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As The Bahamas counts down to its general election on May 12, the ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) has thrown its tentative support behind integrating campaign finance reform into the country’s long-term national development strategy, while declining to lock the party into binding legislative action if it retains power after the vote.

Speaking at the PLP’s first scheduled weekly press briefing on Sunday, party Communications Director Latrae Rahming framed long-debated campaign finance overhauls as a critical topic for national planning. “Looking ahead, and even right now, we need a structured approach to this issue that is woven into our national development plan,” Rahming explained.

Rahming added that Bahamian policymakers should look to successful regulatory models from comparable jurisdictions around the world to identify a framework that aligns with the country’s unique political context, noting that reform “definitely ought to be a consideration in the national development plan, and we absolutely need to benchmark which policies work for our jurisdiction.”

The call for broader discussion comes amid a years-long national debate over campaign finance regulation that has never resulted in enacted legislation. Both major Bahamian political parties have campaigned on promises of reform for years, facing sustained pressure from good governance groups including the Organisation for Responsible Governance, as well as international bodies like the Organisation of American States. No major legislative progress has materialized to date.

Most recently, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis clarified in September 2024 that despite the PLP including reform promises in its 2021 Blueprint for Change manifesto, the policy was not a current administration priority. “I don’t know where this renewed focus on this issue came from,” Davis said at the time, adding “I will not disclose our campaign donors unless those donors personally give me permission to do so.” The prime minister argued that reform legislation would not directly address the immediate economic and social struggles facing most Bahamian households, noting the administration is focusing on more urgent priorities while still reviewing the issue.

Rahming on Sunday acknowledged that existing financial safeguards are already in place for political campaigns, but stressed that cross-party consensus is required to move reform forward. “This is a conversation that all major political parties in the country need to have together,” he said.

Alongside the discussion of campaign finance, the PLP’s legal advisor Keenan Johnson used Sunday’s briefing to outline key electoral deadlines for the upcoming May 12 vote, to help voters and candidates prepare. Nomination Day, when all candidates must complete official documentation to appear on the ballot, is scheduled for April 16. Johnson emphasized that despite many parties having already publicly ratified their chosen candidates, no candidate is officially registered until they complete this formal process.

Additional key dates include an April 17 deadline for overseas voters to submit their ballot applications via the MyGateway digital voting portal, and an April 25 deadline for applications from voters requesting special access to polling. Advance in-person polling for eligible voters will be held on April 30. Johnson also confirmed that voters can use either a valid passport or driver’s license as official photo identification to cast a ballot, expanding options for eligible participants.

The party confirmed that it will hold weekly press briefings every Sunday leading up to election day to keep voters updated on its platform and campaign activities. Golden Gates Member of Parliament Pia Glover-Rolle noted that the campaign has now entered its most critical phase, with just 30 days remaining until polling day. “Every single day counts between now and May 12,” she said.

Bahamas’ ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) kicked off its formal re-election campaign over the weekend, hosting its first large-scale public rally following the official announcement of the country’s upcoming May 12 general election. Held Saturday evening at Nassau’s RM Bailey Park under the campaign slogan “Rally for Progress”, the event drew an enthusiastic crowd of loyal supporters ready to rally behind the incumbent administration.

Attendees, clad in the party’s signature blue, packed the majority of the park grounds, waving PLP-branded flags and rallying alongside pre-program opening activities including energetic music, organized motorcades, and group chants that steadily built anticipation for the night’s headline addresses. While the venue did not reach full capacity, the space echoed with nonstop cheering and party slogans throughout the entire event, signaling strong grassroots enthusiasm for the incumbents.

A roster of high-profile PLP candidates and party leaders took the stage throughout the night, including Fred Mitchell, Keno Wong, Leslia Brice, Lisa Rahming, Zane Lightbourne, Sebas Bastian, Jobeth Coleby-Davis, and Glenys Hanna-Martin. The evening closed with the two most anticipated speeches from the party’s top officials: Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, who served as the opening headliner, and Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis, who delivered the closing address.

Opening his speech to what he called a sprawling “sea of blue”, Cooper kicked off his remarks with high energy, framing the rally as the official launch of the PLP’s new campaign chapter ahead of the mid-May vote. “Look at this crowd! Look at this sea of blue! Looks like a Blue Wave to me,” he declared, drawing thunderous cheers from the gathered supporters.

