Yearbook 2007
Bahamas. According to
CountryAAH, US scandal model Anna Nicole Smith's death on
February 8 on an island in the Bahamas had political
consequences for the country. Ten days after the death,
Immigration and Labor Minister Shane Gibson was forced to
leave his post when he was accused of speeding up the
process of Smith's residence permit in exchange for sex and
gifts. The charges came after one of Bahamas newspapers
published pictures of Smith and Gibson tightly wrapped in a
bed, fully clothed. Gibson called the charges a "gross lie".
Anna Nicole Smith lived in the Bahamas during the last
months of her life.
When elections were held in Parliament on May 2, the
bourgeois and market-liberal opposition party The Free
National Movement (FNM) triumphed over the ruling general
bourgeois Progressive Liberal Party (PLP). FNM, which ruled
in 1992–2002, got 23 of the 41 seats in parliament, while
the PLP, which ruled the country in 2002–07, got the
remaining 18 seats.
The major dominance of the PLP and FNM in Bahamian
politics means that the country actually has a two-party
system. There is hardly any major ideological difference
between the two parties. Analysts felt that FNM won the
election by attracting the most uncertain and young voters.
FNM's leader, lawyer Hubert Ingraham, was appointed prime
minister. His new government consisted of 20 members, three
of whom were women.
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