By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Deputy Prime Minister Frank Watson says he is confident the Free National Movement will be returned to office after next week’s general election, but predicts it will be a close race.

In an interview yesterday, Mr Watson admitted the Minnis administration’s first term in office was not “milk and honey,” but given the circumstances, the administration did the best it could and deserves to be re-elected.

The Minnis administration, elected in 2017, has navigated through major hurricanes such as 2017’s Irma and Dorian of 2019.

Following this came the coronavirus pandemic, which led to travel shutdowns and a major decline in tourism, triggered mass layoffs and had a serious affect on both public and private healthcare systems.

Given these challenges among others, Mr Watson said he believes the September 16 election will be a “close” race between the FNM and Progressive Liberal Party.

“I am confident that they will be returned,” Mr Watson said. “They’ll get the edge.”

He told The Tribune he was of the view, however, that the handling of the pandemic would play into how Bahamians vote.

“That is a problem, of course, and that’s why I figure it’ll be a close election. I don’t know what impact that is going to have on the outcome of the election.

“I think he (Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis) is going to win in the Family Islands, and he’ll probably pick up enough seats in New Providence to form a government. It’s going to be close I think.

“I think through it all they have managed to handle it fairly decently,” he said.

“Some things they didn’t do well and others they were better at but in a government, you have that kind of hit and miss. You think you are doing the right thing and then it turns out to be the wrong thing. So, given that, I think that they have in the circumstances, managed it really well.

“They have tried to do the best that they can. It wasn’t one of the periods where it was all milk and honey, but through it all I think they came out really well and deserve to be returned.”

Mr Watson was National Security Minister in a previous FNM administration.

The advanced poll is tomorrow and more than 10,000 people have applied to the Parliamentary Registration Department to participate in this vote, according to acting Parliamentary Commissioner Lavado Duncanson last week.

In August, officials revealed some 30,000 people were eligible to cast their vote in the advanced poll.

Mr Duncanson has said department officials are doing all they can to make early voting registration available for eligible voters before the application deadline which was on September 4.