Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE Free National Movement is expected to ratify four candidates for the next general election tonight amid anticipation from FNM insiders that Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis - buoyed by favourable polling numbers - may call an early election very soon.
Dr Minnis, Deputy Prime Minister Desmond Bannister, Labour Director John Pinder and the Officer in Charge of Road Traffic in Grand Bahama Welbourne Bootle are expected to be ratified for the Killarney, Carmichael, Fox Hill and Pineridge constituencies, The Tribune understands.
This will complete the FNM’s slate of candidates. The Progressive Liberal Party has already ratified its 39 candidates.
Although early election speculation is not unusual in the Bahamas, there has been more of it this cycle because it has emanated from people positioned to know what will happen, as opposed to idle chatter. One FNM official who has been ratified for the election told this newspaper yesterday that they would be surprised if the election is not called within the next month or two.
Their expectations, of course, are tempered by the fact that the decision rests solely with Dr Minnis; whatever his current plans, the prime minister can change his mind at any moment for any reason.
Nonetheless, Dr Minnis and FNM insiders are said to be buoyed by favourable polling numbers which they claim show that more Bahamians prefer him to PLP Leader Philip “Brave” Davis. The FNM is said to be planning a short but vigorous campaign that puts the battle between the two leaders front and centre. The party has secured its election paraphernalia in the country and rally dates have already been drawn up.
Dr Minnis has to date dismissed early election talk and has emphasised that the election is not due until May 2022.
Mr Davis has criticised his approach to the topic, emphasising that Dr Minnis made introducing a fixed election date a key promise in the lead-up to the last general election.
In what many interpreted as an indicator of his plans, Dr Minnis told people earlier this month to register to vote in the “shortest possible time”.
Meanwhile, in May, a memo Royal Bahamas Defence Force acting Captain Shawn Adderley sent to Parliamentary Registration Department acting Commissioner Lavardo Duncanson urged department heads to prepare for the “possibility of an early election”.
Earlier this week, FNM Chairman Carl Culmer would not speculate about the possibility of an early election and suggested there was nothing out of the ordinary with the FNM urging people to get registered.
“As you all know, until we have a fixed date, there’s only one person who could say when we’re going to have the election and that’s the prime minister of the country and so our thing is, I don’t like to speculate and I would not speculate but I encourage persons to go out there and do what is necessary to be prepared whenever the election is called,” he said on Monday.
“We’re less than a year out and as the leader, he should encourage persons who are not registered to go out and register so this is almost August and elections are due in May and so as a leader, he should encourage his citizens to go out there and register. This is not new.
“The former prime minister, Ingraham always told persons far in advance to go out and register and so we in the FNM, we like to encourage participation in elections so we don’t want no one to be left out,” Mr Culmer said.
Legislation passed earlier this year has allowed for a permanent voter register to be established for the first time in the country, meaning that people who registered to vote for the 2017 election will not need to register again.
However, qualified Bahamians who are not on the 2017 register or who have moved to an address different from the one on their voter’s card will need to visit a Parliamentary Registration Department centre to register or transfer their registration to a new polling division or constituency where they now reside.
Some 20,000 first time voters are expected to register this election cycle.
Comments
carltonr61 2 years, 9 months ago
My do nothing except enriching a few should just throw in the towels. What a disgraceful bunch, as though four years of deasters. Bahamians according to Central Bank lost 2 billion to gambling. The first wave of desaster as this gov refused to warn Bahamians that the behavioral disorder is as deadly as cocaine and ranked DSM-5 resulting in financial injuries home destruction, poverty lines, school kids went hungry, social and religious destruction. A fail government.
proudloudandfnm 2 years, 9 months ago
The PLP legalized the web shops after we voted no to it. Just an addendum to your post. For clarity sake...
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
But it's Minnis and Sebas Bastian who have since become business partners.
Emilio26 2 years, 9 months ago
Tribanon even though I'm not a fan of Dr. Minnis I still give him and education minister Jeff Lloyd for making tuition free at the UB and for handling the COVID-19 responsibly. However, I don't think Brave Davis would've done those things.
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
LMAO
baclarke 2 years, 9 months ago
Like Proudloud said, the gambling issue has zero to do with the Minnis administration....
proudloudandfnm 2 years, 9 months ago
Minnis is a horrible leader, if the FNM are re-elected that would be a scathing indictment on perry gladstone christie's PLP. That should show the PLP just how badly they need to change their entire dynamic....
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
Your attempt to use a bit of reverse pyschology here is much too transparent.
