Hundreds of Golden Isles residents cast their votes in an advance poll on Monday at the Remnant Tabernacle of Praise Church on Carmichael Road.
Four candidates are vying to fill the seat left vacant by the late Hon. Vaughn Miller. They include Darron Pickstock for the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), Brian Brown for the Free National Movement (FNM), Brian Rolle for the Coalition Of Independents (COI) and independent candidate, Karen Butler.
Each party was represented by a number of supporters who lined Carmichael Road in support of their candidate. Pickstock expressed confidence that he would be successful in the race. He said, “I’m excited for the opportunity to represent the good people of Golden Isles and they will get in me someone that they are very proud of.”
Brian Brown, who also ran for the seat in the last general election, lambasted the government for neglecting the constituency. “We have the infrastructure problem, well they now in the constituency trying to see how they can help us, but after the beating on next week, we won’t see them around anymore,” Brown said.
The COI’s Brian Rolle plans to highlight food security and community farming should he be elected. He said, “all of the vacant properties, what we want to do is, we want to find out who the owners are and get permission from them if we can create food forests. I mean, the land is just there with bush on it anyway, clear it down. We could plant some peas trees, some cabbages, some tomatoes and let the community benefit from it.”
For her part, Karen Butler said, “I believe that the people of Golden Isles have gotten the message that we need a change. And we need to be done with these parties that make promises and can’t fulfill them or just trying to fulfill them before an election.”
The Golden Isles by-election is scheduled to be held on November 24th.
