The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

AFTER appeals were lodged against Grand Bahama’s New Year’s Day Junkanoo results, the Platinum Knights group has now been declared the official winner.

This comes after protests by two groups of the unofficial results announced on January 2.

The two-time defending champion Platinum Knights fell in the standings from first to third place after penalty deductions were applied, moving the Superstar Rockers into first place as the unofficial winner of the parade.

At a press conference held at the Junkanoo Committee headquarters, co-chairman Kevin Russell said there was a delay in the official results to allow for due process after appeals were lodged following the release of the unofficial results.

“The unofficial results were given and you had two groups that lodged appeals by letters of protest, and we had to look at that,” he said.

Mr Russell stated the appeal was conducted on January 21 when Knights’ leader presented the group’s case and a subsequent appeal was put forth by the Classic Dancers group.

The panel hearing the appeal consisted of four independent persons from the community; two representatives from the National Junkanoo Committee, a representative of the Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture and members of Grand Bahama Junkanoo Committee.

Mr Russell said: “We went through the rules and decided that the penalties that were assessed to every group were assessed in the wrong manner so the panelists decided to throw out all the penalty points and judge the parade on the points amassed by the judges.

“The compilation of the penalty committee was not in accordance with the rules. We came in here, Mr Smith and myself, we met these rules in place.”

He explained that group members would have chosen five people from each group as penalty judges.

That, he said, was in contravention of the particular section of the rules which ask for a group marshal, three independents and a penalty committee chairperson.

Mr Russell said that was not observed so as a result the results were thrown out.

According to the official results of the A Division, he said that overall placement put Classic Dancers fourth with 2,403 points; The Swingers third with 2,597 points; Superstar Rockers second with 2,832 points; and the Platinum Knights first with 3,087 points.

Mr Russell stressed that Junkanoo officials are looking at establishing universal rules when judging future parades to avoid issues like what happened in Grand Bahama this month.

“When looking at the rules, they found glaring grey areas and ambiguities and we are trying to clean this up,” Mr Russell, a lawyer, said.

“What they are saying is that we are going to revamp the whole system. This is a clarion call; what happened here is a clarion call to get a uniform (set of rules) throughout the islands because what the rule is in Grand Bahama should be the rule in Nassau, Abaco, and Exuma,” he said.

“. . .Because this is our culture and what right now what happened should not have happened and it is a black eye on Junkanoo, so we will try to clean it up as best we can,” Mr Russell vowed.

Thomas Curry, group leader of the Platinum Knights, and members of the group were pleased to have been announced the winners of the parade.

“It was a long process but thank God it is finally done and we could move on, but to God be the glory, great things he has done,” he said.

Mr Curry thanked the Grand Bahama Junkanoo Committee, the National Junkanoo Committee, the fans, and judges.

“They finally got it right, “ he said. “They heard our plea and everyone knows what the results were from day one so now I guess we could celebrate.”

He also said he supports plans to revamp parade rules. When asked how he felt about revamping of rules, Mr Curry said he supported it.

This marks the group’s third consecutive win in Grand Bahama.