Redrawing constituency boundary lines at election time is an art reserved for prime ministers. Though the parliamentary boundaries commission is charged with setting the boundaries for general elections, everyone knows the prime minister is in charge of this process.
The man with the pen usually tries to set an environment most favorable for his party. This great power, however, doesn’t always help the PM and his party. The last two prime ministers and parties in power (2002 and 2007) lost when they had the power to set the boundaries.
Currently, there are 41 seats in the House of Assembly. There were about 4,000 constituents in each of the New Providence constituencies in 2007. Successive regimes have attempted, in recent years, to keep the numbers fairly even in constituencies in the country’s main island.
This is an admirable aspiration. However, The Bahamas still has too many seats in its elected chamber.
