Progressive Liberal Party (Bahamas)

Founding

The PLP was founded in 1953 by William Cartwright, Cyril Stevenson, and Henry Milton Taylor.^[2][3] In 1953, Cartwright, who was the owner of The Bahamas Review^[4] and Stevenson, who was a journalist at the Nassau Guardian, travelled to London to cover the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.^[5] While there, they met with representatives of the British Labour Party.^[5] The pair also travelled to Jamaica where they met with members of the Jamaican Labour Party and the People's National Party.^[5]

Later that year, Stevenson and Cartwright, together with Henry Milton Taylor formed the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).^[6][5][7][8] It was the first national political party in the Bahamas.^[2] Taylor became chair, Cartwright the treasurer, and Stevenson secretary-general^[8] of the new party.^[9] Lynden Pindling, a newly-qualified lawyer, returned from England a few months later and joined the nascent party.

In 1956, the PLP won one third of the popular vote and six PLP MPs were elected to the House of Assembly, the lower house of parliament.^[9] The "Magnificent Six," as the group of six would be called, formed the first opposition block in parliament.^[10] The group of six consisted of Stevenson, Pindling, Randol Fawkes, Milo Butler, Sammy Isaacs, and Clarence A. Bain.^[9]

1967 election

In January 1967, the predominantly white United Bahamian Party (UBP) government called a snap election. Of the 38 seats contested, the ruling UBP won 18 seats and the PLP won 18 seats.^[11][12] Two independents had also been elected: Randol Fawkes, leader of the Labour Party and a former member of the PLP, and Alvin Braynen.^[11][12] Fawkes and Braynen threw their votes behind the PLP making it the first time that the Bahamas was run by a black government (achieving what is commonly known in the Bahamas as "majority rule").^[12] Braynen became the Speaker of the House of Assembly^[12] and Fawkes the Minister of Labour and Commerce.^[11]

Leading the party to its first victory in 1967 was Pindling, who became Premier and, after independence in 1973, the country's first Prime Minister.

Through the years

The PLP would go on to govern for 25 straight years from 1967 to 1992, as well as from 2002 to 2007 and 2012 to 2017.

By 1992, the PLP had begun a relationship with Peter Nygard, supporting each other until at least 2017.^[13] In a 2021 CBC News article, Perry Christie denied there being any inappropriate behavior on his part in that relationship.^[13]

Perry Christie was Prime Minister of the Bahamas between 2 May 2002 and the 2007 general elections, when the party was defeated by the rival Free National Movement (FNM) which won 23 seats of the 41 seats. The FNM leader Hubert Ingraham became the Prime Minister. After defeat and one of its MPs leaving the party since, the PLP held 17 of the 41 seats in the House of Assembly.

In the 2012 general election,^[14] the PLP won a landslide victory, taking 29 of the 38 seats in parliament.^[15] Christie was sworn into office on 8 May 2012.^[15] Hubert Ingraham announced his retirement from politics following the defeat of his party.^[15]

The PLP loss to the FNM in the 2017 general elections.

However, in September 2021, the PLP defeated the ruling FNM in a snap election, as the economy struggled to recover from its deepest crash since at least 1971.^[16][17] The PLP won 32 of the 39 seats in the House of Assembly, with the FNM took the remaining seats.^[18] On 17 September 2021, the chairman of the PLP Philip Davis was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Bahamas to succeed the FNM's Hubert Minnis.^[19]