By Thea Rutherford,Guardian Staff Reporter
When the calendar read today's date 37 years ago, a people took their marks at the polls and voted like tide-turning change was more than a dream. It was a possibility.
Eighty-nine point three percent of the Bahamian electorate chose their preferred candidate on that January 10th, then waited until the last vote was counted to breathe again.
It was a tie. Two parties (the United Bahamian Party and the Progressive Liberal Party)18 seats apiece.
But the carousing in the streets of those who could remember, indicated otherwise. Celebrations erupted as if the victor of the 1967 election had already been declared. And, maybe for some, it had.
The PLP, underdog at the time, had done better than ever. That party's 18-seat win meant an added amazing 14 seats to its previous four.
"The tie was a celebration anyhow," remembers Stephen Pinder, "because the PLP used to get slaughtered."
Celebrating
Seventy-year-old Ironaca Morris Baker can recall celebrating on the tenth at 33, proud of the vote she had cast.
"I felt good," she says. "I had one vote and I cast it in the right way."
Pinder remembers his vote with pride as well, as a Bain Town branch member of the PLP. Sent to the Eleuthera with others to "keep a watch on the ballot boxes," he had voted in Nassau early that morning.
After the count, he recalls celebrations all over in Eleuthera, where PLP candidates had placed first and third in the poll. "This time the out islands came through for the PLP," he recounts.
The decision
Yet while PLP supporters feted, the loyalties of two candidates shimmered brighter than a gold chain in the noon-day sun, as their allegiances were sought by both sides.
An announcement by Sir Randol Fawkes and a rejection by Alvin R. Braynen engraved the PLP in history as the definitive winner of the fateful election. With Labour candidate Fawkes's acceptance of the offer of a ministerial post and Harbour Island independent Braynen's refusal to join forces with the UBP, the PLP were able to claim certain victory and majority rule on January 14th. Four days after supporters danced in the street in jubilant expectancy and anticipation.
It was on that same date that the late Sir Lynden Pindling was sworn in as premier of The Bahamas, later to become the nation's first Prime Minister.
Divine date
That the life-changing election and the swearing in of the new premier should occur on January 10th and 14th were no coincidences for some. Indeed, both dates are considered divine.
Aside from the late Sir Lynden, who linked the historic dates to God's instructions to the children of Israel in Exodus 12 in the documentary, "Winds of Change," stand members of the Bahamas In Prophecy (BIP).
The organisation, which states its mandate as the "preservation of the history of the nation," feels the dates are nothing short of prophetic.
BIP made a passionate outcry to the government to memorialise January 10 and to make a national holiday of the 14th, "to cause the true history of this most significant event in our nation to be preserved," at a press conference on Friday last.
"How could we ever think of honouring our heroes on Discovery Day in October when none of the events that make them national heroes are associated with Discovery," read one of BIP's leaders from a press release. "History will not be kind to us if we do this."
Remembering
Almost four decades later calls for memorials and holidays during the dates denote the significance of the January 10th and 14th events that ended the reign of a regime that was considered oppressive by many, handing rule over to the majority.
Now, people like Lucille Bain personally remember January 10th - Majority Rule Day - as "Freedom Day."
Sources:
"Islanders in the Stream A History of the Bahamian People" Volume Two By Michael Craton and Gail Saunders
"Pindling The Life and Times of Lynden Oscar Pindling First Prime Minister of the Bahamas 1930 - 2000" By Michael Craton
"The Faith that Moved the Mountain A Memoir of a Life and the Times" By Sir Randol F. Fawkes
