Grand Bahama, The Bahamas \u2013 The turnout was low for the June 23 Local Government elections\u00a0in the City of Freeport, when compared to some Family Islands districts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the city of Freeport, the turnout was not as good.\u00a0 In some of the polling divisions, the turnout was as low as one-fifth of the registered voters or in some of the polling divisions, as low as 25 percent,\u201d said Byran Woodside, Minister of State for Lands and Local Government in the Office of the Prime Minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we find in the remote islands, local government plays a vital role in their local community.\u00a0 The turnout was as high as 80 to 90 percent.\u00a0 Some districts the voter turnout was not as good as other districts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day, from every indication, has gone quite well.\u00a0 Bahamians have come out in full force in some of the districts to vote for persons whom they wish to serve for the next three years in their local government councils and town committees,\u201d said Mr. Woodside.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt [low turnout] speaks volumes for certain things.\u00a0 In the city of Freeport, because they are a whole lot more sophisticated than some of the remote Family Islands, people tend to believe that they do not have to rely on local government as much as in Mayaguana, Exuma, Long Island, what have you.\u00a0 So you have a different dynamic at work in the city of Freeport.\u201d<\/p>\n
The central government wants young people to be exposed to the importance of governance, teamwork and negotiation by letting them sit on a junior council.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we started was the local government junior council and we used two schools here in the city of Freeport.\u00a0 What we seek to do by encouraging young people to embrace local government and understanding the civics and the importance of local government, as it relates to governance of a people,\u201d said Mr. Woodside.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope that will bear some fruits in the future.\u00a0 So, when you have a cadre of young people in the city of Freeport, believing the strong view that local government is important.\u00a0 They will not only embrace voting in the local elections, but also offer themselves for leadership in the local government council in the city of Freeport.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is critical to appreciate is that generally people understand local government.\u00a0 They want local government to be empowered to do more and they certainly support this democratic evolution that started in 1996 in The Bahamas,\u201d said Mr. Woodside.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrand Bahama has a unique situation as a result of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, which some 50 plus years ago, enabled the establishment of a port authority, so in a sense, the city of Freeport had local government well before the establishment of the 1996 Local Government Act.\u00a0 So, they have been a very sophisticated society, in that sense that they have had what may be considered a three-tier form of local government with the state municipality and at a local government council level.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a great opportunity to build on what has historically allowed them to be an autonomous district.\u00a0 So, it is important that they continue to work in harmony with the Port Authority and they seek to partner with them and go beyond the types of things that local government would tend to do, like cleaning the parks and building community centers and things of that nature,\u201d said Mr. Woodside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should also look at local government as a means to empower people, to provide employment, and to deepen the economic development for the city of Freeport.\u00a0 And God knows, Grand Bahama needs it.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Gena Gibbs
\nBAHAMAS INFORMATION SERVICES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The turnout was low for the June 23 Local Government elections\u00a0in the city of Freeport, when compared to some Family Islands districts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[71,40,168],"class_list":["post-9753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-freeport","tag-government","tag-politics-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}