EDITOR, The Tribune.

NAME recognition in Bahamian politics can be an added bonus in one’s attempt to win a seat in the House of Assembly. West Grand Bahama and Bimini MP Kingsley Smith understand this.

As one who has been a sitting MP since November 2023, Smith believes that he has a distinct advantage over political newcomer Omar Isaacs, who was ratified by the opposition Free National Movement last week to challenge Smith in West End. This morning while watching ZNS TV 13 News on YouTube, I listened with interest as Smith talked about folks bemoaning the fact that Isaacs is an unknown. Smith would then state, perhaps with a tinge of overconfidence, that he is well known. That claim is up for debate. And even if true, Smith’s criticism of Isaacs could have also been levied at him. It was only after the untimely and unexpected death of Obie Wilchcombe that this writer heard the name Kingsley Smith for the first time. Those who read this section of the printed press regularly would know that this writer comments mostly on the political situation in this country.

Outside of his Progressive Liberal Party and FNM circles, few Bahamians had ever heard of Smith. I would even go further by stating that if Smith were to venture into the constituencies in the inner-city areas of New Providence, perhaps 75 percent of the folks he would encounter wouldn’t recognise him from the man on the moon. In fact, I understand that an individual at one financial institution didn’t even know who Smith was months into his tenure as West End MP. Outside of Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis, Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, PLP Chair Fred Mitchell and Cabinet Ministers Glenys Hanna-Martin, Alfred Sears, JoBeth Coleby-Davis and Michael Halkitis, every other PLP Parliamentarian must be considered a political lightweight. The foregoing is what I termed the big six. They are the face of the PLP.

Compared to them, Smith is a lightweight and Johnny-come-lately. The PLP didn’t need him to win West End. It could have fielded the Ayatollah Khamenei and still would have won the 2023 by-election by a comfortable margin. When PLPs went to the polls to vote in Grand Bahama and Bimini, they voted for the party. Smith’s name was an afterthought. PLPs who voted were thinking about Wilchcombe. In fact, a concerted effort was made to campaign on Wilchcombe’s legacy. The party would have been at a disadvantage by selling Smith because he was virtually unknown. No one knew him outside of his political circles. No offense to the West Grand Bahama and Bimini incumbent. While I give Smith props for winning a seat that has been won by the PLP in 1967, 1968, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2021, the claim that Isaacs is an unknown can go both ways in this case.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama

July 1, 2025.