According to the final report of the Boundaries Commission, which was received by Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes yesterday, three new constituencies will be created on New Providence and five eliminated.
Highlights include:
- Nassau Village, Southern Shores and Tall Pines are the three new constituencies in New Providence.
- Tall Pines will have eight polling divisions from Blue Hills and two from Garden Hills.
- Southern Shores will include four polling divisions from Golden Isles, five from Blue Hills and two from South Beach.
- Nassau Village will have seven polling divisions from Sea Breeze and seven polling divisions from Kennedy.
- Blue Hills, Clifton, Englerston, Kennedy and St Thomas More will be eliminated.
- One constituency, on Grand Bahama will also be eliminated.
- The name Bain and Grants Town will be changed to Bain Town and Grants Town, and the name of Farm Road and Centreville will be changed to Centreville.
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said that prior newspaper reports regarding which constituencies would change were inaccurate and probably came from PLP sources.
The Prime Minister said that the Free National Movement (FNM) has always been committed to reducing the number of seats in the House of Assembly, ever since they were first elected. In 1997, the FNM government reduced the number of seats from 49 to 40. The PLP, when they came into power in 2002, increased the number to 41.
Mr Ingraham’s intention is to bring the number down to 38, the minimum required by law. He said the FNM is seeking to have 23 seats in New Providence which, he said, “should produce an average number of voters per constituency of 4,170 or there about.”
However, he said that, “In terms of how the lines are configured, I am not familiar with the details of that.”
“All I know is the FNM would have drawn equitable and fair lines consistent with its mandate to see as many seats as possible have an equal number of votes; and where they are not equal, ensure the inequality does not exceed a certain percentage.”
As it stands now, the Family Islands will continue to have 10 seats, even though they have only 10 to 15 per cent of the total registered voter population in the Bahamas.
Grand Bahama, with about 20,000 registered voters, will also maintain its current five seats.
With 96,000 registered voters, or 77 per cent of the population, New Providence is slated to have 23 seats which, Mr Ingraham said, “should produce an average number of voters per constituency of 4,170 or there about.”
The Boundaries Commission will also propose that certain constituency boundary lines will also be altered.
According to minutes of yesterday’s Commission meeting, Deputy Chairman of the Boundaries Commission, justice Stephen lsaacs felt that the Commission has produced a fair report and has “met the mandate set out in the Constitution”.
“For my part, I found the numbers as equal as you can get, with substantive parity from constituency to constituency, especially in New Providence,” Isaacs reportedly said.
Drug lawyer and PLP Deputy Leader, Philip “Brave” Davis felt otherwise. Refusing to sign the final report, Davis said it, “did not reflect what we ought to have done as a Boundaries Commission.”
The Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP said he fundamentally disagreed with the decision to reduce the number of seats in the House of Assembly from 41 to 38.
The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) has said publicly that reducing the number of seats will put a “strain” on the Members of Parliament.
Mr Ingraham dismissed those claims, saying that with boundary changes, constituencies in New Providence will only grow by an average by 500 voters.
The argument that such an increase would spread MPs too thin is “nonsensical”, the Prime Minister said.
“I do not understand what they mean by a strain on MPs, the lazy ones among us will always be lazy. I cannot imagine why there would be a strain on an MP in New Providence to visit his constituency and be responsive to them, after all the government gives them $1,500 a month to maintain an office and be available to them,” he said.
The Prime Minister also dismissed claims made by PLP Leader Perry Christie that the new boundary cuts are an attempt by the government to save unpopular FNM MPs while “decimating” PLP seats.
He insisted that the boundary cuts represent a fair distribution of the number of registered voters in New Providence.
“If the people of Nassau have moved to the eastern, southern and western parts of New Providence, obviously the seats have to follow the people,” he said.
“They can’t stay in the center if the people have moved. That’s the reality.”
The Boundaries Commission members are House Speaker Alvin Smith, chairman; Justice Stephen Isaacs, deputy chairman; Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette; National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest and MP Philip ‘Brave’ Davis.
The report will be tabled in the House of Assembly on November 28.
