By MALCOLM STRACHAN

Parliament has been prorogued until April 8, and PLP chairman Fred Mitchell is telling people to pay attention to that date. The election bell is about to ring.

We know the election is coming, but there is a detail about the proroguing of Parliament that is worth noting. The bigger picture may be that the whole of the government may be about to change, but proroguing Parliament brings a definite end to all the legislation of that session. It is a full stop for a whole range of legislation – an end to any chance to fulfil some of those promises in the PLP’s election manifesto last time around.

Most notably, the last promise to be broken is the promise of fixed election dates.

As long ago as 2012, then PLP Deputy Leader Philip Davis announced that if the PLP was returned to office, they would commit to a fixed date for general elections, saying: “No one man should hold a country hostage.”

He added: “This is why our party leader has committed as the next Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas to a fixed election date. No more guessing when the bell will ring.”

Fourteen years later, here we are, guessing when the bell will ring. You can’t tell me that in 14 years there was no opportunity to fulfil that promise.

In 2021, when Opposition leader, Mr Davis accused Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis of “trying to ambush the opposition” over the election date.

He said at the time: “One would’ve expected by now we would’ve had legislation that would have fixed dates for election, that’s what he [Minnis] promised. It’s not here and if there is one thing he could’ve done without legislation he could’ve said ‘Well I didn’t have the time to or the legislative agenda (does) not permit me the time to bring legislation for the purpose of fixed the date but I will from an administrative point of view tell you what the date is.’

“But he’s not doing that. The reason for that is I think he’s looking for an ambush and that’s all we can say. He’s trying to ambush the opposition. Well, we are ready for an ambush, and our flanks are fortified.”

Election dates are not the only promise to go unfulfilled, of course. We are now about to go into another election still with no campaign finance legislation. Who will be paying for the next government to get elected? Who knows? There’s no sign of laws to give transparency over the election process.

Let’s go back to 2021 again. Then Opposition leader Philip Davis was outraged by the lack of campaign finance legislation. He said it would be irresponsible of the government not to bring campaign finance legislation before the next election.

Dr Minnis said at the time he had “seven more years” to deal with campaign finance legislation – a prediction that was both presumptuous and dead wrong – and Mr Davis fired back: “That he’s saying we have seven years in which to bring the legislation speaks to his hypocrisy and his true ways. It shows his presumptuousness as well. Every time they open their mouth you really can’t listen to what they say, just watch what they do. What could you believe coming from them at this point?”

Mr Davis added that term limits for prime ministers and a fixed date for elections were “low hanging fruits”. He said: “You don’t need nothing complicated or great hurdles to cross but again, as is typical, they had a campaign about things they thought people wanted to hear to get elected, they didn’t truly want to implement transformative policies.”

In its Blueprint for Change, the PLP promised to “commit to good governance, with integrity and accountability”.

In one sweeping paragraph in the blueprint, the party promised: “We commit to fully implementing the Freedom of Information Act, an Integrity Commission Act, Ombudsman Bill, new Public Disclosure Act, Anti-Corruption Act, Campaign Finance Reform, Code of Conduct, Whistleblower Act, Electoral Reform Act, and Procurement Act.

Some of those are “low hanging fruits”, remember. That’s a list of things not done, or not fully implemented.

The continual delay in the Freedom of Information Act stands out as a particularly bad joke. Any time there’s a promise over transparency, you just have to look at the neglected freedom of information progress to see what that promise really means.

We also appear to be going into the election with no resolution to major situations involving Grand Bahama.

On February 23, US developer Concord Wilshire promised an update on the start of construction at the Grand Lucayan resort in Freeport. That update was promised “within the next two weeks”. Since then? Silence.

The airport in Grand Bahama has needed an overhaul since before this administration, but we enter the countdown to election with that unresolved.

One of the development successes in Grand Bahama has been the opening of Celebration Key, Carnival Cruise Line’s destination – but it is not a success for local businesses and tour operators, which have reported a decline in visitors using their services since, for some as much as 90 percent.

Put those together and Grand Bahama is going to be a tough sell for PLP candidates in the election. As it is, Ginger Moxey, the Minister for Grand Bahama, only got 40 percent of the votes in her Pineridge seat last time around, the lowest percentage of votes for any winner in the 2021 election. She will be fighting for her political life this time around.

All that does not even take into account the fight the government picked with the Grand Bahama Port Authority, where it demanded $357m from the port and lost that claim.

Of course, a government will never achieve everything it sets out to do. There are lots of things in the PLP Blueprint for Change that did not happen, but there are lots of things that will not happen from the manifestos of the next government.

There were items such as the establishment of a National Recording Studio or recreating Sports in Paradise that just fell by the wayside, or the election pledge to renovate the National Centre for the Performing Arts, recently dismissed by Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture as “not cost effective” at a price tag of $15m.

The cannabis industry reaches the election countdown without having been properly established. A promise on creating a lumber industry in the pine forests passes without mention. The healthcare system still lacks workers and payment issues drag on, especially for National Health Insurance providers.

It will be interesting to see how many of the unfulfilled promises make it into the new manifesto. Are they merely delayed, not denied? Or will they be quietly shuffled off in the hopes people forget about them.

Each party will be making promises, of course, and it will be up to each party to convince voters that they mean what they say.

For now, Easter weekend lies ahead. Get registered before then. Get ready to vote.