden, last-minute intervention has immediately drawn sharp questions from critics and residents alike, who question whether the policy is a pre-election tactic to sway voter turnout rather than a long-overdue fix for a systemic problem. Under the Bahamas’ Parliamentary Elections Act, providing gifts, cash or other benefits to voters with the goal of influencing their ballot choice is a criminal offense, a regulation that is expected to draw increased scrutiny in the wake of this announcement.

    In an official statement defending the move, the Davis administration framed the debt cancellation as a resolution to a decades-old billing crisis sparked by overlapping disasters. The government explained that normal billing and collection operations were completely upended after Hurricane Dorian tore through Abaco, and subsequent disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic compounded the problem. During that period, residents faced widespread financial hardship, limited access to in-person banking services, and strict travel and business restrictions that made paying bills nearly impossible for many. The administration also noted that under the previous government, residents were explicitly told they would not be required to pay their accumulated balances during the emergency period, but system administrators continued to add the charges to resident accounts anyway.

    After reviewing the issue, the government determined that the ballooning balances were entirely the result of circumstances outside of consumers’ control. To resolve the crisis, the state will absorb all eligible outstanding balances through an offsetting agreement with national utility provider Bahamas Power and Light, placing no financial burden on affected residents. Officials described the move as part of a broader pledge to fix unfinished problems inherited from the previous administration, rather than an election-year stunt.

    This debt relief effort comes on the heels of a separate recent report from The Tribune that revealed the Bahamian government, not the ruling Progressive Liberal Party, funded more than $200,000 in gift certificates distributed to Abaco residents via local distributor Premier Importers, according to the company’s chief executive. To date, the Davis administration has not issued any formal response to those claims, with Communications Director Latrae Rahming only confirming that the prime minister would address reporters at a future, unannounced date.

    Local residents confirm that the massive electricity bills first began accumulating after Hurricane Dorian destroyed much of Abaco’s infrastructure, when routine billing stopped entirely and unpaid charges compounded over the years. Some residents reported seeing total balances exceed $60,000, a sum far out of reach for most low-income households on the island. During a town hall meeting with Grand Cay residents last week, Davis acknowledged the crippling burden the debt placed on the community, promised to clear the balances and committed to delivering additional housing renovation supplies to the area.

    Jeremy Albury, who has helped distribute the new housing supplies to residents, confirmed the prime minister kept his promise ahead of schedule. “So said, so done,” he said, adding that “The supplies are stuff to renovate a lot of people’s homes. More stuff coming on Wednesday.” Residents estimate the total cost of clearing all outstanding electricity bills across Grand Cay and nearby Moore’s Island exceeds $500,000.

    While hundreds of eligible residents have welcomed the relief, not everyone is convinced of the policy’s good intentions. Grand Cay resident Steven Russell called the move an obvious election tactic designed to shore up support for ruling party candidates in a competitive constituency. “Everybody knows it’s a tactic because they know Cornish did not represent his constituency well,” he explained, referring to incumbent Member of Parliament Kirk Cornish. “They know that and they know which areas they are in trouble. That’s why they up in Abaco, they sharing like $200 gift certificates.”

    Another local resident, Maxwell, said the last-minute relief does little to make up for years of neglect from the national government. “That can’t really do nothing after five or six years,” he said.

    Grand Cay, a small island community that is home to just over 500 permanent residents, has struggled for years with substandard core infrastructure, including unreliable electricity, clean water access and telecommunications service. The constituency is widely seen as a competitive race in the upcoming general election, making any last-minute voter outreach particularly high-stakes for both major political parties.

  • US Supreme Court weighs ending protected status of Haitians, Syrians

    US Supreme Court weighs ending protected status of Haitians, Syrians

    On Wednesday, the deeply divided U.S. Supreme Court convened to hear legal challenges to the Trump administration’s 2019 order to revoke Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian migrants currently residing in the United States. The high-stakes case has far-reaching ramifications for more than one million TPS beneficiaries from a dozen additional nations who now face the threat of mass deportation.

    Created as a humanitarian protection program, TPS shields eligible migrants from deportation and grants them work authorization, granted exclusively to people who cannot safely return to their home countries due to active armed conflict, natural disaster, or other extraordinary, life-threatening crises. Haitian nationals first gained TPS eligibility in 2010, after a magnitude 7 earthquake killed more than 200,000 people and leveled much of the country’s critical infrastructure. More than a decade later, the Caribbean nation remains mired in systemic extreme poverty, widespread gang-related violence and kidnapping, chronic political collapse, and a shattered healthcare system that prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory for all American citizens. Syria obtained TPS in 2012 at the outbreak of its ongoing devastating civil war, which has left the country fragmented and unsafe for returning civilians.

