The Tribune

Has Perry Christie done enough for his Centreville constituents to warrant another re-election? Rashad Rolle takes to the street to find out if the Prime Minister’s time might be coming to a close.

CRAIGNESHA Nottage is voting for Prime Minister Perry Christie in Centreville because her entire family supports the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and because Mr Christie has personally helped many of them get jobs, she told The Tribune yesterday.

She was one of many residents who spoke with this newspaper as it canvassed the Centreville constituency yesterday. While some expressed ardent support for Mr Christie, others were fed up with the slow pace of progress in the area.

“Two of my family members are by his office right now getting interviewed and two of them started working today as I speak,” she said yesterday. “He helped them. My auntie, she’s a big PLP and she have position. She working on getting something for me to do now. All my cousins by his office.”

As she prepares to cast her vote in an election for the first time, Ms Nottage is hoping Mr Christie will provide her with a job as well.

“He’s always promising,” she said. “He always tell me to come see him. I just saw him last night (at a PLP branch meeting). So far, he came through on two of his promises for me but the most important thing is that I get a job because I ain’t working.”

Troy Nixon, an artist, is also voting for the PLP, although he wishes the people connected to Mr Christie would travel through the constituency more often and create constructive activities for the young in the area to engage in.

Like others who spoke to The Tribune yesterday, he expects Mr Christie to maintain his stranglehold on the constituency he has won eight consecutive times.

“He’s well loved around here because he’s from here,” he said. “That’s probably the number one reason why we vote for him.”

Signs of dissatisfaction abound in an area that bears numerous signs of economic hardship despite the many businesses that encircle residential.

An 89-year-old woman who declined to disclose her name, for instance, said though she voted for Mr Christie five years ago she will give the Free National Movement (FNM) her vote this time.

“I think (Mr Christie) needs a rest now,” she said. “Give somebody else a chance. There’s not been enough progress in Centreville. Things should have been so much better. I thought it would be better the last time, which is why I voted for them, but I’m disappointed.”

The woman wants the constituency to move past the era where outside toilets exist and government water pumps are frequently used. “The place is not fixed up,” she said.

Criticisms of FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis don’t faze her, she said. “Let’s give him a chance,” she said. “He’s a good man.”

Another woman, Elizabeth Scantlebury, 65, will not vote for either of the major parties, choosing the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) instead.

“I got bite from the red dog and the yellow dog,” she said. “It ain’ make no sense going through that again.”

Like the 89-year-old, Ms Scantlebury is concerned with basic quality-of-life issues: better roads, fewer outside toilets, “proper facilities for people”.

Despite expectations of a victory for Mr Christie, the diehard FNM supporters in the area, like 72-year-old Doreen Lightbourne, are vocal in their dissatisfaction with Mr Christie’s representation.

“Everybody wants Perry Christie out,” she said, a line she repeated over and over when told of Mr Christie’s decades-long popularity among Centreville residents.

“He talking about five more years, why? To mess up this country more than what it is now? I never vote for the PLP. Ain’t nobody in here voting the PLP. We want him out. You see how that man has this country all messed up?”

Aside from diehard party supporters, it was difficult to discern enthusiasm among Bahamians in the area for the upcoming election.

“I ain’t voting for any of them. I voting for Jesus,” one 24-year-old man said. “Think about the future of the youth growing up in this island and you think I gon’ waste my time voting for any of them? I ain’ worrying about them. To show you how Perry don’t play, he stick up his middle finger in public bro. Things don’t make no sense and don’t have these men them sell you any dreams.”