DEVIATION: Former PMs weigh in on Minnis’ decision to call snap election for Sept instead of May

Christie “surprised” by snap election; said Minnis won’t win “unless someone can come in and create 80K jobs”

Ingraham: The public should be given a good idea as to when elections will be held 

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Former Prime Minister Perry Christie said yesterday that he would not have called a snap election during a COVID-19 surge, while former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham noted that elections have been traditionally set in May.

Both former leaders spoke to the media outside the House of Assembly during the lie-in-state of the late Arthur D Hanna, offering their thoughts on the upcoming General Election.

In a national address on Thursday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis rang the proverbial election bell, setting the election for September 16.

Christie said he was “surprised” by the move, indicating that he presumed Minnis was trying to preempt House Speaker Halson Moultrie, who had launched the start of an “open Parliament”.

“I thought he would try to give the country an opportunity to try to come to grips with the fact that he had a strong program of vaccination and was going to accelerate that program of vaccination over the next four, five months,” the former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) leader said.

“We would have been in a better position than we are in now.”

Christie said that while Minnis exercised his constitutional right to call the election whenever he decides, he would not have done so at this time.

“He’s decided to do it; the Bahamian people have the right to say yes or no,” he said. 

Christie noted that no government has won a second term in office in 24 years and suggested the Minnis administration will also follow suit.

“I’ve concluded that unless someone can come in and create 80,000 jobs, they are not going to win an election because there are just too many people in too many different places, particularly young people, who are out of work and have been put of work for a long time,” he said.

“I was the victim of it in terms of election; Ingraham was the victim of it in terms of election. I think Minnis will be the victim of that, unless he beats back history.”

Meanwhile, Ingraham said he could not speak to Minnis’ decision to call a snap election.

However, he indicated that after he called the March 1997 snap election, he determined that the country ought to move towards a fixed elections date.

“I thought the public ought to have a good idea as to when elections will be held,” he said.

“We gave everybody an opportunity to register to vote; we announced in advance…and gave people lots of time to transfer.”

Asked whether he believed the election was called too early, whether enough notice was given and whether voters were caught off guard, Ingraham said: “I can only speak for myself…I can’t speak to that. I can only tell you what I did. My record speaks for itself on the issue.”

Elections in a pandemic

Despite the increasing number of new infections, hospitalizations and deaths in the country, political parties have already mobilized their campaigns, canvassing different communities via motorcades and on foot over the weekend.

Ingraham said he’s “very distressed” by the COVID-19 numbers, adding: “In my view, it did not have to be this way. It should not have been this way. But here we are… This is what we’ve got and I think we’ve all got to work towards getting out of it”.

As of Sunday, there were 17,545 cases of COVID-19 in the country, with 3,356 active cases.

Christie noted that the “fascinating” thing about the upcoming election is there will not be any massive rallies.

“The competent authority is in charge of who meets and what numbers should meet and I suspect he had some kind of design in knowing what advantages could flow to him as a result of calling elections at this stage,” he said.