    As part of his broader hardline immigration agenda, former President Donald Trump made a 2016 campaign pledge to remove millions of undocumented migrants from the U.S., and made dismantling the longstanding TPS program a central policy priority. Since taking office, his administration revoked TPS protections for migrants from 12 countries beyond Haiti and Syria, including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Somalia, Venezuela, and Yemen.

    During Wednesday’s arguments, Solicitor General John Sauer, representing the Trump administration, told the court that the Department of Homeland Security’s TPS termination decision falls under executive authority and is not eligible for judicial review. Sauer argued that barring courts from reviewing such policy choices prevents inappropriate “judicial micromanagement” of executive-led foreign policy, and added that Trump’s past controversial remarks about Haiti were being taken out of context. He claimed the president’s comments, in which he referred to Haiti and other African nations as “shithole countries” and expressed a preference for migrants from Norway over Haiti, were referencing “problems of crime, poverty and welfare dependency” rather than expressing racial bias.

    Counsel for the Haitian and Syrian TPS holders pushed back forcefully against the administration’s arguments, arguing that unsafe conditions in both home countries remain unchanged, and that the TPS cancellation was driven at least partially by explicit racial animus. Ahilan Arulanantham, an attorney for the Syrian TPS petitioners, emphasized that the case centers on “the power to mass expel people who have done nothing wrong to countries that remain unsafe.” Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor echoed this concern during questioning, directly referencing Trump’s reported comments about Haiti to question whether discriminatory intent motivated the policy.

    Early indications from the court’s ideological split suggest the six-member conservative majority leans toward siding with the Trump administration’s position, while the court’s three liberal justices appear ready to oppose the move. A final ruling from the court will set a binding precedent that shapes the future of TPS for all beneficiaries across the country.

  • Pintard calls for arrests over $200k gift certificates

    Pintard calls for arrests over $200k gift certificates

    A brewing political scandal in the Bahamas has put the ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration under intense scrutiny, after opposition Free National Movement leader Michael Pintard launched a scathing accusation that the Davis government broke national law by diverting public funds to distribute Hurricane Dorian relief gift certificates branded with PLP election candidates’ names. Pintard has labeled the action “egregious” and is calling for formal criminal charges to be filed against those responsible.

    The controversy stems from an earlier Tribune report that confirmed the Ministry of Finance covered the cost of gift certificates distributed to residents of Abaco, designated as post-Hurricane Dorian disaster relief, which bore the signatures of sitting PLP candidates and party officials. Chris Lleida, chief executive officer of Premier Importers – the entity that issued the vouchers – confirmed the distribution was carried out at the explicit request of the Ministry of Finance. Records show the total value of the distributed vouchers exceeds $200,000, with individual certificates issued in denominations of $200, $300 and $500.

    As of press time, Office of the Prime Minister representatives have not issued an official public response to the allegations. When contacted for comment, Communications Director Latrae Rahming confirmed that Prime Minister Philip Davis will address the matter with reporters at a future, unspecified date.

    Pintard argued that the misuse of taxpayer funds for this purpose constitutes a clear criminal offence under Bahamian law. “It is a crime because you’re using government funds for a narrow political perspective,” he stated, adding that “somebody to pay the price” for the violation. He drew a direct parallel between the current controversy and the so-called “Bermuda scandal”, a previous incident where a PLP delegation trip was initially funded through the Public Treasury before the party reimbursed the cost.

    The opposition leader further claimed that the scale of the $200,000 expenditure far exceeds the spending authority granted to the financial secretary, meaning the final approval for the spending would have required sign-off from Prime Minister Davis himself. He added that the situation becomes “even more egregious” with the involvement of Bradley Fox Jr, the PLP’s candidate for Central and South Abaco, who participated in distributing the vouchers despite holding no official government position.

    Voucher copies obtained by The Tribune show the e-vouchers distributed to local residents were signed by both Fox and Preston Roberts, the PLP’s national campaign coordinator who also serves as a board member of the government’s Disaster Reconstruction Authority. “You’re talking about somebody who has no standing in government at all and so on multiple levels, this is wrong,” Pintard said. “Somebody should be held to account, and charges should be brought against them or the sanctions, whatever the sanctions are, as outlined in the law, those sanctions should be carried out.”

