The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

WINNING more than 2,000 votes at the polls in the West Grand Bahama and Bimini by-election yesterday, newly elected MP Kingsley Smith said he and the Progressive Liberal Party are up for the challenge.

Mr Smith won the by-election with 2,150 votes, while FNM candidate Bishop Ricardo Grant had 1,276 votes.

He spoke on his victory shortly after the release of the unofficial results. He was joined by a sea of gold and blue dressed Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) supporters at the party’s headquarters in West Grand Bahama.

Mr Smith said his time as a parliamentarian will be spent fulfilling and addressing the concerns he heard from residents of West Grand Bahama and Bimini, while campaigning.

“There are a lot of concerns I would have heard throughout this course of the campaign. There is no wasting time, there is no partying, there is no time to slunk, there is no time to sleep, no time for vacation, we need to get to work.

“There is a lot of work to do and I am up for the challenge. I would have seen my people and what is happening and I want to make sure that I help them the best way I can.

“So I am going into Parliament with the government to come through and provide for the residents of West Grand Bahama and Bimini,” Mr Smith said.

Mr Smith predicted his win earlier that day, saying he was the candidate of choice, with a plan for constituents, as opposed to Free National Movement (FNM) candidate Bishop Ricardo Grant, who, he said, had “no plan” for the constituency.

“I would have laid out my plans. I would have said it throughout the course of this campaign. It was clear, it was articulate. We know that any other candidate, and the Bishop, would have said he had no plan and he wanted to hear the people.

“I came out from day one with a plan. I born here, I raise here. I know what the community needs and I am here to do it for me, my family, the residents and the community.”

Mr Smith said the FNM’s supporters were from out of the constituency and were used to show the FNM had support at the polls, when it did not.

“What they tried to do is a perception and when you look at their supporters, all of them that you see there are from out of West Grand Bahama and Bimini. There is no concern. What we have today are voters, actual voters.”