Cooper centered the entire upcoming election around a clear binary choice: progress under the PLP, or regression under the opposition. He highlighted key economic policies the incumbent administration has rolled out to ease financial strain on households, including broad tax cuts and targeted cost-of-living relief measures, most notably the removal of value-added tax (VAT) from a range of staple food items and essential consumer goods. While he did not deny that many Bahamian households still face ongoing economic pressure, he emphasized that the PLP government has prioritized addressing these challenges head-on.

Cooper also used his time on stage to draw sharp contrasts between the PLP’s policy agenda and that of the opposing party, while making a direct appeal to first-time and young voters of all genders to back the PLP’s vision. He specifically highlighted the party’s focus on expanding job opportunities, supporting small business entrepreneurship, and increasing access to ownership opportunities for Bahamian residents.

When Prime Minister Davis took the stage, he was met with immediate, sustained applause, with supporters chanting party slogans and waving their blue flags in a show of enthusiasm. Davis framed the upcoming vote as one of the most critical decision points in the nation’s recent history, warning voters against what he described as the disruptive pattern of alternating ruling parties every five years.

“In 31 days, we have a choice,” he told the crowd. “In 31 days, we can choose progress, or we can go backwards.”

A core announcement of Davis’ speech was the launch of the new “Blueprint Tracker”, a publicly accessible digital tool designed to document and showcase the administration’s progress on the key policy commitments it made during its 2021 election campaign. Davis urged all attendees and voters across the country to use the tracker to review the PLP’s first-term achievements firsthand.

Throughout the hours of speeches, the crowd remained actively engaged, frequently interjecting with applause, chants, and enthusiastic responses, especially when speakers repeated the rally’s core call to “choose progress”. The event ran late into the evening, wrapping up shortly before 11 p.m. with a festive fireworks display and falling confetti as supporters celebrated the official start of the PLP’s re-election drive.

As The Bahamas heads toward a general election, the opposition Free National Movement (FNM) launched its first national campaign rally on the island of Grand Bahama Saturday, positioning itself as a corrective to the ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) whose term the party decries as a half-decade of broken pledges, stagnant growth and mismanagement.

Speaking to supporters at FNM’s Grand Bahama headquarters, party leader Michael Pintard opened his address by urging registered voters to oust Prime Minister Philip Davis’ current administration, centering his critique on the island’s long-stalled Grand Lucayan redevelopment project. Pintard took direct aim at the PLP’s recent public statement regarding a proposed beach club tied to the multi-year development, dismissing the announcement as nothing more than pre-election political theater designed to feign progress after years of inaction.

“They issued a statement saying they welcomed a new partnership announcement, they didn’t announce that it’s been signed, sealed, and delivered,” Pintard told the crowd. “They didn’t say that the money was in the bank. They said they welcomed an agreement. You see, you can’t claim progress when you haven’t left the starting line.”

Pintard reminded attendees of two high-profile, unfulfilled promises the PLP made to Grand Bahama voters when it campaigned for office four and a half years prior: the full sale of the Grand Lucayan property and construction of a new world-class airport on the island. To date, Pintard argued, neither commitment has been realized. He added that former workers at the shuttered Grand Lucayan hotel have still not received owed compensation, and the abandoned property currently sits closed without access to running water.

Beyond stalled development, Pintard called for sweeping reform of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, arguing the current institutional structure creates unacceptable conflicts of interest between its regulatory and commercial functions, and lacks basic accountability mechanisms.

Turning from island-specific concerns to national policy, FNM’s leader accused the sitting Davis administration of effectively abandoning its governing responsibilities five months ahead of the end of its five-year term, leaving critical legislative priorities on immigration and national security unaddressed ahead of the upcoming vote. Pointing to recent allegations of fraudulent voter identification cards circulating in the country, Pintard called on the PLP to deliver a full public explanation of the controversy, and outlined a hardline new immigration policy for his party.

“And so I want to say it plainly, no one who comes into the Bahamas illegally will ever have a pathway to citizenship in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas,” Pintard stated. He introduced FNM’s proposed Operation SHIELD, an initiative that would strengthen border security protocols, expand enforcement capacity and increase transparency around immigration processes.

