By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement (FNM) leader Michael Pintard says he believes the government missed an opportunity to address a number of voter parity issues in its boundaries report, a claim government officials dismissed as “nonsense.”

While acknowledging the commission’s recommendation of two new seats - one in western New Providence and the other in Bimini and the Berry Islands, Mr Pintard said the opposition believes the report did not adequately address the fundamental issues the commission is tasked with resolving.

“So for example," he said, "in their move of taking Bimini and putting it with the Berry islands. Clearly, if they were interested in greater parity across Grand Bahama, you would notice that there is at least a 1,300 vote difference between West Grand Bahama now and let's say East Grand Bahama.”

Mr Pintard noted the government’s claims of seeking voter parity, but said it is not reflected in Grand Bahama or elsewhere under the proposed changes.

He furthered that the disparity is evident in the Prime Minister’s seat in Cat Island, which has fewer than 1,800 voters, compared with his own constituency, Marco City, which has over 6,000 voters.

He also noted MICAL as another challenging constituency to represent, pointing out that it has the same resources as other constituencies despite its size.

“One thing for sure, we know that you could change the lines, but you can't change the minds of Bahamians,” Mr Pintard said, “and so we're looking forward to contesting this election, and we believe in future, one of the things we will do when we're in government is to address the issue of lack of parity in terms of the number of voters in the various seats.”

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, who served on the commission, defended the report, dismissing opposition claims that it missed an opportunity.

He noted that the opposition had opportunities to make such changes when they were in government, but did not do so.

“The reality is the opposition had a member of the committee," he said. "These matters were fully discussed. The opposition member agreed with the report, executed the report. We laid the report today. That report would go to the Governor General and indeed next week, the order will come which will be executed by the Governor General.”

He added that the opposition “can spew as much nonsense as they like,” stressing that the commission carried out its work as objectively as possible.

Concerning the reasoning behind combining the Bimini and Berry Islands seat, he said the proposal was not a new concept.

“We’ve previously had that configuration and there are natural connections between Bimini and Berry island and we thought that was an opportunity to create a new seat in they regard,” he said.

Regarding the St James constituency, which includes parts of Killarney and Golden Isles, Mr Cooper said the commission has long noted the large voter bases in both areas.

He said while Killarney remains the largest constituency, the changes aim to create more balance and ensure that most constituencies fall within the 5,000 voter range.