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As the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) formally unveiled its re-election campaign platform “Blueprint for Progress”, Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis delivered a closing address that framed the upcoming May 12 general election as a clear choice between proven governance and untested opposition. Davis, who leads the current PLP administration, is seeking a second consecutive term to build on the policy gains his government has delivered over its first term in office.

In his remarks delivered the evening of the launch, Davis emphasized that the newly released platform lays out a clear, actionable roadmap for the party’s next term of governance if voters return the PLP to power. Rejecting secondhand interpretations of the party’s agenda, he urged Bahamian voters to engage directly with the document’s proposals to understand the direction the party intends to take the nation.

Davis centered his address on his administration’s record over the past term, noting that while the government’s work is not without room for improvement, it has successfully steered the country out of the overlapping multiple crises it inherited upon taking office. The nation, he argued, is now firmly positioned on a sustainable trajectory of inclusive growth and long-term national development. “I am proud to run on our track record,” Davis stated, pushing back against criticism from political rivals.

To reinforce his commitment to transparency and accountability, Davis highlighted the introduction of the new “Blueprint Tracker”—a public, online digital tool that allows any Bahamian citizen to cross-reference the government’s past policy promises against completed deliverables. The tool, he explained, embodies the administration’s commitment to open governance that the public can hold to account.

The new re-election platform, Davis confirmed, retains the core priorities of the administration’s existing agenda while expanding the scope of the party’s ambitions to address emerging national needs. Turning to the country’s opposition parties, Davis issued a direct challenge: he called on rival political groups to release their own detailed, concrete policy platforms and prove their capacity to deliver on promised reforms, urging voters to press opposition candidates for clear answers ahead of polling day. “When they come asking for your vote, ask them, ‘what is your plan’?” he said.

Framing the election as a fundamental decision about the Bahamas’ long-term direction, Davis encouraged voters to weigh the value of experienced, continuous governance against the untested alternatives put forward by opponents. He argued that voters must evaluate which leadership team has the proven capability to steward the nation’s resources and advance the collective interests of all Bahamians.

Davis also took aim at what he characterized as unproductive negative political attacks and distracting political theater from rivals, arguing that the campaign should remain focused on substantive plans for the country’s future rather than partisan bickering. He confirmed that his administration would remain focused on delivering core governance responsibilities throughout the campaign period, rather than engaging in retaliatory political back-and-forth. Closing his address, Davis urged all Bahamian voters to carefully consider the high stakes of the upcoming election as they prepare to cast their ballots on May 12.

The Bahamas’ national parliament was formally dissolved on Wednesday, marking the official start of the campaign period for the country’s upcoming May 12 general election, as thousands of eligible Bahamian voters endured multi-hour waits in lengthy lines on the final day of voter registration across the archipelago.

On the steps of Parliament House, Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles publicly read the dissolution proclamation on behalf of Governor General Cynthia “Mother” Pratt. Under constitutional rules, the next parliamentary session is scheduled to convene just eight days after the general election, on May 20, once new representatives have been elected.

Across registration sites, from the Parliamentary Registration Department’s headquarters to mall locations and post office branches, the flood of last-minute registrants stretched operational capacity to its limit. At the main registration department, crowds packed the building’s entry foyer as steady rain fell outside, with many voters describing the process as frustratingly slow even for those who had started their applications weeks earlier.

Many of the voters who turned out on the final day cited pressing economic and public service concerns that are shaping their voting decisions, from sky-high inflation and rising living costs to gaps in healthcare and lack of support for small business owners.

Moses McKenzie, who returned to the Bahamas roughly two months ago after a decade living in Canada, said skyrocketing living costs were the top issue on his mind as he prepared to cast his ballot. “I feel like inflation in The Bahamas is crazy,” he explained. “I looked at gas prices yesterday – $6.50 for a gallon of fuel. Inflation is just killing us over here.”

Chrastina Rox, a voter in the Southern Shores constituency, told reporters she waited two and a half hours to complete her registration, a process she described as reasonably organized but held up by systemic slowdowns. She noted she had initially started her registration two months prior, but a technical glitch erased all her information, forcing her to start over from scratch. Rox said she is still undecided on her vote, but added that PLP candidate Obie Roberts has earned her early interest for his campaign focus on expanding mental health access and advocating for women’s rights.

First-time voter Mario Knowles said he ultimately completed his registration after persistent encouragement from his parents and outreach from party campaign workers. For Knowles, the lack of full healthcare access in the country’s outlying Family Islands is a non-negotiable issue. “In my 24 years on this earth, it doesn’t make any sense to me, especially medically, why our Family Islands only have small clinics,” he said. “There is no reason we should still only have basic clinics out there in 2024.”