FNM Deputy Leader Shanendon Cartwright followed Pintard’s address with a sharp rebuke of the administration’s national security track record, highlighting a sharp uptick in armed robberies across the country and accusing government officials of deliberately withholding complete crime data from the public. Cartwright noted that Prime Minister Davis recently claimed his administration’s crime reduction strategy was delivering results during a constituency tour – a claim directly undercut the same day by the national Police Commissioner, who confirmed armed robbery rates were rising.

Cartwright further alleged that frontline law enforcement, Customs and Immigration officers are underpaid, under-resourced, and even locked out of access to routine medical care because the government has failed to pay their group insurance premiums. “The safety of this country is not a talking point,” he said. “You cannot grow an economy in a country where people are afraid to open their front doors.”

Other FNM candidates used the rally to highlight pressing local social and economic concerns impacting Grand Bahama residents. Dr. Charlene Reid, a party candidate, noted that long-promised infrastructure upgrades at Rand Memorial Hospital remain unfinished, including critical renovations to the facility’s morgue. Candidate Frazette Gibson drew attention to deteriorating conditions at public schools across the island, adding that overstretched teachers are already operating beyond their capacity to support students.

Candidate Omar Isaacs highlighted that Grand Bahama’s youth unemployment rate remains stubbornly above 20 percent, warning that limited economic opportunity is pushing young people to leave the island in search of work elsewhere. To reverse that trend, Isaacs outlined FNM proposals including a weekly stipend for trainees in workforce development programs and a $100 million fund to support homegrown Bahamian entrepreneurs.

The opening rally concluded with a celebratory motorcade through Grand Bahama and a fireworks display, with Pintard closing by expressing confidence that FNM will secure all five of the island’s parliamentary seats in the upcoming election.

A public debate over immigration governance in The Bahamas has reignited, as former Immigration Minister Branville McCartney has publicly claimed the nation has struggled with a persistent immigration crisis for decades, citing three key systemic failures: lax law enforcement, widespread document fraud, and a chronic lack of political will among successive leadership. This assertion directly contradicts the current Davis administration’s official position that no systemic crisis exists.

McCartney made his comments on the sidelines of former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ re-election campaign launch, where the opposition has recently raised sharp alarms over forged National Insurance cards, counterfeit birth certificates, irregular spousal permits, and fraudulent e-passports. Unlike disputes centered on surging illegal border crossings, this current controversy does not hinge on evidence of growing unauthorized arrivals; instead, it focuses on gaps in enforcement, internal corruption, and governance failures within the immigration system.

One of the most troubling revelations McCartney highlighted is the alleged involvement of sitting Bahamian public servants in document fraud schemes, which he called a violation of national trust approaching treason. He tied his remarks to an ongoing court case probing these illicit activities, emphasizing that while the corrupt acts are carried out by individual bad actors rather than being state-sanctioned, current penalties are far too lenient to deter future wrongdoing. He called on authorities to use high-profile prosecutions of caught offenders as a public warning to other complicit officials.

The former minister stressed that the issue is not unique to the current Philip “Brave” Davis-led administration, noting that the crisis was already present when he served as Immigration Minister. At the core of the long-standing problem, he argued, is a lack of sustained political commitment to addressing the issue head on. Too many leaders, he claimed, prioritize holding onto power over making tough, unpopular decisions that serve the national interest.

Prime Minister Davis and his Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration have rejected McCartney’s crisis framing. They acknowledge that document fraud is a serious issue, but maintain it does not represent a systemic failure of the country’s immigration institutions. The government points to ongoing active enforcement operations and thousands of repatriations of unauthorized migrants as proof of its commitment to addressing the problem. PLP officials also note that it was due diligence from serving public officials that brought existing fraud cases to public and legal attention, contradicting claims of institutional inaction.

McCartney pushed back against this narrative, outlining three core pillars he says are needed for meaningful immigration reform: consistent, unwavering enforcement of existing immigration laws, strengthened border security infrastructure and protocols, and aggressive legal action against criminal networks that facilitate illegal migration. He also warned against allowing the issue to become purely a partisan political football, arguing that what is required is consistent, cross-administration commitment to protecting the country’s borders and upholding the integrity of its official identity documents. At its core, McCartney said, political will means unflinching commitment to doing what is right for the Bahamas, regardless of political cost.