Free National Movement (FNM) Chairman Dr. Duane Sands yesterday questioned why, nearly seven years after Hurricane Dorian and two weeks before the general election, a Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) candidate is giving out $200 to $500 vouchers for “Dorian relief” to voters in Abaco.
Sands said the claim that the vouchers were paid for by the Ministry of Finance and not the PLP is also troubling.
“The Election Act is very specific,” Sands told The Nassau Guardian.
“There is no subtlety here. There is no gray area here. … The Bahamian public should be outraged that the minister of finance has authorized this, because the buck stops with him, the use of taxpayer funds to induce voters to vote for the PLP.”
The Tribune reported yesterday that the government purchased more than $200,000 worth of gift cards from Premier Importers Limited for Hurricane Dorian relief.
However, it was reported that the gift cards were distributed in the name of the PLP’s Central and South Abaco candidate, Bradley Fox Jr., and that he and Preston Roberts, the party’s campaign coordinator, who is also a Disaster Reconstruction Authority board member, distributed the vouchers.
According to the Tribune, “Chris Lleida, chief executive officer of Premier Importers, claimed the vouchers to his company for people in Abaco were issued at the request of the Ministry of Finance as part of post-Hurricane Dorian relief, with the total value exceeding $200,000 and certificates issued in amounts of $200, $300 and $500.”
PLP Chairman Fred Mitchell, when asked yesterday for a response to the claims, said he had “no comment whatsoever”.
The PLP’s lead election attorney, Valentine Grimes, told the Tribune that he was not familiar with the particular circumstances of this case, but insisted the party would not use taxpayer funds for items distributed by the party.
When asked yesterday for any updates on the party’s investigation into the claims, Grimes said Fox said the signature on the vouchers was not his own.
“I was told by the candidate himself that that’s not his signature,” Grimes said.
“His name is there, but that’s not his signature. So, you know, listen, I’ve said what I have to say.
“Our candidates don’t give anything other than what has been appropriately provided to them by the party, or the candidate himself or herself, or by a party supporter. So I’m not sure what has happened in that instance. I don’t know the facts, but I know I was told by the candidate that that’s not his signature, and so it purports to be his signature.”
The photographed gift certificate does not have a line requiring a signature from Fox, but his name was filled out in the field indicating who the gift was from.
Sands said the matter raises “serious questions”.
“Here we are six years after Dorian, and you just happen to be giving out vouchers for $500 to voters in Abaco … and we are supposed to believe that this is a coincidence,” Sands asked.