At the Town Centre Mall registration site, wait times stretched to multiple hours, with many voters sharing stories of repeated failed attempts to register. Marco Ricardo Bell said he had already waited nearly three hours and was told he might not be processed until 10pm that night, adding that if the process did not speed up, he would leave – and likely would not bother turning out to vote at all.

Nadia Bevans, a mother of five who lost her beauty business and her home during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Wednesday marked her fifth attempt to register. On previous visits, she was turned away despite arriving before the official closing time, after being given contradictory information about registration hours. She arrived shortly after 8am and did not complete her process until close to noon, though she acknowledged the process was less chaotic than her prior attempts. For Bevans, government support for struggling entrepreneurs is the defining issue of this election. “During the pandemic, I lost my business, I lost my home and everything like that,” she explained. “I’m just starting over again as a beautician. I can’t find anyone to help me, to fund my business to bring it back up. Everybody talks about government jobs, but there’s no help for people who want to work for themselves.” Bevans added she plans to vote for the Coalition of Independents in her constituency.

Veronica Ferguson, a mother of three with a special needs child, said balancing caregiving responsibilities made it extremely difficult to carve out time to register, but she was determined to complete the process to vote for incumbent Englerston MP Glenys Hanna-Martin, whom she plans to support for re-election.

Long lines were also reported at the Cable Beach Post Office registration site. R Smith, an entrepreneur and voter in the Fort Charlotte constituency, said she is particularly concerned about the rising costs of operating a small to medium-sized business in the Bahamas, and wants to see the next government implement policies to ease that burden. Smith added that she is deeply disappointed in the performance of the opposition Free National Movement (FNM). “I’m very grossly disappointed in the FNM – it’s almost as if we don’t have an opposition,” she said. “Therefore, you almost leave the Bahamian people with only one real choice.” She plans to vote for PLP candidate Sebas Bastian.

In a statement Wednesday, Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) chairman Fred Mitchell said he expects the general election process to proceed peacefully, and confirmed that party officials have been advised the formal writ of election will be issued on Thursday, the day after parliament’s dissolution.

A new analysis of official Bahamian government procurement data has revealed that nearly one in four public contracts awarded over the two-year period from December 2023 to December 2025 were secured without an open competitive bidding process, accounting for close to 40% of all public spending captured in the dataset.

Tribune News reviewed the publicly available procurement records to identify patterns in non-competitive contracting, finding that of the 3,881 categorized contracts included in the dataset, 927 – or roughly 23.9% – were awarded through no-bid procedures. The value of these non-competitive contracts reached approximately $233.6 million, out of a total combined contract value of $599.1 million across all tracked awards. Critically, the dataset is incomplete: state-owned enterprises, which have never fulfilled the legal requirement to publish their procurement awards, are entirely excluded from the public records.

Under the 2023 Public Procurement Act, open competitive bidding is enshrined as the standard, mandatory approach for awarding all public sector contracts. The law only permits no-bid awards in a narrow set of limited exceptions: low-value purchases under $100,000, emergency response projects, situations where an initial competitive bidding process failed to produce qualified bids, and cases where only a single supplier can deliver the required goods or services. All non-competitive awards are also legally required to include a formal written justification for bypassing open competition.

The analysis found that non-competitive public spending is heavily concentrated among a small pool of very large contracts, rather than spread across many small permitted awards. The single largest no-bid contract recorded was an $180.2 million award issued by the Ministry of Finance in October 2024 for the Eleuthera Road Improvement Project. Other notable large non-competitive awards include $7.25 million for road infrastructure works on South Andros, $2.82 million for road repairs on Bimini, $2.2 million for renovation works at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre National Stadium, and $2.04 million for electrical and lighting upgrades at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium.

In terms of agency spending, the Ministry of Finance accounted for the overwhelming majority of all no-bid spending captured in the records, with the Department of Public Works holding a distant second place for non-competitive contract value. A breakdown of contract sizes confirms the concentration of spending in large no-bid awards: of the 927 non-competitive contracts, 848 fall under the $100,000 threshold explicitly permitted by law, and their combined value totals just $17 million. By contrast, only 80 non-competitive contracts exceed the $100,000 threshold, but these 80 awards make up the vast remainder of total no-bid spending, at more than $216 million. Larger contracts that bypass competitive bidding are required by law to meet strict exception criteria, including urgency, limited market competition, or technical constraints that restrict the pool of available suppliers. However, the public procurement records do not include any documentation of which legal exception was used to justify each large no-bid award.

The 2023 Public Procurement Act mandates that all procurement decisions be fully documented and all contract awards published publicly, to enable independent public scrutiny of how taxpayer money is allocated to private vendors. The absence of justifications for large non-competitive awards and the exclusion of state-owned enterprise procurement from public records fall short of the transparency requirements laid out in the legislation.