Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham tabled the Boundaries Commission report in the House of Assembly without any modifications yesterday, paving the way for what is expected to be a heated debate.
The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) is fiercely opposed to the boundary cuts. Over the past few weeks, the PLP has made that clear, with its leader and several members accusing the government of gerrymandering.
Debate on the report is expected to begin at 3 p.m. today. As previously reported exclusively by The Nassau Guardian, there will be 23 seats in New Providence, five in Grand Bahama and 10 in the Family Islands for a total of 38 seats.
Ingraham said the boundaries were changed to ensure an average of just over 4,000 voters in each constituency and about 400 voters in each polling division. The newly configured map shows several changes and many Bahamians will find themselves voting in a totally different constituency or polling division than they did last election.
The Boundaries Commission recommends that a number of constituencies be redrawn or folded into other constituencies. For example, a large part of Killarney will be folded into Fort Charlotte and almost all of Clifton will be folded into Killarney.
As previously reported, three new constituencies will be created: Nassau Village, Southern Shores and Tall Pines. Blue Hills, Clifton, Englerston, Kennedy and St. Thomas More will be eliminated.
One constituency on Grand Bahama will also be eliminated. Ingraham noted that as of November 14, there were 137,444 registered voters in the country.
Of that number, 96,111 (69.92 percent) were registered on New Providence; 20,166 (14.67 percent) were registered on Grand Bahama and Bimini, and 21,167 (15.4 percent) were registered in the Family Islands.
The commission took the 96,111 registered voters in New Providence and divided that number by the 23 constituencies that will exist after the general election, and came up with an average of 4,178 registered voters in each area.
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