Christie gave us the proverbial 'birdie' finger only once. Minnis has been waving his index finger at us daily ever since he became PM.
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
Most registered voters, like me, would never reveal to a pollster who they truly intend to vote for or which, if any, political party they support. Bahamian voters have become well conditioned to taking whatever is being offered from whomever for their vote without any real loyalty to the givers of the pre-election 'goodies'. After all, why take pre-election goodies or freebies from only one when you can them from two or more candidates.
TalRussell 2 years, 9 months ago
Reds monies people behind the Red party's 39's retainin' power is much too frightin' of what dangers await Thee Man's at the other end of the ropes remainin'' in charge pullin' to RuNGs' GeNERAL's BeLL, yes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzfwj...">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzfwj...
birdiestrachan 2 years, 9 months ago
PM Minnis has a serious problem he does not speak the truth. then he says "if is say I am going East and then go west I changed my mind". The truth is he lied.
perhaps the Symonettes and the Maurars can say they are better off under the Minnis reign but the majority of Bahamians have suffered much.
Topdude 2 years, 9 months ago
Say what you want to disparage and deprecate the inevitable victory at the polls for the FNM. With a Prime Minister with the moral fiber of Dr. Minnis and the intelligence of this man, Bahamians are well aware that the choice is simple. Four more years of prescient guidance from the FNM or retraction back to another four years of theft, corruption, perversion, deviance and mismanagement under the PLP .
Even Tribanon knows that when one calculates a Balance Sheet on the performance of the two parties during the last eight years, one will find a moral and economic surplus under the FNM and a substantial moral and economic deficit under the PLP.
To my mind there is no rational Bahamian who would opt to continue the madness and perversion demonstrated by the PLP and forego four additional years of opportunities, development and competitiveness.
Let’s put our jealousies and prejudices aside, please give Jack his Jacket and let us return the Right Honorable Dr. Hubert Minnis to the office he deserves and the FNM to the government they have led with such remarkable distinction.
I do not think even anyone, even Tribanon, can muster any logical argument against this formidable evidence.
God Bless the FNM and our leader Dr. Minnis.
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
Your worshipping of Minnis certainly knows no bounds. Have you collected that National Award you received not too long ago for being the undisputed biggest kiss-assa of Minnis's arse? LMAO
Topdude 2 years, 9 months ago
When one has nothing constructive to say the only resort available to them is to launch ad hominem attacks. Come on boy-girl grow up. Give Jack his Jacket. And clean your diapers. They smell.
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
I think whatever you're smelling is do to all of that brownnosing of Minnis you've been doing. Give your dirty nose a break, and a cleaning.
Topdude 2 years, 9 months ago
Nonsense. These are a set of nonsensical data without reference to methodology of collection, baseline, comparators or historical perspective. Just spewing a bunch of inaccurate numbers does not make it right or impressive. Please, grow up and give Jack his Jacket.
God bless our Prime Minister Minnis. We “loves” him mightily.
tribanon 2 years, 9 months ago
ZZZZZzzzzzzz........
ohdrap4 2 years, 9 months ago
@topdude Is there an opportunity in your office? I need a job and I can grovel.
Call me. Thanks
Topdude 2 years, 9 months ago
There is a job available for every Bahamian. What skills do possess?
SP 2 years, 9 months ago
@Topdude..... If "There is a job for every Bahamian" why do we have 60% unemployment?
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 9 months ago
ok now i know youre off your rocker. people are on foodlines and homeless because they like it.. or maybe its because they too lazy
SP 2 years, 9 months ago
Polls before the election bell rings are always wrong because most swing voters like myself will not participate in polling. I honestly don't know anyone willing to vote for the FNM this time around, and the PLP is in an even more poor position because nobody with sense is willing to trust Brave Davis.
That said, any party anywhere winning re-election during a recession is hardly ever heard of.
licks2 2 years, 9 months ago
Where is the recession? IMF expects at least 4% growth and the government put out a healthy budget for 21-22!! But I agree, I am one of those swing voters. . .mad as hell with doc. . .BUT CANNOT PUT MY NATION IN THE HANDS OF DAVIS AND THE PLP MOB!!
BY THE WAY. . .YOU NEED TO GET OUT MORE. . .THE STREETS ALL HAVE IT THAT HELL NO TO DAVIS!!!
THAT DUDE IS BAD NEWS!!!
baclarke 2 years, 9 months ago
The PM has gotten too militant and divisive for me to support him any further. It will be a hard choice at the polls, but I know it won't be red....
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