The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was critical of how uniformed officers are used on the campaign trail for Progressive Liberal Party members.

He was speaking at an FNM rally in Eight Mile Rock on Monday evening.

“They are using the government and abusing the government and misusing the government and its resources on this campaign,” he said.

“I saw something that I don’t expect to see again in The Bahamas. For uniformed police officers to be accompanying the head of the government campaigning at night with police lights blazing, that ain’t right. It is undemocratic. They know better than that, the police know better than that, so stop it!

Mr Ingraham criticised the PLP’s candidate Kingsley Smith, whose assets and liabilities declaration for the by-election included nothing about savings and current accounts.

The FNM has said Mr Smith is suggesting he does not have a bank account.

Senator Rueben Rahming noted during the rally that a person could face ten years in prison for a false declaration, according to Section 427 of the Penal Code.

“The PLP candidate swore that the evidence he gave was the truth,” he said. “I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. He is a grown and professional man who worked in the Passport Office and the man don’t have a bank account?”

The Bahamas does not have independent verification of what public officials declare.