Bahamians Vote in Prime Minister Race

NASSAU, Bahamas — Bahamians went to the polls Wednesday to choose between a prime minister who has led them for a quarter-century and his younger onetime protege who insists that the time for change is long overdue.

Prime Minister Lynden O. Pindling, the longest-serving elected leader in the Western Hemisphere, was out bright and early, chatting with voters as he waited to cast one of the first ballots when polls opened at 8 a.m.

“I’m very confident,” smiled the 62-year-old Pindling, dressed informally in slacks, a batik shirt decorated with his party’s symbol and a baseball cap with the initials of his Progressive Labor Party (PLP).

But the very place he cast his vote--an empty storefront at a shopping center with several vacant sites--underscored the themes of a campaign that unfolded as the tourist-dependent Bahamas tried to scramble out of its worst economic slump in years.

Rival candidate Hubert Ingraham, 45, who joined the opposition Free National Movement just two years ago, said his priority is “Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs.”

State radio reported that turnout was expected to reach the customary 90%. No problems were reported across the 700-island archipelago.