DNA, COI React to Election Results

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Both the Democratic National Alliance and The Coalition of Independents walked away empty-handed last night as none of their candidates secured enough votes to win any seats in parliament. So, what’s next for them?

DNA headquarters and the party’s constituency offices were ghost towns today following the release of the unofficial results, which showed low support for the third party.

DNA Leader Arinthia Komolafe declined an on-camera interview but said via phone, while she feels disappointed with the results, she doesn’t feel defeated.

“There were several factors that we believe contributed to the results yesterday, and of course low voter turnout was one of them,” said Komolafe.

“I think the projections are that the turnout was under 40 percent, which is really historic.”

In several constituencies political newcomer, the Coalition of Independents beat out DNA candidates.

Komolafe believes votes for COI impacted the number of votes her candidates received, but she says Bahamians fell for the dreams being sold by the COI.

“When you are talking about a message, and the message that was being sold in the campaign the DNA versus the COI… it was difficult for the DNA to compete with the selling of dreams of $100,000 a year for every Bahamian, free land, free light, free water, no taxes,” she said.

“We felt [that was] not [a] very responsible message to be putting out there, but yet you can see from the results that a lot of persons did believe in that particular message.”

Our News also visited the headquarters of the Coalition of Independents, however, when we got there the office was empty. Attempts to reach party leader Lincoln Bain were unsuccessful as his cellphone had been turned off.

Bain and his candidates posted a video on Facebook on election night as the unofficial results were being declared. Bain said he believes the party made a significant impact.

So, what’s next for the two parties?

Komolafe said there is still not a strong enough opposition in parliament therefore it must come from the outside from parties like the DNA.