The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

SOME senior citizens took longer to vote than expected, while people lacking required documents also slowed down the voting process in West Grand Bahama and Bimini on Wednesday, according to acting Parliamentary Commissioner Arthur Taylor.

His comment was in response to a reporter who said some people complained that the voting process was slow.

“The seniors we accommodate, those handicapped persons and that kind of thing, we can’t rush them,” Mr Taylor said, adding that people lacking documents were allowed to vote under oath.

Mr Taylor confirmed that Bishop Ricardo Grant and Lincoln Bain, candidates for the FNM and COI, conceded defeat shortly after polling officers started recounting votes yesterday.

He said despite their concessions, the recount continued.

The Parliamentary Registration Department did not release official numbers yesterday. According to the unofficial results, the PLP’s Kingsley Smith got 2,150 votes, Bishop Grant got 1,276, Mr Bain got 307, DaQuan Swain got 28 and Terneille Burrows got four votes.

6,015 people were registered to vote in the constituency. The turnout was about 62 per cent.

Only Mr Smith and Bishop Grant made the one-sixth threshold needed to get back their $400 deposit for contesting the seat.

Bishop Grant said that polling officers had finished recounting two boxes of votes when he conceded the race.

“We were satisfied that everything was being done and done in decency and in order,” he said.