Despite the perception that many people have that third parties cannot successfully survive in The Bahamas, several of them are getting in gear as the political season approaches.
When he departed his Coalition for Democratic Reform last year, Dr. Bernard Nottage, now a member of the Christie Cabinet, said he fully expected the CDR to carry on.
The party’s Chief Executive Officer Charles Maynard told The Bahama Journal recently that the party is doing just that and fully intends to field candidates in the next general election.
According to Mr. Maynard, the party intends to make a big announcement within a week or so on the way forward. However, he declined to give any indication on what the announcement would entail, stating that he preferred not to preempt what the party intends to disclose.
Mr. Maynard said the announcement is one that the Bahamian people will appreciate.
“We will definitely participate in the next election,” he said. “We expect that key persons within our organisation are preparing themselves and we have persons who are coming and offering themselves as candidates on a daily basis. So we will be a contender.”
Last November when Dr. Nottage left the CDR, Mr. Maynard had indicated that within 120 to 150 days a new executive team would be elected to lead the party into the election.
It is expected that the CDR will disclose the new executive team and its party platform.
Currently, Mr. Maynard is maintaining the business of the political organization along with Fenton Neymour, who is the acting chief operations officer.
“What has happened in the last 120 days or so, we have been working very hard galvanizing our members, polling them and trying to determine what should be the way forward for our organization now,” Mr. Maynard said.
The party is currently accepting application for candidates. However, he said the party is unsure whether if would offer a candidate in each constituency.
He added that since the departure of Dr. Nottage from the organization, the CDR has been able to move along smoothly.
“We have some persons who supported Dr. Nottage who have left the party to work along with him, but there are many others who have stayed the course,” Mr. Maynard said.
“Personally, I will not be jumping ship. As an organization, the CDR would have to make a determination on what we will do next. It will not be a Charles Maynard thing; it will be a CDR thing. Whatever happens it would be organizational not individual.”
He said the CDR is deeply concerned about various social issues like education.
There are other third parties that also intend to make a showing in the general election, which has to be called before May 2007.
Just this week, Dr. Dexter Johnson announced the formation of the Bahamian National Party, a political organization “dedicated exclusively to the preservation of a free and independent Bahamas.”
On its website, the party says, “We believe that the Bahamian values, traditions and beliefs are especially unique and to preserve them there must exist a focused and ever vigilant political entity dedicated totally to the advancement of the vital interest of the Bahamian people, inspired by the political philosophy of nationalism.”
Outlining its platform, the party said it would promote strong border control; a free enterprise, smaller central government, economic policy with a more equitable point of balance between the interest of the foreign investor and that of the native Bahamian; an ‘interest of the Bahamas first’ foreign policy; and Democratic values, including the rule of law, free speech and a free press;
The party also opposes the Caribbean Single Market and Economy or any regional entity “wishing to subjugate the Bahamas into an extended political and economic unit.”
The Bahamian National Party, however, would have to share the third party spotlight with the Bahamas Democratic Movement, which has continued to contribute to discussion on various national issues over the last four years even though it failed to win any seats in parliament in 2002.
The Labour Party, which had formed a coalition with the CDR in the 2002 election, has not announced whether it intends to field candidates. The party was headed by trade union leader, Obie Ferguson.
By: Bianca Symonette, The Bahama Journal
