Education Minister Desmond Bannister yesterday promised to reveal the full details today on what he says is widespread voter fraud in North Andros, a constituency he will run in for the Free National Movement in the upcoming election.
Bannister told The Nassau Guardian he has already turned over some of the names of people involved to Parliamentary Commissioner Errol Bethel.
"North Andros has been the bedrock of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP)," Bannister said.
"They are desperate. They will do anything inside or outside the law to retain North Andros."
Bannister, the current member of Parliament for Carmichael, insisted, "I have the facts."
Bethel told The Nassau Guardian yesterday he was checking into the claims raised by the minister and did not want to go into any details because he had only recently started his probe.
The parliamentary commissioner faced scathing criticisms from Election Court judges after the last general election and after the 2010 Elizabeth by-election.
The justices pointed to egregious failures in the parliamentary registration system.
This approaching election will be the first major test of the Parliamentary Registration Department since those criticisms.
While Bannister wished not to say yesterday how many names he turned over to the parliamentary commissioner, Bethel said one list included 30 names and another included 12 names.
"I have to check to find out what the situation is," Bethel said.
On Friday night, PLP Leader Perry Christie challenged the parliamentary commissioner to verify the accuracy of the voter's register and determine whether any fraud has taken place.
Christie said Bannister has talked "nonsense about registering dead people right here in North Andros".
"It's pathetic and it's untrue," said Christie, who spoke at the opening of the PLP's North Andros constituency office.
"I want to call upon the parliamentary commissioner to verify the accuracy of the voter's list and say to him any evidence of fraud -- and believe me the fraud won't be PLP fraud -- he should turn over to the police immediately.
"That's what I say tonight. That's what I say here. Do your job. Look for fraud. If you find it, turn it [over] to the police."
Bannister told The Nassau Guardian yesterday he will make a public statement today "which will deal with a number of things".
"One of them has to do with the manner in which PLP operatives have been flying persons into North Andros to register to vote and they're not entitled to do it," he said.
"And members of the media, I will be able to provide them with the names so that they can follow up and do their own investigation."
Bannister will go head to head with Dr. Perry Gomez, the PLP's North Andros candidate, and Captain Randy Butler, who is the Democratic National Alliance's candidate for the constituency.
On Friday night, Gomez was endorsed by several prominent individuals, including his brother Archbishop Drexel Gomez, who highlighted to PLP supporters his brother's accomplishments and values.
Bannister yesterday suggested that the archbishop's presence on a political stage was inappropriate.
"How ethical is it for an archbishop to be talking at a political rally?" he asked.
He called Archbishop Gomez, Dame Marguerite Pindling and former Governor General A. D. Hanna (who all attended the event) "a geriatric group" brought out by the PLP to campaign for Gomez.
"If you look at the last election campaign and you look at a report the PLP did, the PLP cannot attract the young people of this country," said Bannister, who was referring to the Greenberg Quinlan Rosner report commissioned by the PLP after the last election.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian