House Speaker: I Work on Behalf of the Bahamian People, I’m Their Voice

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Since 2021, Patricia Deveaux has presided over the House of Assembly as speaker. Since taking up the top post in October of that year, she has pledged to bring dignity and decorum back to the chair of the speaker which back then she said had “lost some of its grace”. But, has she been able to reach that goal? As she told our Jasmin Brown in this report, so far it’s been a journey.

House Speaker Patricia Deveaux describing what she sees as her role in the parliamentary process.

Deveaux is only the second female speaker of the house in Bahamian history, following Italia Johnson and joining a very small club of female leaders in Parliament.

She shares thoughts on why she’s “only” the second female.

Deveaux, who is a first-term member of Parliament, was elected to power after the Progressive Liberal Party crushed the Free National Movement at the polls in a snap election in September 2021.

The Bamboo Town MP presides over proceedings and 38 other members of Parliament. A job that can sometimes get heated.

She succeeded Halson Moultrie who was viewed as a controversial figure who sometimes used the speaker’s chair to speak his mind about members of government, the opposition, and the parliamentary process.

She herself has not been shy to standing her ground in parliament.

Like in June 2022, when she slammed the National Emergency Management Agency for being missing in action after her constituency was severely affected by the weather system.

But she says two years into the job, things are settling down.