The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

and RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporters

PHILIP “Brave” Davis last night emerged as the Progressive Liberal Party’s elected leader following a chaotic final national convention day, which suffered an embarrassing voting delay and disorganisation brought on by the underestimation of delegate turn out and electricity failures.

As the ordeal played out last night at the Melia Nassau Beach Hotel, many supporters who sat in the lobby surrounding the ball room shrouded in darkness, questioned the security of the ballot boxes and whether there would be tampering. Others raised concerns that the power failures could be an act of foul play that would result in the final count being contested.

Nonetheless, when the final ballots were counted, the Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP was declared the PLP’s new leader, defeating Englerston MP Glenys Hanna Martin by a wide margin, winning 1,004 votes to her 300. There were 12 spoiled ballots. Activist Troy Garvey received three votes.

Exuma and Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper emerged as the party’s new deputy leader, while Senator and former Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell won the party’s chairman race. Mr Mitchell received 627 votes, former MP Obie Wilchcombe got 419 and former election candidate Glendon Rolle received 261.

Former Senator Robyn Lynes was elected deputy chairman.

Addressing a crowd of elated supporters gathered in the ballroom who erupted into celebration and applause, Mr Davis thanked former Prime Minister Perry Christie, who quit as PLP leader in May, and asked those in attendance to give admiration to Mrs Hanna Martin. He commended her work within the party.

Mr Davis then referenced accusations of corruption which have dogged the PLP. He said the party must have zero tolerance in this party for corruption. However, he also attacked the current administration for not having done much thus far.

He said: “Private gain at the expense of public progress is a terrible kind of sin. Corruption tears at the fabric of our social compact. Where it exists, it must be punished.

“But let me say this, too: false accusations of corruption are surely another kind of sin. They increase cynicism about public life just when we need to encourage participation. So those who scorch reputations and families to score cheap and temporary political points, you are hurting our country and neither your neighbours nor history will look upon you kindly.

“The current government wanted you to believe that everything was broken under the PLP. That was a major disservice to all those who were working hard against long odds for change.

“It’s easy to tear things down, but so much harder to build real change.

“They haven’t done much, but the things they have done have hurt too many Bahamians already, while they send Bahamians home and terminate contracts, while they cancel programmes that better your lives, they have come to Parliament to make it easier to invite non-Bahamians to take your jobs.”

“So let’s come together, fellow Bahamians, and let them know that in the end, they will be judged not by the entertainment value of their latest conspiracy theories, but by what they do for people,” he said.

Calling supporters to work, Mr Davis outlined his plans for the party, adding that Wednesday’s voting process was proof the party needed reforms.

“I have a lot of ideas about how to do this, but this isn’t about one man’s reform crusade, it’s about all of us. We will do this work together, with detailed input from PLPs around the country, formalising a process that is already in motion.

“We have work to do, PLPs. We know time waits for no man, so we must work with urgency, but, more importantly, we must get it right. We need and deserve a 21st century party, one that reflects our values and inspires our fellow citizens.

“I believe in hard work – and I believe that our party’s leader must earn genuine and enthusiastic support from within this party before asking the Bahamian people for their trust to lead the nation.

“So we’re talking about real reforms – an overhaul – not superficial changes.

“Today’s voting process is one example of why we need common sense reform. The experience we had cannot be repeated in conventions to come. There is no reason it had to be such a complicated day. We are going to modernise the process. On this front and many others, change will come.”

Mr Davis said the party under his leadership will also seek to create a new candidates fund to support new leaders and to encourage those who are considering entering frontline politics.

Well before the vote results were announced, the convention floor erupted in celebration as anticipation built for Mr Davis’ victory. “Oh Cat Island“ blared from speakers as the crowd, many wearing “Brave” Davis shirts, cheered and danced.

“Obie gone,” one man with a mic shouted on stage, referring to Mr Wilchcombe, who is known to insiders to have a tense relationship with Mr Davis and may now struggle to find a place in the party.

“This is the first time Brave has ever gotten a whole crowd to cheer for him like this,” one PLP insider said.

Chaos

Mr Davis’ speech and the announcement of the results followed a period of chaos. A restless crowd––including disgruntled PLPs who hadn’t voted hours after polls were expected to close––were stunned when electricity turned off at 7.53pm.

Numerous people hopped from their seats in the pitch black ballroom and shined their cell phone lights over the voting area, which had been barricaded off. Electricity returned a minute before 8pm but went off again five minutes later, spurring another rush from the crowd to protect the integrity of the ballots and the voting process.

Through it all, some officials were concerned too many people were hovering over the ballot boxes. Convention Chairman Michael Halkitis announced not long after that the formal closing ceremony would be scrapped, no live broadcast would take place and only a select group of people would speak once voting results were announced.

The void prompted by the darkness was filled by those who sought to steal the limelight.

“If Brave and Chester lose the race, Pindling and BJ will come back from the grave to take over their body,” one man shouted repeatedly.

Another group of people who tried to spark a “Be Brave” chant saw their efforts largely met with silence from the crowd of more than 100 people.

Regarding the challenges faced last night Mr Halkitis said the process was not “irregular” as he sought to explain the issues.

He said: “As you can see we have electrical issues here at the hotel. I think we got a report that there was a fire so we are trying to address that to get the electricity back on. Soon as that is done we expect to move to counting and so we expect in a few hours to be able to announce the results.

“We are in darkness so if the light comes on in two or three hours we should be done.

“What we anticipate we will do tonight is again we are in darkness (so) we will move to count and then we will move to have the results announced and have the winner of the leader race, the deputy and chairman address those delegates who remain here.”

Asked whether there were any security concerns or that there could have been foul play, Mr Halkitis told The Tribune: “No security concerns. The trustees are there, the ballots are secured, there are security in there, police are in there. So the boxes are secured. It’s just a matter of having these issues with the electricity sorted out so we can commence the count.”

He also said: “I don’t know (if there was foul play) I wouldn’t want to comment on that. I don’t think so.

“I don’t want to put down foul play. I mean it’s unfortunate. I wouldn’t want to attribute foul play to anybody.

“We had 1,700 people so this was even bigger than (the last) convention.

“We had posts that were very keenly contested and people were very vigilant and concerned and they had some issues that they raised this morning that needed to be satisfied. Those caused the delay. They were satisfied and so we started late and then it was just a tremendous amount of people. Bear in mind we have two rooms and so trying to get 1,700 people in two rooms was difficult and so that caused some of the delay.”