Bahamian general election, 2012

Bahamian general election, 2012

← 2007 7 May 2012 (2012-05-07) 2017 →
All 38 seats of the Bahamian House of Assembly 20 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Perry Christie Hubert Ingraham Party Progressive Liberal Party Free National Movement Leader's seat Centreville North Abaco Last election 18 seats, 47.02% 23 seats, 49.86% Seats before 19 21 Seats after 29 9 Seat change 10 12 Percentage 48.62% 42.09% Swing 1.60% 7.77%
New Providence Results Family Island Results Grand Bahama Results Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results
Prime Minister before election Hubert Ingraham Free National Movement Prime Minister Perry Christie Progressive Liberal Party

Hubert Ingraham
Free National Movement

Perry Christie
Progressive Liberal Party

A general election was held in the Bahamas on 7 May 2012. Elections in the Bahamas take place in the framework of a parliamentary democracy, which relies on the first past the post system of voting. This was the first general election in which a third party offered a full slate of candidates along with the two major parties. The opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) won a majority in the election making Perry Christie prime minister.

The Free National Movement had defeated the Progressive Liberal Party in the 2007 general election amid a scandal involving the residency status of model and reality television star Anna Nicole Smith and allegations that the PLP's then-immigration minister had fast-tracked her application to live in the islands.

An opinion poll was carried out by Public Domain, a market research and public opinion polling company, between 2 and 12 March 2012 that involved 501 respondents. A sample of this proportion only represented a maximum margin of error of 4.4 per cent. The poll showed that the Free National Movement's (FNM) core support was the highest at 30.5 per cent, followed by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) at 23.7 per cent, and the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) at 16.5 per cent. A total of 12.2 per cent of the sample were undecided voters. Also the poll revealed that the PLP's swing voters constituted 6.6 per cent of the sample; the largest swing voter percentage. They were followed by the DNA ( who had 5.2 per cent swing voters ) and the FNM ( who had 3.7 per cent swing voters ). Therefore, the total support for the FNM was around 34.2 per cent, which was followed by the PLP's 30.3 per cent and the DNA's 21.7 per cent. It should be noted that if any of the two leading parties were to win the support of the entire 12.2 per cent undecided voters, they would win the general election. A question was asked during the polling process that went, According to you, which party will win the next election?. The results were that the FNM would ( at 32% ), the PLP would ( at 32% ) and the DNA would ( at 8% ) win the next general election. The poll also reported that 52% of the electorate was against reelecting the incumbent Free National Movement, while 55.9% opposed electing the PLP and 64.5% rejected electing the DNA.