South Abaco rallies

The FNM and the PLP both held mass rallies in South Abaco over the weekend. So who have the bigger turnout? It seemed to me that both sides had the largest numbers ever seen for their parties. The shape of the FNM’s rally site was deep and narrow – the PLP’s was wide and shallow, making it hard to judge. So I did what any good map guy would do – I determined the square footage of the areas. Easy for me to do – I have survey maps on nearly every part of Marsh Harbour. I was at both rallies – the density per square foot of the people was about the same. So who had the bigger crowd, then? The FNM did – if anyone really wants to see my math, I’ll sent it along.

What was notable was the PLP crowd had very few white people in it. I dislike talking about race in Bahamian politics – it’s so overblown and often racism gets mixed up in it – but this is about demographics. You simply can’t win in South Abaco without a large number of both black and white voters. I’d been to PLP rallies here before, of course – and I’ve never seen such a low ratio of white voters. I was rather surprised to be honest – I expected Gary to have more visible support from among the white community. If this is a sign that Edison Key succeeded in bringing large numbers of white PLP’s to the FNM with him, it’s one more nail in Mr. Sawyer’s coffin.