Just days after the Free National Movement accused the Progressive Liberal Party of buying
votes in various communities of the West Grand Bahama and Bimini constituency by paying, in
some cases, up to $1,000 in PLP t-shirts, police have arrested a Bimini resident Javano Davis for
allegedly attempting to buy votes leading up to Wednesday’s by-election.
Mr. Davis went on social media earlier this week dressed in FNM paraphernalia flashing several
stacks of U.S. $100 and $50 bills claiming to total $50,000 with the purpose of attracting
potential voters to vote for Bishop Ricardo Grant as opposed to the PLP candidate Kingsely
Smith or any of the other candidates, including Coalition of Independents leader Lincoln Bain,
independent candidate Terneille Burrows and independent candidate Daquan Swain.
Mr. Davis, who is reportedly an airport security agent on South Bimini, was detained after he
invited voters on Bimini to bring their voter’s cards to him just hours before the by-election.
Meanwhile, it is against the law in The Bahamas to attempt to buy or bribe a voter for their
support.
Questions have now arisen as to who gave Mr. Davis the large sum of cash. There are reports
that several senior members of the FNM had arrived on the island shortly before Mr. Davis took
to social media.
On Wednesday morning, on the day of the by-election and during his weekly social media
message to PLP members and supporters, party Chairman Fred Mitchell seemingly took solace

in the news that someone who is identified as an FNM was arrested for the very thing the FNM
accused the PLP.
He said, “It is clear that our opponents in the FNM are getting desperate. The leader is already
setting the stage for a loss by claiming that the PLP is buying votes, something that Duane Sands
who is the chairman of the FNM should know a lot about if he would be politically honest.
“However, the shot across the bow by the FNM backfired on them because their own supporter
is now under arrest because he did a video claiming that he had $50,000 and he said that he had
the bag and that voters should come with their voter’s card to talk to him. He called the name of
Bishop Ricardo Grant, the FNM candidate. Just remarkable, you can’t make this stuff up,
caught red handed is what the FNM has been, caught red handed.”
He ended by saying “to reasonable and objective voters this is a vote buying scheme by the
FNM, what a time, what a time.”