Rick Lowe

As we all know by now, at 9:00pm on Tuesday night, the unofficial count for the Elizabeth Bye-Election had Dr. Duane Sands of the FNM winning by 1 vote.

The Unofficial count ended up as follows:

FNM 1,501, PLP 1,500, BDM 115, WP 21 and NDP 73

With 4, 932 people on the Register from the 2007 General Elections, that means 1,732 people decided not to vote. A staggering number when Bahamians usually turn out en masse. 90% of those registered normally show up to exercise their Constitutional choice. A 65% turn out is unheard of.

So what happened to those 35% of those people on the register that didn't vote?

Well there are a few theories being bandied about:

• Elizabeth reportedly has lots of rental properties so many of these people might have had to return to their family homes as a result of the economic downturn.

• Many of them could be swing voters that decided to give it a pass.

Now hold on to your seat for this theory coming from a PLP friend.

• Many PLP's might have sat this out because they were angry that a white candidate was offered up in their so called "grass roots" riding. And I couldn't believe my ears watching a Tribune video on their site when Mr. Moncur, the Workers Party candidate asked a PLP supporter if he was going to support that white man instead of him, or words to that effect. How silly.

Should people be surprised that the FNM is ahead so far?

One theory being espoused is that the FNM government should win in these circumstances because people vote in the hope they will get the things their constituency needs until the next election when they can vote for the party of their choice.

Another suggestion is this seat has been considered a PLP stronghold with them winning 3 General Elections and the FNM winning 2 General Elections since the seat was created for the 1987 poll.

Since the current day PLP candidate Ryan Pinder's father Marvin won the seat in 1987, the general consensus, at least among my peers, has been that Malcolm Creek, come Elizabeth, would be more likely to vote PLP.

There has also been discussion that if the FNM loses it is a reflection on their leadership of the country, whereas if the PLP should lose this could be a reflection of the failure of its leader former Prime Minister Perry Christie.

One PLP personality was saying last night that it really didn't matter if the PLP lost the seat now, it's the 2012 poll that's important.

I'm not sure I buy either of those propositions. Could it be there is a general malaise where promises from political parties are concerned? No matter which party or person is in charge? In other words, is empty rhetoric seen for what it is finally?

I think the FNM will be lucky to win the seat for the reasons stated above. The real concern for both major parties, in my not so humble opinion, is why so many people decided to sit the election out and why 209 voters decided to support one of the three smaller parties.

I'm hopeful that people are learning that politicians can give us nothing they don't take form us first, but we'll have to wait and see what the General Election of 2012 brings.

In a nutshell, the FNM are now ahead by a razor thin margin of two votes and the PLP are threatening to take the poll to Election Court. The FNM on the other hand have stated that if they lose, they will not challenge the results in Court.

If the results of this Bye-Election are not important why should it take a day to recount the ballots from 4 of the 12 polling stations amid reports of "grandstanding going on inside the recount room" by PLP operatives?

We're all Bahamian's and have to live with each other after all this and cooler heads need to go into the polling station to represent both parties.

By the way, following is a look at what the recount was looking like as
at 8:30pm last night, with the results of polling divisions 1, 2, 3 and
4 confirmed.