General elections were held in the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

on 2 May 2002. The opposition

Progressive Liberal Party The Progressive Liberal Party (abbreviated PLP) is a populist and social liberal party in the Bahamas. Philip Davis is the leader of the party. History The PLP was founded in 1953 by William Cartwright, Cyril Stevenson, and Henry Milton ...

(PLP) won 29 of the 40 seats in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible g ...

to defeat the governing

Free National Movement The Free National Movement (abbreviated FNM) is a political party in the Bahamas formed in the early 1970s and led by Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield. The current leader of the party is Michael Pintard and the current deputy leader is Shanendon C ...

(FNM). Voter turnout was 90%.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

(2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p82

Background

In the 1992 election the Free National Movement came to power after defeating the then governing Progressive Liberal Party. Their leader

Hubert Ingraham Hubert Alexander Ingraham, PC (born 4 August 1947) is a Bahamian politician who was Prime Minister of the Bahamas from August 1992 to May 2002, and again from May 2007 to May 2012. He is a member of the Free National Movement Party (FNM). Pr ...

served as

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

from 1992 until he announced his intention to step down as prime minister at the 2002 general election. Tommy Turnquest was then narrowly elected as the next leader of the FNM and would be the party's candidate for prime minister at the election. The FNM government suffered a setback in February 2002 when an attempt to amend the constitution was rejected in a referendum. The referendum had been contested between the two main parties after the PLP reversed their earlier support and campaigned against the changes.

Campaign

A record 132 candidates stood in the election for the 40 seats in the House of Assembly that were being contested. These were from 4 political parties and included 40 from the governing FNM and 37 from the opposition PLP. As well as the candidates from political parties there were also 14

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

s. The FNM defended their time in government, pointing to the strong economic growth over the period and the large amount of foreign investment that had come into the Bahamas. Their new leader Tommy Turnquest pledged to continue as they had been doing under Hubert Ingraham. However the opposition PLP criticised the FNM as being out of touch and attacked them for being too quick to comply with the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), also known by its French name, Groupe d'action financière (GAFI), is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering and to m ...

. The PLP said that they would help the less well off and develop islands they said had been neglected by the FNM. Both parties made fierce attacks on each other with the FNM reminding voters of the scandals over drug money that had led to the PLP losing power back in 1992. Meanwhile, the PLP accused the FNM's Tommy Turnquest of corruption over the awarding of government contracts. Despite the harsh campaign, outside commentators expected little change in policies whichever party was successful in the election. There was no trouble on election day, with schools and liquor stores being closed and

polling station A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English, British English and Canadian English although a polling place is the building and polling station is the specific ...

s seeing a high turnout.

Results

The results saw the PLP win over half of the vote and 29 of the seats in the House of Assembly. The FNM conceded defeat, with their leader Tommy Turnquest being one of several cabinet ministers to lose their seats. The leader of the PLP, Perry Christie, became the new prime minister of the Bahamas on 3 May 2002.

Elected MPs

References

{{Bahamian elections Elections in the Bahamas

General election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...