    Under the Bahamas’ Parliamentary Elections Act, offering or distributing money, gifts or other benefits to voters to influence their ballot choice, reward specific voting behavior, or secure a candidate’s election is classified as a criminal offence. The law also penalizes anyone who funds or knowingly facilitates these activities, including the provision of funds intended for electoral bribery.

    Critics point out that the incident highlights a longstanding gap in Bahamian election regulation: the country still lacks a comprehensive, enforceable campaign finance framework. There are no binding, clear rules requiring full public disclosure of political campaign spending, nor formal regulations governing the use of public resources during election cycles. Both of the Bahamas’ major political parties have repeatedly pledged to implement a robust campaign finance system over the years, but none have followed through on that promise to date.

  • WATCH: Farmers central to recovery and future of high-tech agriculture, says Green

    WATCH: Farmers central to recovery and future of high-tech agriculture, says Green

    KINGSTON, Jamaica — In a keynote address at the recent Recovery and Investment Forum held at Hope Gardens, hosted jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Minister Floyd Green has positioned Jamaican farmers as the backbone of the island nation’s post-disaster recovery and long-term food sovereignty, calling them the most foundational contributors to Jamaican society while laying out a bold vision for a modernized, technology-integrated agricultural sector.

    Green emphasized that the ongoing Hurricane Melissa Recovery Programme, a $1.98 billion initiative launched after the destructive Category 5 storm, is far more than a short-term relief effort: it is a strategic investment to construct a more climate-resilient, efficient industry that can protect Jamaica from future food supply disruptions. “This is a month dedicated to honoring our farmers,” Green told the assembled crowd of producers, agricultural input suppliers, and financial industry leaders. “Any time you sit down to a meal, you owe a farmer a word of gratitude. No matter how advanced or prosperous an economy becomes, food production will always be non-negotiable for national survival.”

    He recalled that the global COVID-19 pandemic served as a critical wake-up call for Jamaica, when widespread border closures sparked urgent fears over food access, cementing the importance of a strong, self-reliant local agricultural sector for the country. At the core of the government’s recovery strategy is RADA, which Green identified as the central engine driving support for impacted farming communities across the island. He praised the forum as a critical collaborative space that connects key stakeholders to align on both immediate recovery needs and long-term investment opportunities.

    To date, the massive recovery program has already delivered tangible results for more than 19,800 of the over 70,000 farmers impacted by Hurricane Melissa, with approximately $221 million already disbursed to restore agricultural productivity across the island. Green outlined early milestones in crop recovery: more than 14,000 packs of high-quality seeds have been distributed, enabling the rehabilitation of 840 hectares of damaged farmland. This early intervention has already driven a measurable rebound in domestic vegetable supplies, with Green noting that consumers are no longer facing widespread shortages in local markets. “People aren’t complaining about what they can’t find anymore — there’s abundant supply, whether you’re looking for cabbage or lettuce,” Green said, framing this rebound as the successful completion of the program’s first recovery phase.

    Beyond immediate relief, the forum highlighted the Jamaican government’s push to modernize the country’s agricultural sector through technology. Attendees got a first-hand look at cutting-edge tools being rolled out for domestic producers, including agricultural sprayer drones, data-collection drones for crop monitoring, and mechanized equipment such as tiller tractors and soil augers. Rollout of these technologies is supported through public-private partnerships with sector suppliers, with the core goal of boosting production efficiency and helping Jamaican agricultural goods become more competitive in global export markets.

    Financial resilience was another central focus of the event. Around 200 farmers from multiple Jamaican parishes met with representatives from leading national financial institutions, receiving one-on-one guidance on agricultural insurance products and climate risk management strategies designed to help producers better absorb the impact of future extreme weather events, which are growing more frequent amid global climate change.

    Additional progress shared at the forum included livestock recovery efforts, which have delivered 100,000 baby chicks and more than 16,000 bags of livestock feed to affected producers. The program has also supported land preparation across more than 500 additional hectares for 1,300 smallholder farmers.

    The event closed with a symbolic handover of new mechanized equipment to farmer representatives, alongside an interactive exhibition that provided producers with hands-on technical training in climate-smart agricultural practices. These efforts reinforce the Ministry of Agriculture’s overarching goal of building a high-yield, high-impact agricultural sector that delivers long-term food security and economic opportunity for all Jamaican farming communities.

