Chairman of the Vote Yes Campaign Philip Galanis announced last week that the campaign team is prepared to fight for each of the Family Islands.

According to Mr. Galanis, residents in almost all the Family Islands have contacted him about bringing the campaign outside of New Providence and now the Vote Yes campaign is ready to ensure that all grounds of The Bahamas are covered.

“The people in the Family Islands are really charged up and ready to go. We’re getting calls every day for paraphernalia and other items to help spread the message for the Vote Yes campaign,” he said.
On Saturday, the Vote Yes campaign hosted a rally in Freeport, Grand Bahama where they saw scores of Grand Bahamians come out in support.

One thing that Mr. Galanis did note was that although there are requests to host rallies on each of the Family Islands, time and cost would not permit.

However, there will be several events hosted like ‘grill n chills’ and town meetings that would allow for the people of each island to get involved and informed of the benefits of a yes vote come January 28.

Mr. Galanis said that there needs to be more public forums for people to come out and ask questions rather than just sitting at home and hearing what everyone else has to say and praised Dion Foulkes and the Free National Movement’s Yamacraw Constituency for hosting a town meeting where both sides were given the opportunity to clearly state their case.

“People are confusing the issue because they are two very simple questions,” he said, “You can’t ask the Bahamian people if they wish to legalise something that is already legal. These web shop owners have government issued licenses for their businesses. We need to try and simplify things so that people can understand exactly what it is we are being asked to do.”

The former accountant also expressed his disappointment in FNM Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis’ decision to take a party stance against regularising web shop gaming and a national lottery in The Bahamas and claims that the Opposition leader did nothing but make the referendum a political situation.

“Anything that’s done to excess is going to be detrimental. No matter what activity that people are engaged in, there are going to be negative things that come out of it,” he said.

“One of the good things about a ‘yes’ vote is that the government said that it will make provisions for persons who may become addicted. What we do know is that with a ‘no’ vote nothing will happen,” he added.

Mr. Galanis stated that as the only country in the world that doesn’t allow its citizens to take part in the gaming industry, it’s time for The Bahamas to move forward in the 21st century.

The Vote Yes Campaign will host their major rally on Saturday, January 26th, the venue to be announced, which is expected to be the final event hosted by the team.