The North Abaco by-election will be held on October 15 with nomination day set for September 26, the Ministry of National Security announced yesterday evening.
Hours before the official announcement was made, Prime Minister Perry Christie told The Nassau Guardian that he would head to Abaco as early as today where campaigning is in full gear.
Christie said the PLP's candidate Renardo Curry is the best choice because he can do more for North Abaco as a member of the governing party than his opponents.
"I have not been back [to Abaco] I think since the general election, so I would be going in to make an assessment as to where we are," Christie said.
"This is now the time and Abaco would be the place. We're going to do our very best to ensure that the people of the constituency know that they have an opportunity to enable their man, Renardo Curry, to be elected and be in a position to cause things to happen for them in the next five years in a more meaningful way than if they were to elect the opposition [candidate]."
However, he said, "The fact of the matter is we are the government of The Bahamas, we will continue to be the government and we will continue, notwithstanding any decision of the people of Abaco, to ensure that Abaco is taken care of properly."
Curry, who has been campaigning in the area for months, lost his bid to represent the area when former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham defeated him in the May general election.
Ingraham resigned as the representative for North Abaco effective August 31.
He was elected to represent the area eight consecutive times.
Ingraham delayed his resignation until the end of August partly to give Free National Movement (FNM) candidate Greg Gomez a chance to meet residency requirements for candidates.
Gomez lived in the United States up until August 2011.
The constitution mandates that in order to be eligible for election to the House of Assembly a person must have been an ordinary resident of the country for not less than one year immediately before nomination.

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