FNM deputy leader Loretta Butler-Turner blasted the government's silence on the spike in reported rape cases.

She noted that although the exact number of incidents or the rate of incidence is not known, press reports suggest there appears to be an "alarming increase" in the number of rapes in New Providence.

Mrs Butler-Turner said: "Thus far, the Christie administration has failed to speak out clearly and vigorously on the issue of rape, inclusive of advisories to Bahamian women on what appears to be an upsurge in rapes.

"Little to nothing has been said by the Minister of National Security or the Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security. Likewise, the female members of the Cabinet have been silent.

"As rape affects women and their families, including husbands and partners, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and other family members, this silence from the government is deeply disturbing."

Mrs Butler-Turner said rape is one of the worst crimes in society.

"It is a heinous violation of the human person and human dignity. The deep scars such a violation leaves are physical, emotional and psychological. It also scars the family unit and the wider society," she said.

She said that taking comprehensive legislative action last year, the FNM demonstrated the gravity with which it views the crime of rape.

Various laws dealing with rape were amended, including the Penal Code and the Sexual Offences Act, she noted.

In the Sexual Offences Act (Amendment) Bill an amendment was made to: "introduce a sentence range of 15 years to life for a defendant convicted of rape. Life will mean the whole of the remaining years of a convicted person's life."

Rape was included in the offences in the amendment to the Bail Act requiring, "a judge to take certain critical factors into consideration, prior to the grant of bail to a defendant."

Mrs Butler-Turner said: "Rape is such as serious crime that the amendment was made to restrict access to bail by certain alleged violent offenders and repeat offenders.

"The omnibus legislation to combat violent crime, including murder, detailed the more egregious categories of murder, including murder of police or other law enforcement officials, and persons critical to the judicial system such as witnesses, jurors, judicial officials, prosecutors, a murder in furtherance of robbery, rape, kidnapping, terrorism or other felony, multiple murders and contract killings."

She said the FNM calls on the government to address this matter in a manner which is forthright, without jeopardising national security considerations.

"The Minister of National Security suggested that he believed the new anti-crime legislation introduced by the Ingraham administration to be too harsh. Will he and the government now indicate/confirm that the laws affecting rape and those convicted of rape will not be softened, and that Bahamians can expect that rapists will not find terms for bail being reduced by the new PLP government?" she asked.