By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

OPPOSITION LEADER Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday accused the government of allowing web shop owners to take advantage of Bahamians during “hard times”.


Dr Minnis was speaking moments after casting his no vote in the gaming referendum.
He said he was disheartened and upset with the entire referendum process and said the government is too weak to meet the needs of the Bahamian people.

“Unemployment is high, people are suffering and it is during these times when individuals are looking for and need strong leadership and strong government. That is when they need help. These are times when individuals can be taken advantage of and the government has allowed the ‘Yes” team, the numbers boys, to blatantly flaunt the system and take advantage of people when they are at their weakest points,” he said.

“This is a time when strong leadership is needed. The Christie government has failed in strong leadership. They have allowed blatant acts of corruption and bribery to occur.

“Some ‘Yes’ individuals flaunt their money, giving individuals money, televisions and various other things. I understand that they are also depositing money on individuals on line accounts. That is overt bribery.

“The government should never allow those things to happen. It does not speak well for our democratic system and we must ensure that this does not happen again.”

Dr Minnis also said there was mass confusion at the polls because the government did not inform people of where to go or how the entire process should work.

“This once again shows lack of leadership by the government. There should have been a master list at the polling divisions were voters can at least know where they should be voting and if they were are the wrong place someone should tell them where to go.

“There was no leadership, no guidance. Not even a notice in the paper as to where people should go. It was a huge fail on the governments part.”