  • FNM warns of chaos over missing advance voters

    FNM warns of chaos over missing advance voters

    Just days ahead of the Bahamas’ scheduled advance polling on April 30, a growing electoral dispute has erupted after opposition Free National Movement (FNM) figures revealed dozens of approved voters have been wrongly omitted from the official advance poll register, with election officials dismissing complaints with shrugs that have further enraged the party.

    Travis Robinson, an FNM candidate running in the upcoming general election, told local media that nine eligible voters who met all requirements for early voting were left off the finalized certified list, despite having applied for and received formal authorization to cast advance ballots. Among those impacted are three voters who will be out of the country on the main election day, May 12, meaning they will be completely unable to vote if the error is not corrected before advance polling opens.

    Robinson explained he submitted all advance voting applications on April 23 on behalf of three groups of eligible early voters: senior citizens, registered poll workers who would be working on main election day, and voters traveling abroad. When he returned to collect documentation two days later, he only received required L-form certificates for the senior citizens and traveling voters. To date, he says he has not received any L-form certificates for his poll worker applicants, leaving all of them locked out of the advance poll.

    The full scope of the error only became clear once the official certified advance register was published. Robinson confirmed all nine applicants met every eligibility requirement set out by election authorities, but their names were still excluded from the final list. When he escalated the issue to senior election officials, including Parliamentary Commissioner Harrison Thompson, he was told there was no way to fix the error ahead of polling.

    “I subsequently spoke with a senior official at the registry who basically told me, ‘such is life, things happen, we move on,’” Robinson recalled. “I later contacted Mr Thompson, who gave me a similar response, that unfortunately there’s nothing he can do and that it is what it is.”

    Robinson called the dismissive response completely unacceptable, warning that the disenfranchisement of these nine voters could be enough to swing the final election result in his competitive constituency. He pointed to recent Bahamian political history to underscore the stakes, noting that a former prime minister once lost his parliamentary seat by a margin of just four votes. He has issued an urgent call for Thompson to immediately amend the advance register to add the missing voters before polling begins.

    The impacted voters, Robinson added, are “highly upset” by the error, particularly the three overseas travelers who have no path to vote if the issue remains unaddressed.

    The controversy is not isolated to Robinson’s constituency, according to FNM chairman Duane Sands. Sands confirmed that multiple other FNM candidates, including himself and fellow candidate Heather Hunt, have reported identical issues with the advance poll register. He said that beyond omitting eligible voters who completed all required steps, the register also includes the names of voters who never even submitted applications for early voting.

    Worse, Sands added, the register contains glaring, basic errors that raise serious questions about the integrity of the process: some entries list voters with birth dates that have not yet occurred, meaning people who have not even been born are listed as approved advance voters.

    “When you look at the state of the register — people on the register with birthdays that have not yet come, people who according to the data haven’t even been born yet — and then there are persons who are on the advance poll register who did not apply, in some instances willing to swear an affidavit that they did not apply, and yet they are on the advance poll register, you wonder what is going on,” Sands said.

    Sands is now calling for the immediate removal of Parliamentary Commissioner Harrison Thompson, arguing that the chaotic errors undermine the legitimacy of the upcoming election. He said the severity of the mistakes leaves two possible explanations, neither of which justify Thompson keeping his post.

    “When we see the mess, the chaos, we can ask whether this is just incompetence or whether this is a deliberate act by someone who ought to be relieved of his role as Parliamentary Commissioner forthwith,” he said.

    In an official response to the growing controversy, the Parliamentary Registration Department acknowledged the errors, attributing them to limited typographical mistakes and an unexpected technical system glitch. The department downplayed the severity of the issues, arguing that the mistakes will not impact the final outcome of the election.

    “These are not consequential to the outcome of the election, as the voter’s card and counterfoil contain the accurate information that will be relied upon on voting day,” the department said in a statement. It urged political leaders to stop framing the errors as evidence of widespread systemic failure, noting that minor processing issues are a normal part of election administration. “The Department remains committed to protecting the integrity of the electoral process,” the statement added.

    The ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) has pushed back against FNM’s criticism, condemning the opposition’s claims as a “reckless attack on Bahamian democracy.”

    “The Bahamas has earned its reputation as one of the strongest democracies in the region through decades of peaceful elections and independent institutions,” the PLP said in its official statement. “To suggest otherwise, for political convenience, damages that reputation abroad and weakens the confidence of Bahamians at home.”