Former Prime Minister Perry Christie is expected to resign as leader of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) this evening.

The Bahama Journal understands that Christie will meet with the PLP’s national general council at the Sir Lynden Pindling Centre, where he is expected to give an address and relinquish the position he was elected for during the party’s convention a few months ago.

As a result, the PLP is now faced with the task of choosing a new leader, who can possibly be one of the elected members, Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, Glenys Hanna-Martin, Chester Cooper or Picewell Forbes.

It is not clear whether the PLP’s Deputy Leader Philip ‘Brave’Davis will lead the party at this time.

During last Wednesday’s general election, the PLP was repudiated and it is the first time in Bahamian history that a sitting prime minister was not elected to the House of Assembly.

Christie was defeated in the Centreville constituency by Reece Chipman of the Free National Movement (FNM). Christie received 1,905 votes and Chipman received 1,909 votes.

Since last week’s election, Christie has been receiving calls and speaking with scores of well-wishers and defeated PLP candidates.

As reportedly promised, he gave a statement following the election, where he gave an account of his stewardship and took full responsibility for the defeat and his party.

Bradley Roberts, PLP chairman, also gave a statement after the party’s defeat last week, indicating that he was shocked by the results and work needs to be done to restructure the organization.

“They (voters) spoke loud and clear. The voice of the people is the voice of God. We believe this and humbly accept this. The PLP will have to go in a mode of rebuilding. We will have to review this matter obviously because this was unexpected and it caught me by complete surprise, but as I said, the voice of people is the voice of God,” Roberts explained.

However, many political observers suggested that Christie did not answer wide criticisms from the FNM of corruption in his government, but instead focused on the achievements of his government over the past five years.

Christie was elected as leader of the PLP following the retirement of the country’s first Prime Minister the late Sir Lynden Pindling.

Christie led the party to his first victory in the 2002 general election. His government lost power in 2007 and was reelected to office in 2012.

Among the achievements of the last administration was the introduction of National Health Insurance, the establishment of the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI), the renegotiation of the Baha Mar deal and the opening of the resort, and the introduction of value-added tax (VAT) to increase government revenue and reduce deficit financing.

Christie is the third prime minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.